Smith gave back $20,000 of Stevens' money

U.S. Sen. Gordon Smith’s campaign has given back all of the money it received from indicted U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) in the past six years, Smith campaign manager Brooks Kochvar said Wednesday.

That includes a controversial $10,000 donation from Stevens, that according to a Sept. 3 Politico report, Smith never returned. That donation/those donations from March 2005 and April 2006 went toward repaying campaign debt from the 1996 election cycle.

But according to Kochvar, that money has been returned. It just took longer to track down because the funds went to a different committee than Friends of Gordon Smith, the lawmaker's primary fundraising apparatus. The Stevens donations from 2005 and 2006 went to Smith’s former committee, Smith for Senate.

After Stevens was indicted in July for charges relating to Stevens' alleged concealing hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of gifts and home renovations from VECO Corp., an Alaskan oil company, Smith’s campaign immediately gave back money they had received from the Alaskan. Because the other funds were in a separate committee and not immediately available, it took longer to make sure all of Stevens funds were purged.

According to Kochvar, Smith has now donated all the funds the campaign received from Stevens in the past six years. As for the remaining $19,000, Kochvar said that money was spent in a prior campaign.

Smith spokeswoman Lindsay Gilbride said the final  $10,000 was donated two weeks ago and split between the Pendleton Historical Society and the Red Cross, for hurricane relief.