Alaska legislators Gabrielle LeDoux and Gary Stevens accepted Veco money also

Kodiak, Alaska

Courtesy of  KMXT Radio - Kodiak
By Casey Kelly
This week in Washington state, Republican U.S. Senate candidate Mike McGavick returned 14-thousand dollars in campaign contributions from employees of Veco corporation. The company became the focus of an FBI investigation last week when agents raided legislative offices around Alaska. In Kodiak, State Senate Majority Leader Gary Stevens and House Representative Gabrielle LeDoux are not under investigation, but have accepted Veco money, both for their current campaigns and in the past. Neither has any intention of giving the money back.

Alaska Public Offices Commission records show that state House District 36 Representative Gabrielle LeDoux and state Senator Gary Stevens of District R, have each accepted campaign contributions from Veco executives. Both are Republicans facing re-election this November. Neither LeDoux nor Stevens have been named as subjects of the FBI investigation searching for evidence of possible corruption involving lawmakers and Veco.

Stevens says everything in his campaign has been done on the up and up.

Stevens cautions that there's nothing illegal about the contributions, and says that the Veco executives who have donated to his campaign are innocent until proven guilty. He says it's too late to give back the money that he has received for his current campaign, and he hasn't really thought about what he would do if Veco officials offered him money now, though he says while the company is under investigation, he probably would not accept it.

LeDoux also says she's never really thought about what she would do if an individual or organization under investigation offered money for her campaign. Both her and Stevens say their campaigns have no formal policy about such contributions.

LeDoux says she won't accept any money from Veco or its employees while the company is under investigation, but has no plans to return the money that has been donated so far. She adds that the company probably isn't too thrilled with the way she voted on the petroleum production tax, part of Governor Frank Murkowski's proposed natural gas pipeline contract.v She says it's her understanding that Veco is a company that backs incumbents, which explains the contributions that she did receive.

Dan Ogg, LeDoux's opponent for the general election in November, has not accepted any Veco-related contributions according to APOC records. Ogg was in the state House for less than a term after being appointed by Governor Murkowski in 2003. He's running as an Independent in the current campaign. Ogg was fishing and unavailable for comment.

Stevens' opponent is Democrat Charlie Davidson. He has not reported any contributions from Veco employees. Davidson told KMXT he would refuse to accept money from Veco while the company is under investigation.

According to her APOC report for the current campaign LeDoux has received a total of 2-thouand 4-hundred 50 dollars from Veco executives including the four officials named in warrants the FBI used in last week's raids: Chief executive Bill Allen, president Peter Leathard, executive vice president Roger Chan and vice president Rick Smith. Chan and Allen both donated 500 dollars and Smith and Leathard gave 300 each in December of last year. LeDoux also received contributions from Veco executives in 2004.

Stevens has received contributions from Veco executives since the 2002 state primary campaign. For this campaign he got six 500 dollar contributions from individuals listed on his APOC report as Veco employees for a total of 3-thousand dollars. Allen, Smith, Chan and Leathard are among the Veco officials who donated to Stevens campaign this year.