There are only two incumbent federal candidates on the ballot in Alaska.  Both are facing primary and general election challenges.  As the Anchorage Daily News reports, both are also facing the possibility of criminal indictments:

Campaigning under the cloud of federal investigations is tough enough, but could Sen. Ted Stevens or Rep. Don Young have the added worries of an indictment before they face the voters? Would prosecutors wait until after the election to bring charges to avoid the appearance of meddling in Alaska politics?

It's been 21 months since the federal corruption investigation surfaced in Alaska with a series of dramatic raids on legislative and other offices. Eight cases have been brought, resulting in convictions in all but one -- and that matter is still pending.

No one outside the government is privy to where the investigation is headed and whether it will eventually lead to charges against Stevens and Young, who deny wrongdoing but who won't discuss specifics about the allegations.

It remains especially difficult to charge members of Congress for matters related to legislation. The Constitution's Speech or Debate Clause offers a broad shield against interference by the Justice Department and other agencies of the executive branch into how a congressman might have created, for example, an earmark that benefited a campaign contributor, family member or former aide -- matters that are part of the investigations of Young and Stevens.

Today's Anchorage Daily News provides an update of the ongoing public corruption investigations involving key figures from Alaska:

• Veco's relationship with state legislators. During trials, the Veco executives described bribing or otherwise exerting improper influence over several officials. Among them: former Senate President Ben Stevens, whom Veco officials admitted paying more than $240,000 in phony consulting contracts to act on the company's behalf in the Legislature.

• U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens. FBI and IRS agents performed an extensive search of Stevens' Girdwood home in July, and ex-Veco CEO Bill Allen testified in former Rep. Pete Kott's trial that company employees oversaw and provided labor for an extensive remodeling there. The government is also investigating some of his legislation that benefited his son or former staff members.

• U.S. Rep. Don Young. In Alaska, Young has been reported to be under scrutiny for ties to Veco and others over his use of earmarks. Veco executives are his largest group of political donors. One of Young's top aides pleaded guilty last year in the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal, which is still being investigated. And last week, Congress asked the Justice Department to investigate one of Don Young's earmarks, $10 million for an interchange in Florida that would benefit one of his campaign donors. Young has reported spending more than $1 million in campaign funds for legal fees since last year as the investigations of his actions mount.

• Fisheries. A number of companies involved with the North Pacific fishing industry received subpoenas from federal investigators asking about their dealings with Ben Stevens (who worked as a consultant in the industry), his ex-partner Trevor McCabe (an ex-aide to Sen. Ted Stevens), the Alaska Fisheries Marketing Board (created by Ted Stevens to award federal grants earmarked by Stevens for the industry and chaired for a time by Ben). CIRI, the regional Alaska Native corporation in Anchorage that once had Ben Stevens as a consultant, was also subpoenaed in the investigation, though its officials declined to say what evidence was sought.

Yet another investigation of Senator Ted Stevens over whether "federal dollars were used in connection with a lobbying event."  When it comes to Ted Stevens and federal dollars, not much surprises us anymore.  From McJoan at DailyKos:

Add another investigation (subscription req.) onto the pile for Sen. Stevens:

The Interior Department inspector general has opened an investigation into whether federal money was inappropriately used to pay for a celebration of the 20th anniversary of the Alaska Volcano Observatory that recognized its chief patron, Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), according to information obtained by Roll Call.

Sources say the IG is looking into the funding behind the event at the Russell Senate Office Building. Organizers of the event were the University of Alaska at Fairbanks, which runs the observatory, university lobbyist Martha Stewart and the U.S. Geological Survey, which manages the observatory’s funding.

At issue is whether federal dollars were used in connection with a lobbying event. Federal law prohibits the use of federal funds for such an activity, either directly through the Geological Survey or indirectly through the observatory, which receives much of its funding from Stevens’ earmarks.

VECO Corp. is out and Penco is in as the top funder for federal candidates from Alaska according to the Anchorage Daily News. Keep in mind that all three of Alaska's members of Congress, Senator Ted Stevens, Senator Lisa Murkowski and Rep. Don Young, made CREW's list of most corrupt members of Congress in our report, Beyond DeLay. Penco is run by Bob Penney who is quite close to Senators Ted Stevens and Lisa Murkowski. According to the ADN, Mr. Penney "last year appeared before the federal grand jury investigating Stevens." And, Mr. Penney's land deal with Murkowski is one reason she was named in Beyond DeLay. 

