50th District Republican candidate, Brian Bilbray can list his occupation as an “immigration reform consultant” on the April 11 Special Election ballot.
Millionaire Republican candidate Eric Roach’s lawsuit that would have required Bilbray to list his actual occupation – “registered lobbyist” – was rejected by a judge last week.
Will Roach’s efforts shine additional light on Bilbray’s less than ethical approach to his campaign and the voters of the 50th District?
You can call Brian Bilbray lots of things, but there is one thing he just won’t allow. The Republican candidate for Randy “Duke” Cunningham’s seat in the CA-50 doesn’t want anyone to associate him with the job he has been doing for the last six years. Bilbray has been a LOBBYIST.
Bilbray doesn’t like being called a moderate, because he is fighting with Bill Morrow and Howard Kaloogian for the wingnut vote. He doesn’t like being called a carpetbagger, despite the fact that his real residence in Virginia and he have never lived in the North County. He is using his mother’s La Costa address as his current residence.
But, what Bilbray really won’t allow is for anyone to suggest that the job he has held since he was run out of congress in 2000 is as a registered lobbyist.
The San Diego Union Tribune reports on Bilbray’s lobbying income (six figures annually), his clients and even allegations that he used his floor privileges as a former house member to lobby sitting members of congress. Yet, the most important point of the UT story is that Bilbray was able to convince the registrar of voters that he isn’t a lobbyist, but is instead an “immigration reform advocate.” It is a clever dodge, but it is no more honest than Jack Abramoff, who the article links to Bilbray, calling himself a “native American gaming consultant.”
Rival Republican candidate Eric Roach is suing to have the April 11 special election ballot reflect Brian Bilbray’s actual occupation.
As of the end of December the vast majority of campaign contributions Howard Kaloogian had raised for his campaign in the CA-50 were from outside the district. Kaloogian has little traction within the north San Diego County district, simply because his right wing neo-con views and lack of identification with any of the district’s issues place him far outside the mainstream.
By the end of December only 28% of Kaloogian’s top 100 contributors were from the 50th District. Of that group, over one third were from six families living in Rancho Santa Fe. It certainly looks like Howard has found his sweet spot in the 50th, but Rancho Santa Fe hardly represent the interests of the district. You can check out
It isn’t hard to understand why Kaloogian is so much of an outsider in the CA-50. Look at those who are supporting his candidacy. Over at Human Events – the National Conservative Weekly – a column called the Right Angle makes a pitch for funds for Kaloogian from California.
Over at
Which is why they stooped to the level of using taxpayer funds from charities to keep the lights on – to benefit Democrat candidates like Francine Busby.
It is interesting that Morgan’s attack on Busby followed a similar attack made by Kaloogian a couple of weeks earlier (coincidence or collusion – you decide). It is also interesting that Morgan (Swanson) did not disclose in her attack on Busby that she is directly associated with Kaloogian in Move America Forward or that she is a
Still Kaloogian’s campaign wanders on pulling in money and support from out-of-district wingers and the tattered remnants of the neo-con right, who have yet to give up their belief that we are winning in Iraq and that all our economy needs in one more tax cut for the rich.
(This is a handy summary of the people running against Francine Busby. – promoted by jsw)
There are 14 Republicans running to fill convicted felon and fellow Republican Randy “Duke” Cunningham’s former seat in the CA-50. The number of Republicans in the race has fluctuated on an almost daily basis since Cunningham’s fall announcement that he would not seek reelection. The 14 count should be set, unless someone drops out or a write-in campaign comes out of right field.
In today’s
None of them acknowledges the dependence of our economy on these low wage workers, ignoring the concerns of their own avocado farmer constituents.
While pledging support for the war on terrorism, none suggest how to win that war or how to protect our privacy while chasing down the bad guys.
None of these experienced politicos name the programs responsible for wasteful government spending. Maybe they think they’ll be running against candidates who are for wasteful government spending.
