Ben Stevens on Talk Radio: You Got Me All Wrong

Former Alaska Senate president and son of Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK), Ben Stevens, hasn’t said much publicly since his legislative office was raided last year by federal agents. But this weekend an Anchorage talk radio show host said something about Uncle Ted that angered Stevens enough to call in. (I guess dialing up talk radio shows when you’re facing legal and ethical troubles is just what you do in Alaska…)

On air, Stevens volunteered that he is under investigation by the FBI, the IRS and the the National Marine Fisheries Service, but maintained his innocence and called this whole investigation a “feeding frenzy” and a “blood bath.” The show’s host, Dan Fagan asked him about the Alaska Fisheries Marketing Board, where Stevens and his father’s former top legislative aide, Trevor McCabe, served together while simultaneously accepting consulting fees from the very companies they awarded federal grants. The grants themselves, of course, came from Ben’s dad.

“I didn’t receive anything [while on the board],” Stevens told Fagan. “I’ve got a 30-year relationship with the fishing business. I’ve been working for many companies and many entities and some of that overlapped, but it didn’t have anything to do with what happened on that board.”

Unfortunately for Ben, the facts don’t support his story. Stevens and McCabe founded their fishing consulting company in the last week of 2002, immediately before the marketing board started accepting applications for federal grants. It’s unclear how much money the duo raked in running the company, Advance North, but Stevens listed accepting $775,435 from nine fishing companies on his public disclosure forms between 2001 and 2005.

And how did Stevens and McCabe get these nice seats? The elder Stevens created the marketing board and funded it with $29 million, but Ben claims nepotism played no part in his getting the job of chairman.

“My father didn’t appoint me to the board, Dan,” Stevens said on the radio. “I was appointed to the board by the governor and confirmed by the Secretary of Commerce. The board members elected me as the chairman, not my father.”

He forgot to mention who submitted his name for nomination — that would be his dad. (Here’s a list of nine other times Ben’s dad helped him out.)

Last year FBI agents gathered documents from the younger Stevens’ office and subpoenaed seafood corporations connected to the board.

The board’s purpose was to help companies promote Alaska salmon to compete with foreign farm-raised salmon. Between 2003 and 2005 Stevens and McCabe gave out $23 million for a variety of marketing and development projects like Alaska Airline’s salmon-30-salmon paint job. The airline received a $500,000 grant to paint the side of a jet like a salmon, symbolizing the company’s role in hauling millions of pounds of seafood out of the state each year. The board’s other important achievements (according to its website) are: the creation of salmon dog treats, salmon burgers and salmon jerky.

Stevens left the board in 2005, but McCabe is still a member.