Given the recent developments with former Rep. Don Young (R-AK) aide Mark Zachares, the Anchorage Daily News decided to take a close look at Young's ties with Jack Abramoff. What they found is actually kind of startling.
I get the sense it may have surprised them a little, too:
The guilty plea last week by a former senior committee aide to Rep. Don Young sheds new light on the circumstances surrounding Young's success seven years ago in blocking reforms of the sweatshop industry on the Mariana Islands.
But the plea also raises new questions about why Young, R-Alaska, took the actions he did.
Zachares worked for the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas Islands (CNMI) from 1994-1998; Jack Abramoff was paid $11 million to lobby for the CNMI from 1994-2001. It was during these years that their paths intersected and they became personal and political friends. At the same time, efforts were afoot to institute labor reforms to CNMI garment manufacturers, who were running sweatshops under the legal label of "Made In the USA." Abramoff's chief task was to derail this reform legislation.
Enter Representative Don Young, chairman of the House Resources Committee, the committee of jurisdiction over the CNMI.
Young stopped the bill cold, saying it interfered with the commonwealth's right to self-rule. He was supported by then Majority Whip Tom DeLay, who described the Marinas as "a perfect petri dish of capitalism."
"I'm not going to move anything," Young said at the time. "Why should you move anything that's really been fueled, very frankly, by hysteria reporting by the media?"
Young's assertion was false. The measure that found its way to Young's roadblock was fueled by the eyewitness account of none other than U.S. Sen. Frank Murkowski, R-Alaska.
Murkowski passed a reform bill in the Senate in 2000, but it never even got to the House floor. Young maintains that he was convinced to oppose the reform measure by officials from Saipan (like Zachares?), not Abramoff.
"I have never had any personal or professional relationship with Abramoff. My congressional campaign and political action committee have never received a contribution from Abramoff. I have personally never received one cent from him," Young wrote.
But Young and Abramoff continued to intersect after the death of Murkowski's immigration legislation, the charges against Zachares reveal.
At the end of 2000, Young was term-limited out of the House Resources chairmanship, but assumed the helm of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. For two years, Abramoff tried to get Zachares a Marianas-related government job, with no luck. Eventually, however, Zachares landed on Young's committee, first as the legal counsel to the Oversight and Investigations subcommittee, and then as the staff director for the Coast Guard and Maritime subcommittee. According to then-subcommittee chair Rep. Frank LoBiondo (R-NJ), Young was solely in charge of hiring.
Abramoff's favorite methods of gaining and keeping favor with his chosen political officials included meals out at fancy restaurants, box seats at sporting events, and - of course - luxury golf trips to Scotland. Zachares enjoyed all of these "perks." Young enjoyed some, too.
Young also used Abramoff's Skybox at the MCI Center for several political fundraisers, campaign spokesman Steve Dougherty told the Daily News last year. Most of those events took place during Capitals hockey games, he said.
Dougherty would not say whether Abramoff was reimbursed for the use of the skybox. "My answer to you is we pay for all costs that the campaign is legally responsible for," he said.
While records confirm Young's statement that Abramoff himself never gave Young campaign money, Abramoff's clients have given at least $20,000 to Young's campaigns and his Midnight Sun political action committee since 1999...
Oh yeah - and on March 12 of this year, three weeks before Zachares was charged, Young retained a DC law firm for $25,000. His spokesman says it was for advisement on campaign finance questions related to Dennis Troha, a Wisconsin donor indicted on fraud charges, but...we'll see.
