The Gravina Island Bridge in Alaska, also known as "the bridge to nowhere" has suddenly become a central theme of late in the Presidential campaigns of Barack Obama and John McCain. The funny thing about it is that neither politician actually had a hand in the original project.
Talk of the bridge has been spurred by Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's assertion that she said "No" to the bridge and told Congress that "...if we want a bridge we'll build it ourselves." That's where the battle begins anew.
The backstory is that the bridge in question was used by McCain in 2005 as a symbol of wasteful spending on earmarks. Earmarks are federal funds targeted for use at the state level that are usually slipped into larger bills. As a result many earmarks get passed without having any connection to the legislation in a particular bill.
As the NY Times reports it via a story published on 12/17/2005 titled Two Bridges To Nowhere Tumble Down in Congress, "Congressional Republicans decided Wednesday to take a legislative wrecking ball to two Alaskan bridge projects that had demolished the party's reputation for fiscal austerity." So the funding for the project was actually killed by Congress long before Gov. Palin took office in December of 2006, or was it?
The same NY Times story goes on to state that, "The change will not save the federal government any money. Instead, the $442 million will be turned over to the state with no strings attached, allowing lawmakers and the governor there to parcel it out for transportation projects as they see fit, including the bridges should they so choose." So the bridge project was still very much alive even after Congress had supposedly "killed" it.
The project and funding was still on the table when Governor Palin took office in December of 2006. The previous Governor had, in fact, received the earmark and set aside $113 million for the project. The word is that statements made during Gov. Palin's candidacy for Governor of Alaska indicated that she supported building the Gravina Island Bridge. An Op Ed article in the Juneau Empire dated 10/29/06 states that, "Ketchikan will support Palin because of her support of the Gravina bridge." This indicates a good possibility that at one time Gov. Palin supported the project.
But something happened between October 2006 and early 2007 after Gov. Palin took office. A letter to the Editor of the Juneau Empire dated 02/15/07 states, "Charles Fedullo, Gov. Sarah Palin's press secretary, said there is no money in Palin's capital budget for the project at this time. Palin has common sense, that's why." Later in the year another story on the Gravina Island Bridge indicates, "In September, Palin ended work on the Gravina project, acknowledging that the state no longer had a way to pay for a project that would cost hundreds of millions of dollars."
So there are four relevant facts in this case that are indisputable.
Fact 1: At some level Governor Palin showed support for the bridge project while she was running in the race for Governor of Alaska.
Fact 2: Congress made the money for the Gravina Island Bridge available to Alaska, although it didn't have to be used for that bridge.
Fact 3: The State of Alaska already had the federal funds in hand when Gov. Palin took office.
Fact 4: Governor Palin put a stop to the bridge project and appropriated the funds for more reasonable uses.
In September of 2007 the Alaska Daily News ran a story titled State Abandons Ketchikan Bridge To Nowhere that acknowledges the fact that Gov. Palin put a stop to the project and states, "She directed the state transportation department to find the most "fiscally responsible" alternative for access to the airport." That same story also reaffirms the NY Times story mentioned earlier in this article by stating that, "Congress stripped the earmark - or stipulation - that the money be used for the airport, but still sent the money to the state for any use it deemed appropriate."
Fast forward to today and the Barack Obama campaign is taking great issue with Gov. Palin's statements indicating that she put a stop to the project. Barack Obama was quoted today as saying, "I mean you can't just make stuff up. You can't just recreate yourself. You can't just reinvent yourself. The American people aren't stupid." Senator Obama was talking about Gov. Palin's stance on the bridge project. The Obama campaign is taking a huge risk in making this stand.
Governor Palin never said that she never supported the bridge. Governor Palin said that she put a stop to the project. And some have been saying that Congress killed the project. But the quotes from the New York Times and the Alaska Daily News prove without a doubt that there was money provided by Congress before Governor Palin assumed her duties. The money provided was eventually used on projects that were deemed more "fiscally responsible" for the State of Alaska.
So while Governor Palin should be chastised for speaking with a bit too much bravado on the subject given her early stance on the project, she did indeed realize that this effort was a waste of money and put a stop to it. And since Gov. Palin's party, the Alaska Republicans, were behind the bridge all along, she actually went against her own party to stop the project. Those two facts indicate that Gov. Palin is both a reformer and a fiscal conservative as she claims to be.
Hopefully the whole truth on this will come out. If it does then Senators Obama and Biden may just have serious egg on their faces.
As a footnote, the Alaska Democrats have been caught covering their tracks on this issue. A Democrat sponsored website until recently included information that attributed the ending of the Gravina Island Bridge project to Governor Palin. Strangely enough that page has been removed. But via the magic of Google cached search results I provide a screenshot below.
Leave a comment