After all the self-proclaimed heirs of Reagan come the millionaire boy’s club:
Alan Uke names what he considers to be the pork barrel projects funded by Congress.
Richard Earnest calls for clean campaigns, expressing disgust at the nasty things they’re saying about Brian Bilbray’s coziness with lobbyists, effectively keeping the rumors alive.
Eric Roach promises to “put citizens ahead of politics,” as if you can separate the two. He calls for Republicans to start acting more like Republicans again, acknowledging the current source of wasteful government spending.
Finally Riehl gives us the dreamers. Issue Republicans who just have something to say.
Businessman Bill Hauf and sociologist Delecia Holt want to fix the health care system. Police officer Jeff Newsome asks us to “Vote for a Straight Shooter,” which may be the best slogan of all, considering Vice President Cheney’s recent quail hunting trip.
This crowd of 14, a baker’s dozen plus 1, is apparently the best the Republican Party could come find. Three retread candidates, three millionaires and a crowd of folks who know virtually nothing about North San Diego County issues or public concerns.
What is important to the Republican Party is that the 50th District elect a candidate who will vote the way the Republican Party leaders and Bush Administration want that candidate to vote. Screw the people of the 50th District. Why do you think they allowed Duke Cunningham free run of the place?
He was voting the way the party wanted, so nobody cared about the bribes and extortion. If an enterprising newspaper reporter hadn’t picked up a lead, Duke would be running again with a full Republican Party endorsement.
The Sacramento Bee asks a couple of tough question of Representative John Doolittle (CA-4).
Today’s editorial describes how Doolittle was unfailing in his support of “friends” such as Jack Abramoff and Brent Wilkes. In fact, considering Doolittle’s crusade for limited government, the Bee editorialist admits confusion over Doolittle’s willingness to lavish federal tax dollars on his “friends.”
[…]
He is particularly revealing about his friendship with Jack Abramoff, who has pleaded guilty to fraud, public corruption and tax evasion: “And if you had a friend who was a lobbyist like that and he liked you, he was able to procure quite a bit of support for you from the clients he represented. So I was in the fortunate position then of benefiting from his friendship and his willingness to help me.”
[…]
Doolittle is shameless in going out of his way to seek federal government handouts for his friends. Here’s an example from the interview. Through lobbyist Ed Buckham, Doolittle met Brent Wilkes, who specializes in using his lobbyist and congressional connections to seek defense contracts. Doolittle was impressed that Wilkes was “quite the Republican” and toured Wilkes’ new business headquarters in San Diego.
[…]
Doolittle has been the beneficiary of political contributions from Wilkes, his family and business partners. Doolittle has supported government appropriations for Wilkes’ projects. For one of Wilkes’ companies, PerfectWave, Doolittle helped win earmarks worth $37 million for a technology not requested by the military. Doolittle tried to get a House contract for digital document conversion for another Wilkes company, ADCS.
On Friday Doolittle announced his intention to run for his 9th term in congress. If he is lucky, not all of his “friends” will have been indicted by Election Day.
California Congressman Jerry Lewis (CA-41) is the chairman of the House Appropriations Committee. As such, he had oversight responsibility for members of his committee. Members such as Randy “Duke” Cunningham, who was using his position on the committee to ensure that his “friends” Mitchell Wade (pled guilty Friday) and Brent Wilkes (soon to be pleading) could steal millions from U.S. taxpayers.
Turns out that Lewis was stealing from U.S. taxpayers as well. According to The Hill, Lewis was utilizing a Marine officer, Lt. Col. Carl Kime, as a staffer in his congressional office to help manage earmark and defense appropriations. The very tools that Cunningham used to run his bribery scam.
[…]
Kime’s service for Lewis appeared to violate the Members’ Congressional Handbook issued by the Committee for House Administration, which defines a detailee as a “non-congressional federal employee assigned to a committee for a period of up to one year.” The handbook also states that “detailees may not be assigned to a member office” and cites the relevant section of U.S. law: 2 USC Section 72a(f).
