Anchorage Daily News

WASHINGTON -- Rep. Don Young, who has made a career out of bringing federal dollars to Alaska, shrugged off reports Thursday that he steered millions of dollars to help a prominent campaign contributor with a Florida road project.

Young's role in the Fort Myers' Coconut Road deal two years ago has received growing media scrutiny in recent months as the new Democratic Congress debates earmark reform, an agenda energized by Alaska's controversial "bridges to nowhere" funding championed by Young and Sen. Ted Stevens.

Both Republican lawmakers were subjects of national news reports Thursday: Stevens in a Washington Post story on the federal bribery investigation that has enveloped his son, former Alaska Senate President Ben Stevens; Young in a New York Times story describing how he sponsored $10 million for a road project that helped Florida real estate developer Daniel Aronoff, days after Aronoff helped raise $40,000 for Young's political funds.

The Times reported that it got no response from Young other than an obscene gesture.

In a statement to the Anchorage Daily News, Young did not dispute any of the facts in the story, which he called "old news."

But he did dismiss the suggestion of tradeoffs for campaign cash, noting that businesses with interests before the powerful Transportation Committee that he chaired until this year routinely gave its senior members lots of money.

"Every story that comes out is the same, with different players and different projects," he said. "When you are the chairman of the largest committee in the House, and a senior member, and in charge of writing a $290-odd billion bill, it's a guarantee that you are going to be raising more money than other less senior members. ... It's also a guarantee that there will be a plethora of projects for people to look at and pick apart. This is a recycled story."

Young's defense is similar to one he gave in April to explain campaign contributions from a Wisconsin trucking executive alleged to have improperly benefited from road legislation originating in Young's committee.

Young, further dogged by the guilty plea of former aide Mark Zachares in the Jack Abramoff bribery scandal, has retained a Washington law firm.

Congressional Democrats quickly picked up on the Florida revelations, which were first reported in a Naples, Fla., newspaper and parts of which were reported in the Anchorage Daily News last year.

"The fact is Don Young forced $10 million on a Florida county -- over their objections -- to satisfy a major campaign donor," said Fernando Cuevas, a spokesman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. "The only thing 'recycled' about Don Young's pay-to-play earmarking scheme is his justification for wasting taxpayer money."

A spokesman for Rep. Connie Mack, a fellow Republican who represents the Fort Myers district, said his office learned of the Coconut Road funding after it was inserted in a major road spending bill in 2005.

"We never solicited or asked for anybody to support the Coconut Road interchange until after it was enacted," said Jeff Cohen, Mack's chief of staff.

Mack and other Florida lawmakers wanted federal money to expand Interstate 75 in fast-growing Lee and Collier counties. As for the Coconut Road interchange -- a boon to Aronoff, who reportedly owns some 4,000 acres along the road -- Cohen said "local leaders ought to make local decisions."

County officials have voted twice not to spend the Coconut Road earmark, although since then Mack, Young and others have urged them to use the money or risk losing federal money for the county.

Local environmentalists have raised concerns about wetlands protection.

But a 2004 study prepared for Florida Gulf Coast University concluded that "additional access to I-75 at Coconut Road would provide considerable public benefit" in hurricane evacuations.

Young's involvement appears to have begun in early 2005, when Mack invited him to see Southwest Florida's transportation problems.

"Southwest Florida came together and presented a sound and passionate plea for resources to expand Interstate 75," Mack said in a January 2006 letter to Lee County Commissioner John Albion. Young returned to D.C., Mack continued, with a better understanding of "our region's economy, our quality of life, and the safety and security of Southwest Florida's residents and visitors."

Young also returned with as much as $40,000 in campaign contributions or pledges gathered at a fundraiser at the Hyatt Coconut Point, most of it from Florida developers and builders, including Aronoff.

Reporter Kevin Diaz can be reached at kdiaz@adn.com or in Washington, D.C., at 202-383-0003.