A recent federal investigation of U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska could threaten Stevens' re-election chances next year, and that could be bad news for Hawai'i.

Although he is a Republican, Stevens is a very close colleague of Hawai'i Democratic Sen. Daniel Inouye. So close is the relationship that the two men often have worked as a virtual partnership, sponsoring and backing legislation and appropriations that benefitted each others' constituents.

Longtime Inouye aide Henry Giugni, who died two years ago, said in a 2004 interview that the benefits the Inouye-Stevens relationship have brought to Hawai'i couldn't be calculated.

"There's nothing else like it in Washington," Giugni said of the Inouye-Stevens friendship.

The two senators also have raised money for each other's campaigns.

In 2003, Stevens' campaign supporters organized a fundraiser in Anchorage for Inouye, raising $31,000 for the Hawai'i senator's successful 2004 re-election campaign.

Much of the money came from Alaska Republican Party stalwarts, some of whom had never given a dime to a Democrat before.

And some of those donors are now at the heart of a federal criminal investigation that is aimed at Stevens, according to federal election records and news accounts.

Among the $2,000 donors to Inouye were Bill G. Allen, founder and chairman of VECO Corp., and Richard Smith, a VECO vice president and chief lobbyist for the massive, Anchorage-based energy company. Allen's son, also a VECO executive, and daughter-in-law gave another $2,000 apiece to the Inouye campaign.

Bill Allen and Smith pleaded guilty in May to federal bribery, extortion and fraud charges. Now Allen's involvement in an extensive reconstruction of Stevens' vacation home in Alaska is being probed by the FBI, according to national news stories.

VECO President Peter Leathard, who gave $2,000 to Inouye at the 2003 fundraiser, told me in 2004 that he couldn't remember who organized the event.

"But I don't think there'd be any way Sen. Inouye would be up here raising money other than as a guest of Sen. Stevens," Leathard said.

Stevens, 83, has denied any wrongdoing in the Alaska investigation, but he told the Associated Press this week that the case "could cause me some trouble" in his re-election campaign next year.

If you know that a particular money trail will lead to boondoggle, excessive spending or white elephants, reach Jim Dooley at 535-2447 or jdooley@honoluluadvertiser.com