Some Pols Rethink Veco Cash, Dump Dirty Money on CharityWhen other politicians fold and unload tainted contributions to charity, Rep. Don Young (R-AK) stands firm. He’s hanging on to all his Veco donations, despite an emerging trend to dump the cash, the AP reports.
Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK) has given away $18,000 he received from former Veco CEO Bill Allen and president Rick Smith. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) gave away $8,000 worth of Veco contributions. But they’re not getting carried away. Both are holding on to Veco-employee contributions, Stevens’ campaign keeping some $50,000 and Murkowski $33,000. It’s a noteworthy point as both Allen and Smith have admitted to a reimbursement scheme where Veco gave “bonuses” to employees who made political donations. It turns out the “donations” were mostly mandatory.
Since Veco gives widely, a number of politicians outside of Alaska have said they have or will hand off the donations including Sen Kit Bond (R-MO) and Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC). The National Republican Senatorial Committee gave some $25,000 it received from Allen to charity too. It’s not quite the charity donation frenzy induced by Jack Abramoff’s guilty plea back in January, 2006, but if the investigation continues to press on, who knows?
