Stevens gets second extension for filing finance report

Publication: The Hill

Elana Schor
July 17, 2007

Sen. Ted Stevens yesterday received a second extension to file his 2006 financial disclosure, following an Ethics Committee review requested by the Alaska Republican in the wake of the lawmaker's entanglement in a federal investigation.

The extension comes a week after Stevens acknowledged that the federal inquiry of ties between Alaska politicians and VECO Corp., which so far has sparked four indictments, could complicate his reelection bid next year. The Ethics panel extended Stevens's filing extension to the 90-day maximum after wrapping up an examination of his finances, Stevens spokesman Aaron Saunders said.

"The Ethics Committee has completed its review and has asked Senator Stevens to make a few technical clarifications to his disclosure," Saunders said.
"To make these minor adjustments, the committee has granted the senator another extension."

Saunders declined to elaborate on what Stevens was asked to clarify. But Democrats and watchdog groups are likely to pore over the disclosure, now slated for an Aug. 30 release, for harbingers of the GOP elder statesman's political future.

The FBI has asked Stevens to preserve records relating to a 2000 remodeling of his home in Girdwood, Alaska, that was supervised by now-resigned VECO
chief executive Bill Allen, according to media reports. Stevens and Allen are longtime friends and co-investors in a racehorse partnership that lost Stevens money in 2005, according to his most recent financial disclosure.

Allen and VECO Vice President Rick Smith have pleaded guilty in a wide-ranging bribery probe that has implicated several Alaska state legislators, including Stevens's son, Ben.

"The question is, what is the reason he's getting the extension?" asked Bill Allison, a senior fellow at the Sunlight Foundation, a government transparency group. "How extensive is the work that has to be done? These are fairly straightforward forms, [and] it's not like this is the first one of these he's done."

Several lawmakers grappling with federal investigations of their political networks also secured extensions for their disclosure forms, including Reps. Rick Renzi (R-Ariz.) and John Doolittle (R-Calif.). Recent ethics troubles have prompted Reps. Alan Mollohan (D-W.Va.), William Jefferson (D-La.) and other members to correct previous years' disclosure forms while filing their current reports.

Yet few in the Capitol can match Stevens's political clout, built during a 39-year reign as the state's senior legislator and more than six years atop the Appropriations Committee. Democrats believe the VECO investigation gives them an unprecedented chance to challenge Stevens in 2008, and new data from Alaska pollster Ivan Moore suggests the theory may hold water.

Moore's latest poll found Stevens's popularity abruptly dipping in the state where many still know him as "Uncle Ted." The poll found 45 percent favorable ratings for Stevens, with 44 percent unfavorable ratings.

"He is in a bit of a tailspin," said Moore, who has worked for candidates from both parties and is now polling for a potential House Democratic challenger. "What's making it happen? Obviously, the FBI stuff is a key part of it."

In the past, Moore added, the prevailing sentiment in Alaska was that "[We] can't get rid of Ted. That would be like taking a gun and shooting ourselves in the foot. But that's changing."

In addition to the racehorse partnership, Stevens's most recent financial disclosure shows investments in an Arizona livestock concern, an Anchorage restaurant and oil wells on the property of Henry Bellmon, the former GOP governor of Oklahoma and a former Senate colleague of Stevens.