McCain receives huge Big Oil contributions just days after his offshore drilling reversal. (Hess)

[seafan]

Multiple Oil Company Executives Gave Huge Contributions To Electing McCain Just Days After Offshore Drilling Reversal

By Greg Sargent and Eric Kleefeld
August 4, 2008, 12:47PM

Ten senior Hess Corporation executives and/or members of the Hess family each gave $28,500 to the joint RNC-McCain fundraising committee, just days after McCain reversed himself to favor offshore drilling, according to Federal Election Commission reports.

Nine of these contributions, seven from Hess executives and two from members of the Hess family, came on the same day, June 24th, the records show. The total collected in the wake of McCain's reversal for the fund, called McCain Victory 2008, from Hess execs and family is $285,000.

We were alerted to the contributions by Campaign Money Watch, a non-partisan group that tracks campaign contributions. The contributions were given a quick mention deep in a report the group issued late last week, but with no names or other details provided. The Hess contributions are clearly newsworthy on their own.

The Washington Post reported last week that campaign contributions from oil industry execs rose in a big way in the last half of June, after McCain drew a huge amount of attention by reversing his opposition on June 16th to the federal ban on offshore drilling.

These Hess contributions, however, hadn't been reported until now, and they will give more ammo to those arguing that McCain is being rewarded by campaign contributions in exchange for pro-industry positions. Here's a table detailing the contributions:

J. Barclay Collins Hess Corp. Attorney $28,500 19-Jun
John B. Hess Hess Corp. Executive $28,500 24-Jun
Susan K. Hess Homemaker Homemaker $28,500 24-Jun
Norma W. Hess Retired Retired $28,500 24-Jun
John J. O'Connor Hess Corp. Executive $28,500 24-Jun
Lawrence Ornstein Hess Corp. Senior VP $28,500 24-Jun
John Reilly Hess Corp. Executive $28,500 24-Jun
Alice Rocchio Hess Corp. Office Manager $28,500 24-Jun
John Scelfo Hess Corp. Senior VP of Finance $28,500 24-Jun
F. Borden Walker Hess Corp. Businessman $28,500 24-Jun

Norma W. Hess is the widow of oil magnate and company founder Leon Hess, and Susan K. Hess is the wife of Hess chairman and CEO John Hess.

Neither a spokesperson for Hess nor the McCain campaign immediately responded to requests for comment.

.....

Well, whaddya know. John the straight-talking maverick, big money influence-hater McCain is liar and a hypocrite.


And he wants to be president.

[americanstranger]

1. Don't forget the Office Manager and her Amtrak employee hubby...

They also generously gave McCain 60 large.

It turns out that Hess executives aren't the only ones who gave such huge sums to elect McCain -- generosity towards McCain apparently extends down into lower levels of Hess staff. A lower level employee gave the same, too, and so did her husband, even though he works for Amtrak.

The FEC filings show that Alice Rocchio, who's identified as a Hess office manager, and her husband, Pasquale Rocchio, who's described as an Amtrak "track foreman," each separately donated $28,500 to the RNC-McCain fund, which is called McCain Victory 2008. They gave the money on June 24th, the same day that the ten Hess execs and family members each shelled out the same amount.

So the Rocchios, who live in Flushing, Queens, donated a total of $57,000 to McCain's efforts.

http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/08/hess_corporation_office_manage.php

There are now three threads about this. What does it take for DUers to notice what looks like a campaign finance scandal?

On edit: TPM is chasing this story hard, and the more they uncover, the more it stinks.

Martin Bernstein, a city assessor at the New York Department of Finance
Queens Assessment Office, has just confirmed to us by phone that the Rocchios rent their home.

Wow. Renters, giving both the RNC max and the personal max of $2,800 per. Nah, no scandal here, move along...

- as

[seafan]

2. McCain HATES Amtrak, yet an Amtrak "track foreman" gives him $28,500. Who is this person?

Who is this Pasquale Rocchio, the Amtrak "track foreman", and why would he give $28,500 to John McCain?

(John McCain) has consistently opposed funding for Amtrak; he has voted against security funds to protect rail workers; he fought repairing unsafe tunnels on Amtrak's Northeast Corridor; and he has even helped foreign manufacturers bid on U.S. military contracts -- jeopardizing thousands of good paying American jobs.

Marketwatch

Good Lord, what will it take for the media to pay attention to this?

[americanstranger]

3. Nice catch, Seafan.

Talk about voting against your own best interests. Ol' Pasquale defines it.

- as

[nsd]

4. It's important we get this story out there.

Especially the thing about how the middle-class employee and her Amtrak husband managed to donate $57,000 to the RNC (link).

Yeah, John McCain's a maverick all right.

[nc4bo]

5. What a jackpot, lucky maverick!

Incredible amounts of money from Big Oil. He's slime, McLame is a slimeball and thats my version of the Straight Talk Express.

Good fuel for KO.

[RedLetterRev]

6. Arrgh!

I saw the TPM clip yesterday on my PDA. My truck blew a water pump so there was no DUing for me all day.

Yeah, exactly... "no scandal here, move along". :grr:

Bloody pliable, compliant M$M. McKook has sold his very soul to the Boo$h Oil Mafia. When Papi grabbed the CIA, it was all over. The coup that started in the Railroad Commission in Texas a way long back was finally complete in DC. The shambles that is Texas, the mess that is Florida is now the mess and shambles that is DC. How we'll wrest it all back, I have no idea.