Writing in Roll Call, John Stanton reports that staffers of the two Senators and a relative of the lone House member from Alaska's congressional delegation own land in the undeveloped area that, should the Knik Arm "bridge to nowhere" be built, would be poised to become a prime suburb of Anchorage. (The link is subscription only, but TPM Muckraker has some quotes.) Over at RealTime, my colleague Anupama Narayanswamy has an interview with Andrew Halcro, a former Alaskan state representative, a 2006 gubernatorial candidate, and a pretty good blogger. Halcro talked about his experiences with the now former chairman and CEO of the oil services firm Veco Corp., Bill Allen, who along with another company official recently pled guilty to charges of bribing four Alaska state lawmakers.

"All politics is local" goes the old saw, and the more time I've spent looking into members of Congress, the more I become persuaded that it's mostly true, just as it's also true that most political corruption is local as well. House members attend to their districts, Senators to their states, and they know the local movers and shakers quite well, and are more than willing to use their offices to keep those folks happy, even if their interests aren't in the best interests of the country.

Those local relationships and the local issues they create are probably best understood by--well, locals.