Don Young

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WASHINGTON — As chairman of the House transportation committee, Alaska Congressman Don Young flew at least three times to upstate New York aboard a sleek jet owned by Robert Congel, an ambitious shopping mall developer seeking federal highway dollars.

With Young's help, Congel got millions of dollars to boost his dream of building the largest mall in North America. The veteran Republican congressman got something, too: more than $33,000 in political donations from Congel, his family and his associates.

For Young, the Congel story was hardly unusual. Time after time, Young approved millions of dollars for highway projects for people who in turn fattened his campaign coffers.

With money pouring in from transportation interests, Young amassed $6.5 million in political contributions from 2001 to 2005. Facing weak political opposition at home, he didn't need much for his campaign. Instead, Young tapped his campaign fund to travel the country, often lavishly and in corporate jets, to meet with more developers and view their proposed highway projects.

Now, though, Young's campaign donations are going for another purpose. He's spent nearly $450,000 on criminal defense lawyers after he learned of an FBI investigation into his relationships with political donors, who include a Florida real estate developer seeking a highway ramp near his undeveloped land.

Young has plenty of company in Congress when it comes to parlaying federal contracts and grants into campaign donations. But few have taken richer advantage of a controversial process called "earmarking."

During his six years as chairman of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, Young transformed the massive 2005 highway-spending bill by dramatically increasing the use of earmarks, which set aside billions in federal money for pet projects.

With Young in charge, the number of earmarks more than tripled — from 1,850 projects worth $9.35 billion in 1998 to 6,371 projects valued at $24.2 billion in 2005. Federal auditors have found that thousands of these new earmarks weren't priorities for state transportation officials.

A McClatchy Newspapers investigation has found just how lucrative Young's earmarks were:

● Of the $6.5 million in contributions that Young collected — $5.5 million for his campaign and $1 million for his leadership political action committee — about 85 percent came from people who didn't live in Alaska and couldn't vote for him.

● The number of donors who got earmarks is hard to determine. But an analysis of Young's campaign finance reports shows that beneficiaries of just seven earmarks carrying a total price of $259 million — none for a project in Alaska — gave the veteran congressman at least $575,000.

● As hundreds of lobbyists sought to influence the massive highway-spending bill from 2003 to 2005, Young accepted at least 20 trips aboard private aircraft provided by corporations currying favor with the powerful congressman. He also stayed at such luxury hotels and resorts as the posh Four Seasons hotel in Newport Beach, Calif., MGM's five-diamond Bellagio casino in Las Vegas and the Lodge and Ranch at Chama, N.M., which offers pricey hunting and fly-fishing excursions.

In a statement, Young said that if members of Congress didn't earmark funding, "then federal agencies (would) decide where the money is best spent in that district." He didn't say why that system would be worse.

Young's spokeswoman, Meredith Kenny, said recently that as chairman, the congressman traveled far and wide to view proposed highway and transit projects because, "if he's going to fund a project, he wants to see it."

A number of fiscal conservatives in Congress are pushing for changes to rein in earmarking, and President Bush has used his veto power to protest earmarks, which he says reflect a lack of "fiscal discipline."