Arkansas, with a population of about 2.8 million, reaped a total of about $2.38 billion in the five-year national transportation bill that Young helped pass in 2005 when he was chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.

Arkansas donors contributed $128,000 to Young in his last run for office. Young got more money from Pine Bluff, Arkansas residents than from residents of any other ZIP Code outside Alaska.

More than a dozen men and women connected to road paving and auto sales in and near Pine Bluff gave about $28,000 to Young’s Midnight Sun PAC, on top of about $20,000 to Young’s re-election committee. When the highway bill passed a few months later, it had more than $200 million for their region over the next five years, including a $72 million interstate construction project extending to Pine Bluff.

One of the biggest Arkansas donors Young helped was Wal-Mart, the world’s largest company as measured by sales. In 2005, Young sponsored a $37 million appropriation to upgrade a road to Wal-Mart’s Bentonville Headquarters from a two-land road to a five-lane road. Wal-Mart’s one project comprised 35% of all Arkansas earmarks.

In 2006, Wal-Mart executives were one of Young’s largest sources of campaign funds, giving him $14,000.