Republican Senate candidate Mike McGavick returned $14,000 in campaign contributions last week from employees and executives of an Alaska company at the center of a federal investigation.

McGavick campaign spokesman Elliott Bundy told me just now:

"as soon as word of the FBI investigation in Alaska broke, the campaign returned all contributions from employees of VECO. While the exact subject and people at the heart of the investigation have not been announced, Mike wanted to err on the side of caution."

VECO ranks No. 10 on a list of donors to McGavick's Senate campaign ranked by employer, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. The center's website showed $12,000 had been given to McGavick by VECO Chairman Bill Allen, president Pete Leathard and other VECO employees. Bundy said $14,000 is the total.

Allen and his company have long been big supporters of Republicans in the Alaska Legislature and in key Congressional spots. That includes Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, a prominent McGavick backer, whose son, Ben, is the president of the Alaska Senate and whose office was searched by the FBI.

Stevens helped organize a fund raiser for McGavick in Alaska in April. Allen was among the co-sponsors listed on the invitation.

Few details are known about the Alaska investigation. But it is clear VECO is of interest to federal agents. My former employer, The Anchorage Daily News, reported:

Federal agents swarmed legislative offices around the state Thursday, executing search warrants in a coordinated series of raids that appeared to target the long-standing relationship between the oil field service company Veco and leading lawmakers.

UPDATE: McGavick's move frustrates Democratic efforts to play the Alaska investigation angle. The state party put out a release this morning calling on McGavick to return the money and saying, "McGavick continues his sellout to the corrupt big oil interests that are bankrolling his campaign."

But McGavick had already given the money back. Bundy said of the Democratic move:

"Their lack of originality is astounding."

Liberals had already taken up the charge that the VECO investigation taints McGavick's campaign. Read Daniel Kirkdorffer, washblog, Pacific Views and Horsesass.org.

It's Democrats who faced this question most recently. When the Jack Abramoff scandal exploded, Maria Cantwell first said she wouldn't return money from clients associated with the disgraced lobbyist. But then she announced she would give about $17,865, which included "any funds from organizations or individuals that have ever been connected to Abramoff based on media reports."

Sen. Patty Murray, though, kept the $35,000 in campaign donations she got from Abramoff tribal clients, saying at the time, "I will not rush to scapegoat those tribes who have already been victimized by Jack Abramoff."