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ANCHORAGE - Alaska Rep. Don Young is defending the use of hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions last year to pay his legal fees.

Young, who is the subject of a federal investigation that includes his campaign finance practices, said Wednesday in a meeting with reporters that it is his right to spend the campaign money as he chooses.

Young refused to say exactly what lawyers are doing for him.

"I have a right to spend my money as I think I should spend it," Young, R-Alaska, said when asked about the investigation and his legal costs.

In an often contentious exchange with reporters, Young repeatedly refused to answer questions specific to the investigation.

"Legally, I cannot comment," he said. "I can't comment until this is settled."

Last year, Young's re-election campaign spent $854,053 on legal fees.

Young said a separate fund, the Legal Expense Fund, was set up in January so that people could help him with his legal costs. Young said he didn't know how much was in the fund.

"That is for lawyers. Lawyers are expensive," he said.

Young, who was sent to Congress in 1973, said neither the investigation nor the amount he's paying lawyers has harmed his bid this year for re-election.

"I don't think it has hurt us at all," he said. "If I had thought I'd done something wrong I wouldn't be running."

Young, 74, said he was cooperating with the investigation "as much as possible through my lawyers."

In December, Republican Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma said he wanted an investigation into a disputed $10 million congressional earmark for an Interstate 75 interchange in southwest Florida. Coburn is seeking a special committee to investigate the earmark to a 2005 transportation bill that provides money to connect Coconut Road to I-75 in Lee County near Fort Myers.

The earmark was inserted into Young's bill, even though local lawmakers didn't ask for it.

The New York Times connected Young's appropriation to Daniel Aronoff of Bloomfield Hills, Mich., whose companies own thousands of acres that would increase in value if a Coconut Road connector were built. Aronoff hosted a $40,000 fundraiser for Young in 2005.

Coburn wants a committee to look into how the language of the funding bill was changed after Congress voted on it and before the president signed it.

"I don't know," Young said Wednesday, when asked by reporters how the bill got changed. "I told you I wasn't going to comment on it."

Young also dismissed answering questions about his Democratic challengers, saying he did not have an opponent until the primary is held in August. Ethan Berkowitz, former minority leader of the state House; Jake Metcalfe, former head of the state Democratic Party; and Diane Benson, who challenged Young in 2006 and received over 40 percent of the vote, are hoping to oust Young.

State Rep. Gabrielle LeDoux, R-Kodiak, is running against Young in the primary.

Young said he thinks he's done "a pretty good job" for Alaska.

"None of them can do the job I can do," Young said, about his opponents.

"Everybody wants change, what is change?" Young said, in a jab at Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama.