Ethics imbroglio

Democrats pounce on Young's ethics imbroglio

By Rachael Bade

House Democrats on Monday seized on reports that Rep. Don Young failed for more than two decades to disclose ownership of California land leased to oil and gas companies — the latest ethics scandal to plague the Alaska Republican.

The Alaska Dispatch News reported Sunday that Young inherited a third of his parents' family farm in the early 1990s but never listed the asset on financial disclosure forms in accordance with federal law and congressional ethics rules. It wasn’t until the property sold for $1.5 million in 2015 that Young, who reported pocketing more than $200,000 from the sale, after taxes, realized he hadn’t included the farm on his list of assets in annual disclosures, his office said.

Young also twice signed paperwork leasing the land to oil and gas companies — once in 1993 and again in 2001 — turning a small profit that was required to be disclosed, the newspaper reported and Young’s office confirmed. Young, who served as House Natural Resources Committee Chairman between 1995 and 2001, did not report profits from the second such lease, either.

Young's aides said the omission by the Alaska lawmaker, the longest-serving House Republican, was accidental and he plans on filing new amendments to correct the information.

"His brother operated that farm solely as his business, so in the mind of the congressman it was never his farm; it was his brother’s farm,” said Young spokesman Matt Shuckerow. "It wasn’t until his [brother’s] death that he realized… ‘I guess it’s my farm. I’m going to get assets off this.’ He realized there was an oversight. He made the filing and wanted to correct that."

Shuckerow said Young did not make additional income beyond the two oil leases and sale of the property.

Young has a long history of ethical and legal issues: He’s been investigated several times by the Justice Department, including over his ties to oil companies and for a $10 million earmark he inserted into a 2005 bill that benefited one of his campaign contributors. Former Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) forced Young to step down as ranking member of the Natural Resources Committee in 2008 because of the ongoing criminal investigations.

In the summer of 2014, the House Ethics Committee rebuked Young for improperly accepting $60,000 worth of gifts from companies. And last year, POLITICO reported that he was hosting a fundraiser in Puerto Rico just days before chairing a controversial hearing on the territory’s political and economic status.

Democrats jumped on Young’s latest ethics issue, which comes just as he faces down Democratic challenger Steve Lindbeck, a former reporter and editor, for reelection. Alaska Survey Research polls released in March this year found that Young’s favorability ratings had sunk from 59 percent in 2010 to 37 percent just before Lindbeck announced his bid.

“Young hid details of his lucrative California land ownership and secret deals with oil and gas companies while serving as the chair and later as a senior member of the House Committee on Natural Resources,” the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee said in a release Monday.

Young's opponent also held up his actions as a reason to vote him out of office. The Lindbeck campaign website Monday afternoon had a petition up that asked supporters to sign to “fire Congressman Don Young.”

“By keeping his lucrative land ownership and financial deals with oil and gas companies a secret from congressional ethics officials for over 20 years, Don Young has deeply betrayed our trust by putting himself ahead of the Alaskans he should represent,” Lindbeck wrote on his Facebook page. “It is time for a congressman that always puts the people of Alaska first.”

Young wrote in a May 16 letter to the House Clerk that he failed to disclose his family farm in Meridian, Calif., inherited March 3, 1995. He requested his filings from 1995 to 2014 be updated to reflect his stake in the property, which produces walnuts, beans and grains.

“I assure you this omission was unintentional and I hope that this update now fulfills my obligation to amend prior year filings,” his letter reads.

The Dispatch, however, noted Young signed the first of the two oil and gas leases for the property in 1993, suggesting his ownership in the farm went back even further. His office says his ownership came in the years following his mother's death in 1990 and will amend his filings with the earlier dates.

The first oil agreement, valued at under $15,000, is actually listed on his disclosure report in 1993. But Young failed to disclose a second, 2001 agreement with Kansas-based Slawson Exploration Co., signed just a few months after he stepped down as House Natural Resources chairman. Young’s spokesman said he earned $4,100 from the lease over a three-year period and that he would be updating his disclosures to report this information as well.