There's more:

Bob Penney gave $2,600 to Stevens' re-election campaign in 2007 and $4,600 to Murkowski. Others in the Penney family last year donated an additional $7,200 total to the Stevens campaign and $5,850 to Murkowski.

Penney has known Murkowski since she was the small child of then-Alaska Sen. Frank Murkowski.

Lisa Murkowski was accused last year of getting a sweetheart deal from Penney on her purchase of a Kenai riverfront lot next door to Penney's home. Murkowski denied wrongdoing but decided last summer to sell the lot back to Penney as a result of the controversy.

Penney has long been a campaign contributor, giving money to Alaska candidates as well as Outside politicians including former U.S. Rep. George Nethercutt of Washington, Missouri Sen. Kit Bond, former Montana Sen. Conrad Burns and South Dakota Sen. John Thune.

But Penney's 2007 giving is far more than he's contributed in any year at least since 1990, the furthest back Federal Election Commission records compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics go.

Bob Penney and Ted Stevens' ties go beyond campaign contributions. They were partners in a Utah land deal where Stevens made an initial investment of $15,000 in 1998 and said in 2005 that he made $150,000 when he sold his interest in the property.

Stevens and Penney have also been partners in racehorses with other influential Alaskans. And they are involved in bringing members of Congress, corporate executives and other VIPs to Alaska each summer for the Kenai River Classic, a king salmon fishing tournament that raises money for fish habitat.

Penney is co-founder and a current board member of the nonprofit Kenai River Sportfishing Association. Congress has earmarked $4.7 million of Pacific Coastal Salmon Recovery Fund money over the past four years to be spent under KRSA's direction on fisheries research and habitat work.

Alaska Senator Ted Stevens has garnered an enormous amount of media coverage relating to ethical transgression over the past year. The FBI and IRS raided his home last summer.  CREW named him one of the most corrupt members of Congress.

Today, he made it clear that he is running for re-election.  Duly noted:

U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens, the longest-serving Republican in Senate history, filed for re-election today.

The 84-year-old Stevens, who also is under a federal investigation, filed his paperwork at the state elections office in Anchorage.

Stevens is the most powerful elected official in Alaska state history.

He was appointed to the Senate in 1968, won election two years later in a special election and has been re-elected six times.

Federal authorities are investigating the senator's ties to a corrupt oil services contractor who helped remodel Stevens' official residence in Girdwood. Stevens hasn't been charged and said he paid all bills presented to him.

The Anchorage Daily News really does deliver some of the best investigative work on public corruption. Of course, the state's elected officials give them plenty of fodder. Today's the ADN deconstructs a "backdoor arrangement" secured by Senator Stevens for a former aide:

New documents have emerged in Seward showing that a $1.6 million earmark in 2005 by Sen. Ted Stevens was engineered so it would lead to the purchase of property owned by his former aide, Trevor McCabe, an Anchorage fisheries lobbyist.

The public records show that another Washington lobbyist who once worked for Stevens, Brad Gilman, acted as the go-between in the deal, connecting an unnamed "Senate aide" with Gilman's two clients in Seward: the city and the Alaska SeaLife Center, a federally supported marine research center and tourist attraction.

Gilman reported that the Senate aide was shopping for an entity that would guarantee the purchase of McCabe's property if it got the earmark, the documents said. Federal agencies had rejected previous attempts by McCabe and two partners to develop or sell the property, site of a derelict building, for a government visitor center and office complex.

The result was the sudden shift of the earmark by Stevens' office from the City of Seward, which wouldn't promise to buy the property, to the Alaska SeaLife Center, which had more discretion, according to a phone log written by a Seward official and minutes of the SeaLife Center board.

The backdoor arrangement described in the documents appeared to assure that a money-losing real estate venture by the partners would be bailed out by U.S. taxpayers without any need for the earmark itself to be explicit about its intent. As passed into law, the public language of the legislation only spoke vaguely about "various acquisitions."

The Seward land sale is under investigation by the FBI and inspectors general from two federal departments, Interior and Commerce.

CREW's report, The Top Ten Ethics Scandals of 2007, got a mention in the home state newspaper of one of the lists designees. The Anchorage Daily News, which has been very, very busy covering federal and state corruption this year, noted, of course, the placement of Ted Stevens on the list:

Ted Stevens holds spot on ethics scandal list. Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington has come out with its top 10 ethics scandals of 2007 — and “Ted Stevens still sitting on Senate Appropriations” is listed No. 2. CREW urged that the Alaska senator step down from the influential committee after the FBI searched his Girdwood home last summer.

