Advice to Don Young's Staff - Start Looking for Work...

Back around Thanksgiving, two accountants were helping me dig a little on how Don Young's campaign was moving money from one account to another. He was trying to pay some hefty legal bills from his campaign chest. At the same time, I felt new contributions would surely be dwindling to a comparative trickle, due to the increasing scrutiny his likely criminal activities were gathering.

One of the accountants, calling Young's campaign people, stated she was representing a past contributor - me - who hadn't donated in a while, but might be willing to donate up to the limit, if he could be assured that the donation wasn't being used solely to pay off legal bills. The office person, a nice young man, according to my source, told her he would get back. He never did. We're still looking. But he must have been getting used to such calls as people wondered, "Why donate?"

The disclosure of a total crash in fundraising activities on the part of Don Young during the final quarter of 2007 was predicted here even earlier than Thanksgiving. At the time, I pointed out that, "indications are that he's spending more money on attorneys than his campaign is taking in. If things don’t improve for the out-of-power, increasingly discredited, foul-mouthed relic from his own largely mythical past, he’ll be out of money by mid-July. "

The reality now, in early February, is that in the fourth quarter of 2007, Young spent almost 10 times what he took in. If you subtract the interest his already bagged money brought in during the fourth quarter - $14,611 - and PAC contributions - $15,000 - he bagged $28,350.

So, what we have during the 4th quarter is:

Berowitz - $124,201
LeDoux - $110,000
Benson - $52,230
J. Metcalfe - $31,000
Don Young - $28,350

Young's opponents took in $317,431 to Young's $28,350 in individual contributions. Berkowitz brought in a bit less than I expected, J. Metcalfe, a little more. LeDoux's intake surprised a lot of us, but the throttling of her continuing efforts by Conoco-Phillips cutouts surprised nobody.

All it would take right now is one honest piece of investigative reporting on Young's role in the creation of the Tan slave empire in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands to put the final nail in this disgusting congressman's coffin.

On that note, my favorite Anchorage investigative reporter, Amanda Coyne, has teamed up with her husband, Tony Hopfinger - another favorite - to investigate new aspects of Bill Allen's past. It'd be nice if they could find some extra time to look further into Young's past than other local media outlets have found.

Two more blockbuster muckraking headliners like Amanda and Tony's at the Press will get me to move the Press back to the Progressive Media category, where they belong.

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