Lewis defended his aide when alerted about the apparent violation.
“I’ve had military detailees since I’ve been in the Congress, almost every year, and they’ve been responsive to me,” he said. “I don’t read the handbooks, but I know who they work for and they respond to my interests.”
Kime’s service also appeared to violate a Department of Defense regulation that mandates that detailees “be limited to performing duties for a specific duration, in a specific project and as a member of a staff of a committee of the Congress.”
Jerry Lewis apparently thinks that he doesn’t have to follow the rules in Congress. Just like Duke Cunningham, he places his interests ahead of the American people.
No wonder Lewis and his “free” staffer didn’t find anything wrong with Duke’s earmarks. Duke was following the “Lewis Rule” – take everything you can get.
Convicted felon (and former San Diego) congressman Randy “Duke” Cunningham’s propensity to lie, cheat and steal were, in part, the result of his military training. That’s the theme of a psychological report on Cunningham prepared for and distributed by his legal defense team.
The full report is here. The summary from the San Diego Union Tribune is here.
That mindset evolved from a military career in which Cunningham was taught to embrace aggressive tactics and ignore danger signs and enabled him to perform heroically during the Vietnam War, the doctor said.
Those traits, imperative for fighter pilots, were so engrained in Cunningham that although he was expected to behave differently in Congress “the psyche cannot make such a U-turn easily,” said Dr. Saul Faerstein.
[…]
Faerstein said Cunningham’s “extraordinary deeds in the service planted a subconscious sense of entitlement which fed his rationalization to accept these gifts for his sacrifices.”
[…]
He recognizes now that Wade and others in Washington were part of a culture of corruption and that good motives may lead to bad decisions when that corruption infuses the relationships of the people involved in the process,” he said.
OK. Here’s the deal. Everyone in the military – every branch and every military occupation specialty is trained first as part of a fighting force. And, fighting in the military sense is all about doing things that your brain say are bad ideas – avoiding “danger signs” (being shot at and bombed) and “aggressive tactics” (attacking instead of running away).
If the psych report on Cunningham is accurate, then why are we not in the midst of an extraordinary crime wave as former soldiers, sailors, marines, airman, etc. run wild exercising their “subconscious sense of entitlement?”
I’ll tell you why. Because, every office and non-commissioned office in our military is trained to accept responsibility, both for their own actions and for the actions of their subordinates. Second, because every officer and non-commisioned understands that the welfare of their subordinates is their primary duty.
Duke Cunningham was a good fighter pilot. He was not a good officer. He never understood the part about taking responsibility and, in congress, he put his personal welfare above those he was elected to serve.
When I first wrote this in December I couldn’t figure it out. Why did Duncan Hunter wanted to take this national park from the American people and turn it over to be used as a hunting preserve for the rich? Duhhh. This is the perfect setting for Dick Cheney to go hunting. When Hunter says he wants the island for disable veterans to hunt. He doesn’t mean for them to do the hunting. He means for them to be hunted by Cheney and his pals. The same crowd that kills 400 birds in a couple of hours of canned hunting on a game farm. Sometimes you just have to step back and look at the big picture.
Congressman Duncan Hunter (CA-52) has had a pretty high media profile lately. In just the last few weeks, Hunter, who is Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee,
Duncan has been a busy, busy boy, lately. Of course being a close associate of Cunningham pay-for-play Co-conspirator #1, Brent Wilkes, may be part of Hunter’s inspiration to change the subject in public.
Hunter’s opposition to McCain’s anti-torture legislation was motivated by his desire to serve his masters in the Bush Administration and possibly to provide cover for one of his major corporate contributors and
Hunter has long been a proponent of sealing the Mexican border. His efforts lead to miles of fence in the San Diego area. This, of course, just pushed illegal border crossing out into the less inhabited areas of San Diego and Imperial counties. Since the fences were built illegal immigration has increased, but facts don’t get in the way of a Republican when he has a wedge issue to exploit.