The conservative American Spectator seems to see the Alaska scandal involving Veco Corp. as a factor in Trent Lott's decision to resign:

The tin-foil-hat crowd was almost immediately pushing a Jack Abramoff angle to the surprise resignation of Sen. Trent Lott. But a more recent scandal brewing -- which has already ensnared Sen. Ted Stevens, among others -- may also be playing on Lott's mind.

Lott, Stevens, as well as Rep. Dennis Hastert all have ties to Bill Allen, a larger than life Alaskan businessman who owned Veco, an oil-field services company, and who was a huge benefactor of Republican politicians. Between 1980 and 2000, Allen, Veco executives and Allen's friends generated more than $1 million in political donations.

Does the Spectator know something? Or just speculating?

The Anchorage Daily News has become a must-read for anyone interested in public corruption.  Today, the paper has an interview with Senator Ted Stevens.  Apparently, the senior Senator from Alaska thinks politics and the media, not his interactions with Veco Corp., are to blame for his current predicament: 

Stevens has said little about the investigation since the FBI and IRS raided his home in Girdwood in late July as part of a wider probe into corruption in Alaska politics.

So far, the corruption investigation has led to the conviction of three state lawmakers, two oil executives and a lobbyist. They include former Veco CEO Bill Allen, a major political fundraiser who has pleaded guilty to bribing state lawmakers and who has been a witness in the ongoing corruption trials. Allen oversaw the renovations to Stevens' home in 2000; Stevens has long maintained that he did nothing wrong and paid every remodeling bill he was given.

Stevens said Thursday that he intends to remain tight-lipped about the investigation, in part because he doesn't want to be accused of obstructing justice. As a former U.S. attorney, Stevens said "I think I know the law and the consequences of making comments about this investigation better than any other senator does.

"I'm not about to get myself into a worse situation by commenting on something I don't think needs any comment," he added.

But Stevens also suggested that the scrutiny he has faced is politically motivated. He pointed to four other senators who went through investigations, and said that those colleagues failed to draw the same sort of attention. He did not identify which senators he was referring to.

"I don't see any reason why we should have had this massive press interest in what's going on," Stevens said. "It's just an investigation of a federal agency. They go on all the time. No one else talks about them the way they talk about the one involving me."

With the holiday on Monday -- and the major news about the Temporary Restraining Order against the Bush administration, we almost overlooked a front page article in Monday's Washington Post examining the extensive public corruption in Alaska -- and it's potential impact on Alaska's Congressional Delegation. You may recall that all three members of Congress from Alaska -- Senator Ted Stevens, Senator Lisa Murkowski and Rep. Don Young -- were included in CREW's report, Beyond DeLay, as among the most corrupt members of Congress.

The Post article looked back at where the corruption scandal began and where it may lead:

Since breaking into public view a year ago when federal agents raided lawmakers' offices and homes -- finding $32,200 neatly stacked in a closet of Kott's condo -- the federal probe has produced four indictments, three convictions, three guilty pleas and a rapt audience keen to see how high into Alaska's political hierarchy the rot reaches.

Officially, the scandal has remained confined to Juneau, where Alaska lawmakers had grown so accustomed to operating under the presumption of impropriety that several of them embroidered ball caps with the letters CBC, for "Corrupt Bastards Club." (An Anchorage coffeehouse now offers Corrupt Bastards Brew.) But with signs that the investigation is brushing against Alaska's lone congressman, Don Young (R), and its longtime and venerated senator Ted Stevens (R), residents of the Last Frontier are experiencing a rare spasm of soul-searching.

"These disclosures have come as a real shock, because of revelations of what was going on, and because Alaskans have always felt that they are special," said Vic Fisher, 83, one of four surviving members of the convention that only a half-century ago wrote Alaska's state constitution. "And that this thing is ruining our national reputation."

Young, who has represented the nation's largest state in the U.S. House for 34 years, has not been named in the proceedings -- yet he reports spending $450,000 on legal fees over the past six months. Veco, the oil-field services company that Allen owned, was Young's largest campaign contributor.

Stevens, an iconic figure who has dominated Alaska politics for decades, has said little publicly since agents swarmed over his mountainside home, the renovation of which was overseen by Allen.