Author: Erin Williams

Your daily dose of news and tidbits from the world of money in politics:

HOW DOES THE DEFENDANT PLEAD? Guilty. Hassan Nemazee, a prominent donor to Democrats, pleaded guilty to three counts of bank fraud and a count of wire fraud, according to Colin Moynihan at the New York Times. In the past, the Capital Eye reported on Nemazee and his immediate family’s contributions to federal candidates and political action committees, including thousands of dollars since 1990 to the likes of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Vice President Joe Biden and President Barack Obama. (Many of the politicos have vowed to return or donate their Nemazee-related contributions.) As part of the plea agreement, Nemazee will forfeit assets totaling $292 million and spend between 15 to nearly 20 years in prison, Moynihan reports.

EARMARK, ALASKA: Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska) is disregarding his party’s one-year, all-inclusive moratorium on earmarks, reports Erika Bolstad of the Anchorage Daily News. House Republicans announced the moratorium in early March, soon after House Democrats banned earmarks to private companies. Meredith Kenny, Young’s spokeswoman, told Bolstad, “Representative Young’s stance is that as long as Alaskans continue to request federal funding for their projects of interest, he will continue requesting that funding on their behalf.” Bolstad notes that Young’s office is still deciding which projects to recommend from the $1.4 billion worth of requests his office has received, but that those focusing on job creation, economic stimulation and health care will be the most likely to make the cut. Young has had made a name for himself as a proud pork-loving Republican. He’s helped secure millions of dollars for two Alaskan “bridges to nowhere” and, in his own words, stuffed a transportation bill “like a turkey” with extra goodies for his home state. Young is this year seeking re-election to the House of Representatives.

CRP, IN THE NEWS: Rich Blake, of ABC News, quotes CRP’s Dave Levinthal in his piece on the possible conflict of interest for Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd’s financial reform legislation. Dodd’s wife sits on the board of the CME Group, a major futures exchange who may benefit from new derivatives rules included in the legislation. Other reporters and outlets citing CRP’s work include Paul Farrell of MarketWatch, Julianna Goldman and Robert Schmidt of Bloomberg and Sean Miller at The Hill.

Have a news tip or link to pass along? We want to hear from you! E-mail us at [email protected].

Your daily dose of news and tidbits from the world of money in politics:

LET US BE HEARD: The Organization for International Investment, a trade association representing U.S. subsidiaries of foreign companies, has hired a Democratic lawyer to lobby against legislation that would potentially ban its members’ money from U.S. politics. Kevin Bogardus of The Hill reports that the organization hired Joseph Birkenstock, of Caplin & Drysdale, who once served as chief counsel to the Democratic National Committee. The move is in response to the legislative push, led by Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), to counteract the Supreme Court’s decision in Citizens United vs. Federal Election Commission in part by banning political money from companies that are deemed to be “foreign interests.” This includes companies that are more than 20 percent foreign-owned, seat a majority of non-U.S. citizens on the board of directors or for whom decision-making about political activity falls under the purview of a foreign entity. Nancy McLernon, the president and chief executive officer of the organization, tells The Hill of her concern that U.S. subsidiaries are being unfairly targeted in the proposed legislation. Legislators’ broad definition of foreign business could result in thousands of companies being banned from engaging in political activity, notes Clement Tan at the Los Angeles Times. Many members of the organization, such as Anheuser-Busch or T-Mobile USA, can be found in the Center for Responsive Politics’ political action committees and lobbying databases. In 2008, PACs of companies more than 50 percent foreign-owned contributed about $16.8 million to federal candidates and about $6.4 million to them so far this cycle.

BAYH FOR ‘FAIR ELECTIONS’: While the Schuman-Van Hollen legislation would only be a stop-gap in the expected flood of corporate money into the political arena, a more weighty campaign finance reform is gaining support in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision. Sen. Evan Bayh (D-Ind.), who recently announced that he is retiring at the completion of his term, signed on to the Fair Elections Now Act as a co-sponsor, reports Sam Stein at the Huffington Post. The Fair Elections Now Act would set up a voluntary public financing system for national campaigns, and would emphasize raising a large number of small contributions rather than large contributions or bundling large donations. Bayh became the ninth senator to sign on to the bill, which was introduced in the Senate by Sens. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Arlen Specter (D-Pa.). The bill also has 134 co-sponsors in the House. In his New York Times op-ed, “Why I’m Leaving the Senate,” Bayh, no stranger to fund-raising, stated his belief that the decision in Citizens United will worsen the “institutional inertia gripping Congress,” compounding the problem of a campaign finance system that encourages “perpetual campaigns.”

CRP IN THE NEWS: Wall Street likes to win and is showing its affection to Democrats and incumbents according to David Weidner at MarketWatch, citing CRP data …The banking industry is not taking it lying down: Eliza Newlin Carney at the National Journal cites CRP lobbying data in a discussion of the battle being waged by financial industry lobbyist to fend off financial reform legislation … Syndicated columnist Cal Thomas mentions our research in his latest column.

Have a news tip or link to pass along? we want to hear from you! E-mail us at [email protected].

