We have had some angry emails from people involved in the Alaska Fisheries Marketing Board following our publication of an article last week (Sen. Stevens no longer backing funds for Alaska Fisheries Marketing Board from a Congressional newspaper called Roll Call, which implied somehow that there was a link between the activities of the marketing board and the current FBI investigation into Ben Stevens.
It's true that the reporter mentioned both facts (i.e. cut in earmarks, and the investigation) but other than by innuendo, he did not tie the two together.
I am a big supporter of the Alaska Fisheries Marketing Board, and have long credited them and ASMI with changing the public perception of wild salmon from Alaska, and helping to create a new type of market demand for wild salmon.
This is a totally appropriate use of federal and state funds, and I would like to see it continued. Naturally, such an endeavor will involve all the largest salmon marketing companies in the state, who also put up their own money for these promotion campaigns.
But there is a stink of corrupution coming out of Ben Stevens' legislative career, and in some areas it involves the fishing industry.
In my view, the worst example is Stevens' secret option to control 25% of Adak fisheries (see our article from 2005) at a time when a special pollock allocation was being legislated. Ben's father Sen. Ted Stevens adamantly denies any corruption, and I beleive him. But there is a red flag, and that is when any politician has ownership interests in a fisheries corporation.
This is the hubris which has brought down Ben Stevens. No matter what type of campaign contributions or consulting fees are paid-- the idea that a politician with significant oversight responsibility for an industry could also own a major share of a company within that industry is corrupt, regardless of intent.
No matter what else is proved, the fact that Ben Stevens would even consider an arrangement where he personally took ownership of a fishing company that would benefit from political legislation in Alaska or Washington smells "fishy", and he never should have agreed to it. The fact he did indicates such poor judgment that i think there will be some actual charges that stick against him, in the other corrupiotn investigations currently being done by the FBI.
This does not mean I think someone who owns a vessel should never serve in the Alaska legislature-- its just that they need to exercise real judgement when there is a conflict, and Ben Stevens did not exercise this judgment.
The end result is to tarnish the good work of the Alaskan Fish Marketing Board.
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