User talk:John Broughton/Existing articles - Political - House of Representatives

Campaign spending
Take a look at this:   (narrative, interesting).

AP candidate profiles and liberal/conservative ratings
This may be interesting. John Broughton 01:25, 9 August 2006 (UTC)

And when that doesn't work, try going from a specific page:



or this:

or do a search for a given incumbent: site:hosted.ap.org "Firstname Lastname"

Ratings of U.S. House by the National Journal:

See also Vito Fossella page for American Conservative Union score, and (I think) for website (Washington Post?) comparing vote to GOP position (but not administration position?).

John Hostettler
Finishing up: see Hostettler.txt

Clay Shaw
Shaw has been criticized for refusing to return $30,000 in campaign contributions from ARMPAC, which notes former Texas congressman Tom DeLay as one of its founders.

Clay Shaw

Shaw continues to make the pitch to voters he needs to be reelected because he's going to be the next Ways & Means Committee Chair, even though House insiders unanimously agree Congressman Jim McCrery (R-LA) is a lock to win the powerful gavel.

Gutknecht
cached, unfortunately.

CAFTA: leaning against vote repercussions

Travel:

See also gutknecht.txt on desktop

Souter
lection year 	Dem. opponent 	% Vote [cq.com]  	Preceding year (Net contributions) 	Total raised during election cycle [opensecrets.org] 2006 	Tim Walz 	 	$118,136 	$118,136** 2004 	Leigh Pomeroy 	35.5% 	$0 	$59,327 2002 	Steve Andreasen 	34.7% 	$0 	$123,539 2000 	Mary Rieder 	41.6% 	$116,690 	$373,939 1998 	Tracy L. Beckman 	45.2% 	$0 	$344,490 1996 	Mary Rieder 	47.2% 	$212.30* 	$644,547 1994 	John C. Hottinger 	44.7% 	$0 	$352,406


 * Cash on hand carried over from previous campaign
 * Total raised on Dec. 31, 2005.

http://www.mngopwatch.com/archives/2006/01/312/

Souter:

Mollohan versus Wakim
Alan Mollohan Chris Wakim - convert to references; check AP profile; check sourcewatch ; read the articles that are linked in.

Latest voting counts


And the next tier (less likely to change party):

GA-08* Redistricted Jim Marshall (D) GA-12* Redistricted John Barrow (D) TX-22* Redistricted Tom DeLay (R) AZ-05 J.D. Hayworth (R) CA-11 Richard Pembo (R) CT-05 Nancy Johnson (R) FL-09 OPEN (Michael Bilirakis(R) ) KY-02 Ron Lewis (R) KY-03 Anne Northrup (R) NH-01 Jeb Bradley (R) NH-02 Charlie Bass (R) NJ-07 Mike Ferguson (R) NV-02 OPEN (Jim Gibbons(R) ) NY-20 John Sweeney (R) NY-25 James Walsh (R) NY-29 Randy Kuhl (R) OH-01 Steve Chabot (R) OH-13 OPEN (Sherrod Brown(R) ) OH-15 Deborah Pryce (R) PA-07 Curt Weldon (R)

Follow the money
Here is the complete list of Republican incumbents outraised in the 2nd quarter, with the incumbent's name first and the Democratic challenger's name after that:

*AZ 05 (JD Hayworth v. Harry Mitchell) - LEANS R. *WY 01 (Barbara Cubin v. Gary Trauner) - Lean Republican.
 * AZ 01 (Rick Renzi v. Ellen Simon) - LEANS R. I've made some additions.  Could use conversion to references.    Mostly reads as if lifted from sourcewatch (maybe the reverse?).
 * CA 19 (George Radanovich v. TJ Cox) - ??? Not listed as notable/competitive - why not?
 * CA 24 (Elton Gallegly v. Jill Martinez) ??? Not listed as notable/competitive - why not?
 * CO 04 (Marilyn Musgrave v. Angie Paccione)
 * CT 04 (Chris Shays v. Nancy Farrell) - Toss up.
 * FL 08 (Ric Keller v. Alan Grayson) - LIKELY R.
 * IN 08 (John Hostettler v. Brad Ellsworth) - TOSS UP. ***** Mostly done:  see Hostettler.txt for possible additions.  Would like to remove Iraq for lead, replace with conservative motif.
 * MD 06 (Roscoe Bartlett v. Andrew Duck) ??? Not listed as notable/competitive - why not?
 * MN 01 (Gil Gutknecht v. Tim Walz) - Likely Republican. Could use conversion to references and other edits (reorg) to make more authoritative.
 * NC 11 (Charlie Taylor v. Heath Shuler) - Republican Toss-up . ***** Work - really needs a lot more details about the guy.
 * NE 01 (Jeff Fortenberry v. Maxine Moul) - Republican favored but opponent is former Lt. Gov. ***** Work.
 * NH 02 (Charlie Bass v. Paul Hodes) - Lean Republican. Wait until 9/12 primary.
 * NJ 07 (Mike Ferguson v. Linda Stender) - Lean/Safe Republican. Good opponent.
 * NY 20 (John Sweeney v. Kirsten Gillibrand)
 * NY 29 (Randy Kuhl v. Eric Massa) - Lean Republican
 * OH 01 (Steve Chabot v. John Cranley) - Lean Republican. Opponent is city Councilmember.  Chabot has been around since 1994.
 * OH 18 (Bob Ney v. Zack Space)
 * PA 06 (Jim Gerlach v. Lois Murphy) - Toss-up.
 * PA 07 (Curt Weldon v. Joe Sestak) - Lean Republican. I've worked extensively.  Would benefit by AP profile additions, perhaps, and cutting up one or two bloated sections.  If I'm really daring, I'll try to remove some pro-Weldon fluff.
 * PA 08 (Mike Fitzpatrick v. Patrick Murphy) - Lean Republican.
 * PA 19 (Todd Platts v. Phil Avillo) - ??? Not listed as notable/competitive - why not?
 * TX 22 (Tom DeLay v. Nick Lampson)
 * VA 02 (Thelma Drake v. Phil Kellam)
 * VA 05 (Virgil Goode v. Al Weed) ??? Not listed as notable/competitive - why not?
 * VA 10 (Frank Wolf v. Judy Feder) ??? Not listed as notable/competitive - why not?
 * WA 08 (Dave Reichert v. Darcy Burner) - Lean Republican.

Top 20 likely seats to change party
Washington Post columnist

Jeb Bradley
Push poll:

Vito Fossella
Only thing left (keep just in case):


 * million dollar house

Chuck Muth
"C-Four Communications is the Internet company started and operated by Rep. Chris Cannon of Utah that stiffed me out of some $30,000+ in consulting work earlier this year, tried to publish a "fake" GOP News & Views last March and is apparently now using our subscriber database without permission in an attempt to raise money for a cause that is likely to then pay them handsomely for the "service.""   ''Would be more impressive if the date of the article didn't reset itself to the current date, each day, since the article says "Yesterday" in one sentence. œ

Projectusa.org
The guy has filed with the FEC (rejected per attachments to this page.

He's also posted long comments (dumps) to a couple of blogs.

And other complaints filed? (I seem to recall at least one other.)

Expenditures
[

Employed Emily, Jane, Matt, Jonathan, and Laura Cannon ("salary expense") and paid Claudia Cannon ("voter list - $74"); paid Gloria Cannon for travel expense

Might be able to dump into Excel and sort.

Here it is again, perhaps better:

0
 In a forthcoming ezine, I'll lay out the details of how Congressman Cannon used campaign contributions for his own personal benefit. I'll show that he controlled a business in Provo, Utah called CFour Communications, and that the business was over $1.6 million in debt to him and his brother. I'll show how C4 was bleeding red ink, how it was never a viable company, how Cannon for Congress "hired" the company to perform services it couldn't, and didn't perform, how the company paid Cannon's personal expenses.

I'll show how Cannon and CFour Communications personnel schemed to salvage the company and recover the debt, and the despicable way in which Cannon treated business associates and loyal employees.

