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Edited on Fri Aug-08-08 06:50 PM by starroute
Berman is dirty enough that the 2000 Bush campaign had to drop him in embarrassment over a scandal involving the Carlyle Group. So why is he so highly placed with McCain now? Today: http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/mccain/
It turns out that two high-ranking McCain campaign officials, one of whom is also one of McCain's more prolific bundlers, were both were paid lobbyists for Hess for roughly three years, according to disclosure forms.
The two lobbyists are Wayne Berman, McCain's national finance co-chairman, and John Green, who's been the McCain campaign's chief Congressional liaison since March. Both men worked for a firm called Ogilvy Government Relations. The firm has been paid $800,000 by Hess from 2005 up to the present, including $720,000 during the period that both of the two lobbied for the company, the forms say.
Berman, a prolific fundraiser and bundler for McCain, appears to still be lobbying for Hess. The most recently filed form shows that he was lobbying for the company as late as mid-July. From 1998: http://www.campaignfinance.org/tracker/winter99/baltimore.html
It all began over cocktails with a quasi-tip - a passing reference to "check swapping" between the campaigns of Ellen R. Sauerbrey, a Republican challenger for governor of Maryland, and U.S. Sen. Alfonse M. D'Amato, the GOP incumbent from New York.
Details were sketchy, but what seemed clear was that late in the election, campaign supporters of one candidate had given heavily to the campaign of the other, only to have a like amount returned by supporters of the other candidate. ...
Both campaigns, they said, had agreed to a joint fund-raiser, held Oct. 21 in New York City, where the check swap was made. In fact, the finance chairman of the Republican Governors Associations, Wayne L. Berman, said that he played matchmaker between the campaigns, since both needed infusions of cash in the closing days of their hard-fought, and ultimately losing, campaigns.
He openly acknowledged that check swapping was a way around campaign spending limits in state and federal law. From 1999: http://www.bushwatch.com/bushmoney.htm
And this past fall the Bush campaign received a scare when one of its lead fundraisers, GOP lobbyist Wayne Berman, was implicated in a scandal involving Carlyle. On September 23 former Connecticut State Treasurer Paul Silvester pleaded guilty to federal racketeering charges regarding his handling of state pension funds. Berman pocketed about $1 million from Carlyle for helping the firm win $100 million in pension investments from Silvester. Shortly before Silvester left office in early 1999, Berman allegedly promised him a job while angling for another $50 million investment in a Carlyle fund. Berman then hired Silvester for a position in the consulting firm he operates with former Senator Alfonse D'Amato. After Berman's role in the affair became public, the Bush campaign announced that Berman, who had worked in the Bush Administration, was no longer fundraising for George W. From 2002: http://eqs.sdrdc.com/eqsdocs/000051B2.pdf
In February 2002, Wayne Berman, the Honorary Finance Chairman of the Republican Governors Association (“RGA”) and a consultant hired by Freddie Mac, approached Mr. Delk and asked Freddie Mac to make a $250,000 donation to the RGA. At that time, the RGA was a part of the Republican National Committee and solicited funds for the Republican National Committee’s Eisenhower Building Fund. Prior to the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (“BCRA”), Freddie Mac was able to make donations to national parties via the “building fund exemption.”
On March 4, 2002, Mr. Berman sent a statement to Mr. Delk requesting a check in the amount of $100,000 made payable to the “Republican Governors Association Eisenhower Building Fund.” ... On October 24, 2002, the RGA sent Freddie Mac a statement requesting the remainder of the donation, or $150,000. At this point, the RGA, in anticipation of the changes in campaign finance law as a result of BCRA, was no longer affiliated with the RNC and, most importantly, was no longer soliciting donations to the Eisenhower Building Fund. As a result, the RGA statement specified that the check be made payable to the “Republican Governors Association.” ...
Mr. Delk presented the check, allegedly with a letter stating that the contribution could only be used for building fund purposes, to Mr. Berman. Mr. Berman took the check, which the RGA attributed to Mr. Delk, and deposited it into its operating account. ... On October 31, 2002, John Rowland, the chairman of the RGA, sent Mr. Delk a letter thanking him for his generosity, which would enable the RGA to “invest in crucial last-minute TV and radio ads, polling, get-out-the-vote, and direct candidate support in many of our key races and provide our candidates with the support they need to win.”
According to Mr. Delk, in the summer of 2003 he learned that the RGA did not put the contribution into a building fund account. As a result, Freddie Mac asked the RGA to return the donation, which it did on June 11, 2003, approximately eight months after the contribution had been made. |
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