No Clear Answers
Posted by Michael Link on May 5, 2008 at 11:36 AM
The Coconut Rd. earmark is gaining more and more attention. I've focused on some of the Republican infighting over who is to blame. The Anchorage Daily News, though, makes a more important point -- that there are still a lot of unanswered questions that Rep. Young has failed to address.
Here are some of them:
Rep. Young still has not addressed the campaign contributions from people with a stake in the Coconut Road earmark -- $40,000, some raised before the earmark was inserted, some raised after.
Rep. Young argues his earmark had local support. He says Florida Rep. Connie Mack backed it (a claim that Rep. Mack disputes). He says Florida Gulf Coast University wanted the interchange to improve hurricane evacuation.But why were transportation planners in Lee County surprised at the earmark? They thought the money was for widening I-75.
Was the after-the-vote insertion of the earmark language an honest technical change, as Rep. Young said?
Alaskans still have reason to wonder why Rep. Young has spent $1.1 million on lawyers.
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