Just posted by Dennis Zaki at the Alaska Report:Government investigators were at Keystone Drive in Kenai taking pictures yesterday. Three guys in suits arrived in a black van and took pictures of the entire road and homes along the way. A witness said she was asked questions but was told not to say anything, but did say she asked them who they were, they just said "the government." Keystone is the road Lisa Murkowski had built (using federal funds) straight to a plot of land she bought - but was forced to sell - after being exposed July 16th by the TPMmuckraker website.
1 comment:
I think it's important to review all these stories, but it is also important not misrepresent the facts. TPM's Aug 7, 2007 story raised facts that I summed up at the time as perhaps a non-story:
1. This was a project initiated by local home owners who didn't like the increased summer traffic going to a nearby federal wildlife refuge.
2. This probably wouldn't have affected commuting from LM's returned property or Penney's
3. Penney doesn't seem to be involved. The local advocates caught Murkowski's ear on a lucky plane trip.
4. It all began in 2002, well before, presumably, Penney offered the deal.
Your statement, "Keystone is the road Lisa Murkowski had built (using federal funds) straight to a plot of land she bought" is not supported by the August 7 TPM piece which states,
"It also appears that Murkowski would not have needed to use the road when heading to the main highway. But had she been able to hold on to her sweetheart land deal with Penney, her road-paving earmarks would have made her pretty popular in the neighborhood."
Doing things for constituents to be popular is what politics is all about. But I did raise questions about how the earmarks by-pass the normal processes for setting priorities.
The 'government's' interest does raise the possibility that there's more to the story.
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