Your daily dose of news and tidbits from the world of money in politics:

PENTAGON PURSE STRINGS PASSED ON: U.S. Rep. Norm Dicks (D-Wash.) is in line to become the next chairman of the House Defense Appropriations subcommittee after the unexpected death of Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.), reports Paul Kane at the Washington Post. Currently, Rep. Dicks is serving as acting chairman until a formal vote takes place. Dicks, who has been a member of the appropriations committee since being sworn into office in 1977, is a self-described “defense Democrat.” Like Murtha, Dicks has a record of delivering defense related earmarks to his district, and along with Murtha, was caught up in an investigation by the Office of Congressional Ethics into the relationship between defense-related earmark requests and campaign contributions from the political action committee and employees of the now-defunct lobbying firm, PMA Group. The OCE closed its investigation in December, advising against a formal House ethics investigation of Dicks. So far this election cycle, the defense industry has contributed $56,800 to Dicks’ campaign committee, the majority of those contributions coming from political action committees sponsored by defense aerospace and defense electronics companies such as Boeing Co and SAIC Inc. Over the last two decades, the defense industry has contributed $926,930 to Dicks’ campaign committee, the Center for Responsive Politics’ research indicates.

ANOTHER CONGRESSMAN BOWS OUT: Republican Rep. Vern Ehlers of Michigan announced Wednesday that he will not seek re-election, reports Chris Cilliza of the Washington Post. Ehlers is the 17th Republican to retire from his seat this election cycle. Although Ehlers stated that his reason for retiring is to give others the opportunity “to serve and leave their imprint,” Cilliza notes that the prospect of a primary challenger, State Rep. Justin Amash, along with the poor health of Ehlers’ wife, likely played a role in his decision. Amash announced Tuesday his plans to run against Ehlers. Ehlers goes out with a considerable war chest — almost $490,000 cash on hand.

CRP IN THE NEWS: Christa Marshall of ClimateWire cites CRP data in a New York Times article describing the jump over the last year in the number of companies and organizations who hired energy lobbyists as Congress debated major climate legislation … Raymond Hernandez of the New York Times uses CRP data in an article about the “go-to” donors in New York … a chief executive officer President Barack Obama admires? Read about his political giving in this article from Business Week that cites CRP data.

Have a news tip or link to pass along? We want to hear from you! E-mail us at [email protected].

LAME DUCK WON’T QUACK: Or that is what the White House, some Democrats and consumer advocacy groups would like. They’re hoping that the Senate Banking Committee chairman, Democratic Sen. Chris Dodd, will not crack under pressure from the financial industry and opponents in Congress and drop the idea to create the independent Consumer Financial Protection Agency as part of financial regulatory reform legislation. Since Dodd announced in early January that he will step down at the end of this year, the media have been speculating on how his new lame duck status might affect his push for financial regulatory reform. Dodd has been a strong proponent of the independent CFPA despite a war chest largely funded by contributions from the finance, insurance, and real estate sector. Now, the Wall Street Journal reports, Dodd is considering dropping the CFPA as a way to secure a bipartisan deal on the legislation. Instead, Dodd may compromise by making the agency a division within another federal agency. His softening stance on the CFPA could be attributed to the fact that he no longer needs to appear populist to be re-elected and can take the middle road, or it could be as one Republican financial services lobbyist remarked to Politico in an email, “[N]ow that Dodd is retiring, he can ignore the special interests on the left (consumer groups, trial bar, unions) and dance with the special interests that brought him to the dance in the first place. Us, his loyal donors in the banking community.” The CFPA is a central plank in the White House proposal for financial reforms, and Obama has made it clear that he wants an independent agency, even taking a one-on-one meeting with Dodd earlier this week. Since the news broke of the potential compromise on the CFPA, Dodd stated: “Nothing has been agreed to except a lot of conversations about various aspects about a very complicated set of issues so the idea that something has already been decided about any aspect of this bill is completely false.”

WE OBJECT: Wall Street is going legal over President Barack Obama’s proposed bank tax. Lobbyists for the financial industry are working to defeat the proposal on the Hill, but in case the old tricks do not work, the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association has hired Carter Phillips of Sidley Austin, a top Supreme Court litigator, to study the grounds for challenging the constitutionality of the tax, reports the New York Times. The financial industry argues that the fee is unjust and punitive, because the big bank bailout recipients have already paid the government back with interest, and some companies who received bailouts, such as American International Group, General Motors and Chrysler, would not be subject to the fee. SIFMA represents members who include international securities firms, U.S.-registered broker-dealers and asset managers. In 2008 and through the third quarter of 2009, SIFMA itself spent almost $9 million on lobbying. Obama’s proposed “financial crisis responsibility fee” would be levied on 50 of the top financial firms for about 10 years. The administration expects the tax could raise up to $117 billion.

CRP, IN THE NEWS: The deadline for reporting fourth quarter lobbying numbers has passed, and Arthur Delaney at the Huffington Post quotes the Center for Responsive Politics’ Dave Levinthal in his piece demonstrating a preliminary analysis of 2009 lobbying numbers. Also, Dan Eggen at the Washington Post cites CRP data while discussing the apparently mixed results for K Street in 2009. CRP has begun sifting through the reports. Look for a comprehensive analysis from the Center for Responsive Politics next week — and a preliminary analysis today here at Capital Eye.