Yet, Hunter’s proposal to turn Santa Rosa Island over to the Department of Defense seems bizarre, even by the very low standards of San Diego county Republicans. The island makes up over 40% of a national park that serves about half a million visitors a year, but Hunter is proposing that it be converted into a hunting and recreation preserve for the military and their guests. When pressed on the issue he even went so far as to propose the island be established as a hunting preserve for disabled veterans.
Santa Rosa Island was privately owned until 1986 when the Federal government bought the island from the Vail and Vickers Company for $30 million. Vail and Vickers is a family business that has run cattle ranching and, more recently trophy deer and elk hunting, operations on the island since 1902. Part of the government purchase agreement allowed Vail and Vickers to continue their hunting operation on the island until 2011.
The hunting operation provides well heeled hunters the opportunity to bag trophy Roosevelt elk and Kaibab mule deer from herds managed to provide the maximum number of such animals. Neither the elk nor the deer are native to the island. They were transported the 40 miles from the mainland for the specific purpose of establishing a hunting preserve. The going rate for hunting on the island ranges from $5,000 to as much as $20,000 for a four day visit.
It is interesting that Hunter’s proposal would turn the island over to the Department of Defense in 2009. As the purpose of the land grab is to provide recreation and hunting to the military and any fat cat congressional guests they might invite along, it looks like Hunter’s motivation might be to maintain the island hunting concession, while freezing out the general public.
Hunter might even be able to argue that the island hunting concession could pay for much of the military’s recreational use, if it were allowed to continue its commercial business. So, in essence, Hunter’s proposal would transfer the island from public use to private use while maintaining the hunting concession. Ron Sundergill, Pacific Regional Director, National Parks Conservation Association, suggested as much in an
Could it be that this whole deal is as transparent as that? Is Hunter really proposing that a national park serving hundreds of thousand visitors a year be taken out of the public realm and locked up by the Department of Defense just to serve the narrow self-interests of small commercial venture?
Hunter attached his island take-over amendment to the defense appropriation bill. Just a few words in a multi-billion dollar spending package. This is the second time Hunter has tried to slip this proposal through Congress. In May, Democrats and environmental groups thwarted his first attempt. This time, Republican Senator John Warner, told Hunter that pushing forward with this proposal would jeopardize the passage of the entire appropriations bill. Hunter withdrew the amendment, but vowed to present the proposal again when Congress reconvenes next year.
The Sacramento Bee editorialized about Hunter’s persistent efforts to take Santa Rosa Island back from the public.
Why does Duncan Hunter want Santa Rosa Island? The Department of Defense has never asked for the island. In fact, the Department of Defense is closing military facilities all over the country. Many of these military bases, which the DOD still controls could easily be converted to the use Hunter proposes for Santa Rosa Island. These facilities are far more accessible and developed than an island 40 miles off the California coast.
So, why does Duncan Hunter persist in his efforts to take Santa Rosa Island away from the public? Whose interest is he serving?
Representative John Doolittle (CA-4) is, by all reports, a devote Mormon. He doesn’t drink. He doesn’t smoke. And, he is vehemently anti-gambling. Except, apparently, when being pro-gambling helps out his friend Jack Abramoff’s clients.
Why would a straight-laced guy like Doolittle hold a Republican Party fund raiser in Las Vegas? Why do people rob banks? That’s where the money is says Doolittle in the Sacramento Bee.
According to Doolittle, Las Vegas “is a place that our target audience, namely these $5,000 donors, would like to go.”
More from the Strip follows.
The Bee focuses on a major Doolittle fund raising event held at the exclusive and expensive Venetian Resort Hotel Casino on the Las Vegas Strip. The 2005 event was designed to haul in big bucks for Doolittle and the Republicans.
When asked about that, Doolittle said he had just been told he needed to raise an additional $100,000 for an upcoming House Republican dinner.
So, in essence Doolittle was sent out by his party’s leadership to raise money so that the crew in Washington could have a nice meal.
