Homestead mailing list

[Gene GeRue <genegerue AT ruralize.com>]

Campaign Funds for Alaskan; Road Aid to Florida

By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK
Published: June 7, 2007

WASHINGTON, June 6 — It is no secret that campaign contributions  
sometimes lead to lucrative official favors. Rarely, though, are the  
tradeoffs quite as obvious as in the twisted case of Coconut Road.

The $10 million earmark would help extend Coconut Road.

The road, a stretch of pavement near Fort Myers, Fla., that touches  
five golf clubs on its way to the Gulf of Mexico, is the target of a  
$10 million earmark that appeared mysteriously in a 2006  
transportation bill written by Representative Don Young, Republican  
of Alaska.

Mr. Young, who last year steered more than $200 million to a so- 
called bridge to nowhere reaching 80 people on Gravina Island,  
Alaska, has no constituents in Florida.

The Republican congressman whose district does include Coconut Road  
says he did not seek the money. County authorities have twice voted  
not to use it, until Mr. Young and the district congressman wrote  
letters warning that a refusal could jeopardize future federal money  
for the county.

The Coconut Road money is a boon, however, to Daniel J. Aronoff, a  
real estate developer who helped raise $40,000 for Mr. Young at the  
nearby Hyatt Coconut Point hotel days before he introduced the measure.

Mr. Aronoff owns as much as 4,000 acres along Coconut Road. The $10  
million in federal money would pay for the first steps to connect the  
road to Interstate 75, multiplying the value of Mr. Aronoff’s land.

He did not return phone calls seeking comment. A consultant who  
helped push for the project spelled out why its supporters held the  
fund-raiser.

“We were looking for a lot of money,” said the consultant, Joe  
Mazurkiewicz. “We evidently made a very good impression on  
Congressman Young, and thanks to a lot of great work from Congressman  
Young, we got $81 million to expand Interstate 75 and $10 million for  
the Coconut Road interchange.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/07/washington/07earmark.html? 
_r=1&hp&oref=slogin