I'll show how Cannon set up Section 527 political groups for no purpose but to enrich himself, first by fleecing the rubes through conservative-cause-of-the-month fundraising come-ons, later as a way for corporate donors, Indian tribes, and Internet gambling concerns to send chunks of unregulated cash his way. I'll show how his first 527 group was set up with two questionable characters: 1) a woman named Bethany Noble who, at least on one occasion, raised money for Cannon, and 2) his chief of staff at the time, David Safavian.

I'll show how David Safavian ousted the CFour personnel from the 527 scheme while he was in the House of Representatives.

I'll show how, even before the Western Leadership Fund, the 527 group, was set up in June, 2001, Noble and Safavian had a long and deep connection to Grover Norquist and Norquist's lobbying firm, Janus Merritt. I'll show their connections to indicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff and the lobbying firm he worked for, Greenberg Traurig. I'll show how Noble and Safavian both lobbied for the Marianas Islands, a U.S. territory exempt from U.S. wage and immigration laws, and the center of one of the controversies swirling around both Tom DeLay and Abramoff.

Contact your local Chamber of Commerce

I'll show how Cannon, some of the Indian tribes Abramoff ripped off, and the American Immigration Lawyers Association, among others, are all clients or former clients of Williams Mullen, the big immigration law and lobbying firm that recently purchased Grover Norquist's Janus Merritt. I'll note that the address for Williams Mullen and the address of the Western Leadership Fund and the address Bethany Noble sometimes used are the same.

I'll show how Noble and Safavian and Norquist and a guy named Thaddeus Bingel lobbied with and for the American Immigration Lawyers Association. (Bingel also went on to become a Cannon staffer, and I'm pretty certain Bingel is the staffer Cannon publicly identifies on tape as the staff member who worked with AILA lawyers drafting legislation Cannon introduced--the very lawyers who "contribute" to his campaign.)

I'll show how money reported by the Western Leadership Fund as being paid to other Chris Cannon 527s never shows up on the books of those other 527s. I'll produce two separate lists of the donors at the same fundraising event--one list complete, and one shorter list showing the donations that are actually reported.

1


"During the course of the 2004 election battle in Utah's 3rd Congressional district, ProjectUSA came into possession of documents strongly suggesting Rep. Chris Cannon was, among other things, using "527" political action groups to divert campaign funds for personal use.

One group, the Western Leadership Fund (WLF), reported an $8000 disbursement to another group, the Coalition for Lower Internet Information Costs (CLIIC), but the money didn't show up on CLIIC's books.

So, we filed a complaint. The FEC duly inquired, and Cannon's lawyers responded that the $8,000 didn't show up on CLIIC's books because it never went to CLIIC. It went to CLIIC, Inc.

2


Cannon was in serious financial trouble in early 2001, having lost over a million dollars in an ill-conceived business venture called CFOUR Communications. The company was still bleeding red ink, and sinking. [See memo from Scott Wares, the president of CFOUR Communications, from March, 2001.]

Email records in my possession from a computer hard drive in use at the company detail a plan then in the works to form a 527 political group as a way to raise money and retire the Congressman's debt.

The plan was well underway when Safavian took over Cannon's Capitol Hill office.

Safavian wasted no time in pushing out the Utah members of the 527 scheme, and installing himself as the director and agent for the 527, which was called the Western Leadership Fund.

Serving as co-directors were his boss, Chris Cannon, and a colleague from the Norquist lobbying team named Bethany Noble.

The trio met with little success, and Safavian and Noble soon bailed. The Western Leadership Fund was sent back to Utah.

 

3
Legal and financial difficulties in 2001 forced CFour Communications, a Utah based company controlled by Congressman Cannon, to become Integrated Campaign Systems. The company had a debt of $1.3 million to Cannon Industries, an enterprise co-owned by Cannon.

[12] FEC filings for Cannon for Congress

Below is the section from the end of the year filing from 2001 that references C4 as a disbursement.

C 4 COMMUNICATIONS

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah 84101

Emalings/Grass Root Software

175 SOUTH WEST TEMPLE SUITE 790

07/09/2001

21600.00

This is from the mid-year filing (note the address—new address is the same as the address for Cannon for Congress):

CFOUR COMMUNICATIONS

PROVO, Utah 84601

Website design grassroots consulti

55 NORTH UNIVERSITY AVENUE

03/15/2001

3000.00

Again, from the end of the year filing for 2001, this is the disbursement to Integrated Campaign Strategies in the latter half of 2001.