We don’t know what kind of deals had to be struck to insure that congressional Republicans were able to eat filet mignon instead of hamburger, but we do know that Doolittle’s event featured a stellar cast of co-conspirators and potential government witnesses.
DeLay, now facing a trial in Texas for campaign finance irregularities, knew them all. Under pressure from House Republicans worried about the growing Abramoff scandal, DeLay permanently surrendered his commanding leadership job in December.
Former DeLay staffers who started the now-infamous Alexander Strategy Group lobbying firm were there with DeLay.
The firm, which closed its doors last month as a result of the scandals, employed DeLay’s wife. Among its clients were those connected both to Abramoff and to defense contractors whose cash payments to Cunningham brought down the Vietnam War hero.
DeLay flew into Las Vegas on the private corporate jet of Group W, one of the companies owned by Brent Wilkes. Doolittle’s PAC paid $358.50 for DeLay’s privileged seat.
Doolittle pays the standard commercial airfare and DeLay rides out to Vegas on Brent Wilkes’ private jet. Just business as usual for Doolittle. But, not only did Wilkes provide DeLay with a $20,000 private jet ride, Wilkes also had some sugar for his pal Doolittle.
Also attending was Ed Buckham, DeLay’s former chief of staff and a founder of the Alexander Strategy Group. Buckham was Wilkes’ lobbyist.
Doolittle said it may have been Buckham who first introduced him to Wilkes, setting up a relationship that the congressman says he still cannot believe was tainted by corruption.
Karl Gallant, another Alexander Strategy Group lobbyist, was there. He also ran DeLay’s political action committee, Americans for a Republican Majority.
Not since the days of Sinatra has Vegas seen a “rat pack” to equal this crowd. Although, now days the “pack” has been replaced by “PAC”. And speaking of PACs, Julie Doolittle was in attendance with her husband.
John Doolittle continues to insist that he has done nothing wrong. Yet, it is hard to understand how a man who claims to have such a strong moral compass could surround himself with so much corruption and remain untainted by it.
Doolittle’s personal morality may not have been compromised by his association with Abramoff, Wilkes, DeLay and their retainers, but his public morality certainly seems to have been sold to the highest bidder.
The “millionaires’ amendment” may be into play in the race to replace former congressman Randy “Duke” Cunningham. Republican candidate, Eric Roach, notified the Federal Election Commission that his self-funded congressional campaign had crossed over the notification threshold required by the Campaign Reform Act of 2002.
According to the North County Times, millionaire Roach has already loaned his campaign much of the over $750,000 it has spent on the special election campaign.
A spokesman for Roach said in a phone interview Friday that in a hotly contested election, with 23 candidates already in the running, Roach had little choice but to spend generously from his own pocket.
Roach is one of three millionaire Republicans in the race who are self-funding the vast majority of their campaign costs. Of this club, Roach is the most recent and least know of the three. He is spending heavily just to earn some name recognition against entrenched and well know Republicans politicians who are in the 50th race.
Roach’s tripping of the “millionaires’ amendment” potentially allows the 20 or so non-millionaire candidates in the race to dramatically increase their fund raising both from individual donors and, in the case of Democrat Francine Busby, the state and national Democratic Party.
All of the non-millionaire candidates are studying the provisions of the complex law to insure that they understand how Roach’s self-funding opens the door to increased fund raising for their individual campaigns.
The top three Republican candidates in the 50th race are now going to have to scramble to get more money flowing into their campaigns. Bill Morrow, Brian Bilbray and Howard Kaloogian have been getting most of their money from outside of the districts and from right wing issues organizations.
Busby, with Democratic Party support in place and the only true grassroots campaign in the race, is in an excellent position thanks to Roach. A Busby spokesman talked about the impact of the “millionaire amendment” on Busby’s grassroots campaign and the financing of her Republican opponents.
Busby needs your support now more than ever to take on the right wing nut jobs and the millionaires who want to insure that its business as usual in Washington.
Also posted at Words Have Power.