VECO Contributions
VECO has spent the last decade or so providing the slick for Alaska politics and it’s come come back to bite them in the behind. With yesterday’s indictment of Sen. Ted Stevens, the Alaska corruption investigation has brought convictions and indictments against two VECO executives, four Alaska state politicians, and the senior senator. VECO clearly had pull in Alaska and in Washington.
Yesterday, I used Ted Stevens’ Lawmaker Profile to show the campaign contributions that VECO provided. Today, the spotlight is on all the VECO contributions used to grease their way in Washington. Below is a chart of active politicians in Washington and campaign contribution totals to their campaign committees and political action committees:
| Don Young (R-AK) | $190,530 | |
| Ted Stevens (R-AK) | $102,500 | |
| Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) | $42,250 | |
| George W. Bush (R) | $20,050 | |
| Daniel Inouye (D-HI) | $13,000 | |
| Norm Coleman (R-MN) | $7,000 | |
| Richard Burr (R-NC) | $6,000 | |
| Tom Coburn (R-OK) | $6,000 | |
| Jim DeMint (R-SC) | $6,000 | |
| John Sununu (R-NH) | $6,000 | |
| John Thune (R-SD) | $6,000 | |
| David Vitter (R-LA) | $6,000 | |
| Kit Bond (R-MO) | $4,516 | |
| Arlen Specter (R-PA) | $4,000 | |
| George Voinovich (R-OH) | $3,750 | |
| John Ensign (R-NV) | $2,000 | |
| Steve Pearce (R-NM) | $1,000 | |
| Jon Porter (R-NV) | $1,000 | |
| Dennis Rehberg (R-MT) | $1,000 | |
| Barbara Cubin (R-WY) | $500 | |
| Larry Craig (R-ID) | $200 |
These totals were produced by using the OpenSecrets.org search function to identify all contributions from VECO Corp. and its many name variations. These variations include VECO Co., VECO Inc., VECO International, VECO Pacific, VECO Engineering, VECO Construction, and VECO, among others.
The Center for Responsive Politics lists Don Young as receiving $229,670 from VECO. So there must be other contributions out there that filtered out of my search. Let me know if you can find them.
