Kenai River Keystone Drive

Lisa Murkowski purchased a Kenai River waterfront lot at a price below market value. Soon the parcel will likely increase greatly in value. Why? Because a new road will go to it funded by Murkowski’s own earmark of $6 million. [Lisa's Deal, Anchorage Daily News, 7/19/2007]

Murkowski earmarked federal appropriations of $6 million for this road near her Kenai River lot, which is known as the Keystone Drive project and which abuts the property of about 50 residents. Don Young and Ted Stevens each earmarked an additional $1 million for the road in 2006. [Entire Alaska Delegation Contributed Earmarks To 3 Mile Road, TPM Muckracker, 8/7/2007]

Ken Boehm, chairman of the conservative-leaning National Law and Policy Center of Falls Church, Va., filed an ethics complaint against Murkowski on July 25, 2007, charging that her 2006 purchase of the land for less than its market value was an illegal gift. The complaint also charged that Murkowski filed false information about the land deal on her annual financial disclosure and obtained special treatment on a mortgage from the Ketchikan bank where her sister serves as a director.

U.S. Senators cannot accept gifts worth more than $250. Murkowski paid $179,400 for the lot; others estimated its value to be $100,000 or more above the amount she paid. The day after Boehm filed the ethics complaint, Murkowski announced she would sell the land back. [Murkowski To Sell Back Kenai Property, Anchorage Daily News, 7/27/2007]