INTEGRATED CAMPAIGN SYSTEMS

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah 84101

Grass Roots Development/Website

175 SOUTH WEST TEMPLE SUITE 790

12/21/2001

17602.00

In the third quarter of 2000 (FEC did have electronic filing then) two payments were made to C4- one of 380.73 on 8/16/2000 as reimbursement for printing and $6,333.83 on 8/22/2000 with no reason given for the disbursement.



4
 October 7, 1999 Cannon Industries loaned C4 $750,000. Note: Chris Cannon is in fact CEO of Cannon Industries (Eventually, total loan=$1,061,927.37)

March 11, 2000 Strategy neeting Cannon to raise money against Chris Shays Dan Jones, Chuck Muth to raise money from Public Land people

May, 31 2001 "Creditor" acquires loan from Cannon Industries, half interest in database, writes off debt

Note: looks like has copies of various documents on his hard drive; document shows links to them

Doolittle and CNMI
Jack Abramoff/CNMI 

(1) Doolittle (2) Jack Abramoff/CNMI (3) Chris Cannon



In the aftermath of 9-11 the added language to SEC. 104 of the Wendell H. Ford Aviation Investment and Reform Act for the 21st Century (click for PDF of H.R.1000.ENR) that guaranteed a fixed percentage of Airport Improvement Project (AIP) funds for the airports of CNMI.

Just think of all the AIP funds appropriated in the aftermath of 9-1l.

(3)

http://www.saipantribune.com/archives/newsstoryarch.aspx?newsID=15147&cat=1&archdte=8-20-2001 Chris Cannon

Also, Doolittle in general: local power base - AP profile has a tiny bit on this too and sourcewatch

Pete Sessions
Check Sourewatch; definitely add info on Abramoff; need to source the Telecomm bill text or delete it.

Representatives
[http://www.firedupmissouri.com/patek_graves_roe Local Government Forced To Pay Patek To Get Help From Cong. Graves]


 * Ken Calvert - update article with info on feds pulling financial records, , sunlight foundation , AEI (also on Fossella (sp?) -conservative attack on sleaze - , sourcewatch


 * Also implement references.


 * Fossella

A recent New York Daily News weeklong expose on alleged Fossella campaign finance and constituent mailing rule violations should help Harrison in what has long been a Republican stronghold Vito Fossella


 * Istook and others

Corruption and the House Race Rankings

Congressman Tom Feeney: An Appreciation

Rep. Pete Sessions Trip Sparks Investigation

ARMPAC
Update ARMPAC article with latest news (paid fine, closing down). Also, NY Times article said that FEC credited CREW complaint as having started process; would be nice to put something there as well.

ARMPAC

Jeb Bradley
The rule for this article appears to be that one can only add information that has a citation. It would be interesting to go back over what was deleted, determine which do have valid cites, and add those back in.

John Doolittle
I'd like to parse the overacker edits, going back to the original articles. (3/10 am)

Chris Cannon
The bill�and a competing bill--failed as the summer waned.

Along with the Viejas and the Choctaws, Cannon also enjoyed donations from various other Abramoff clients in the run-up to the 2002 and 2003 bills, including the Agua Caliente tribe in California; the Saginaw Chippewa Indian tribe of Michigan and the Tigua Indian Reservation.

Cannon also got checks from the Morongo Band of Mission Indians and the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation.

Since the bills were snuffed, Cannon received additional money from three Abramoff-registered tribes.

An article in 2003 said Cannon had received $33,850 in contributions since 2001 from tribes, gambling lobbyists and other opponents of the gambling legislation.

John Byrne

http://rawstory.com/news/2005/Beyond_Abramoff_Gambling_lobbyist_joined_forces_with_antigambling_congressman_derailed_gambling_0901.html Beyond Abramoff: Gambling lobbyist joined with anti-gambling congressman, derailed gambling bills

September 1, 2005.



In January 2006, Cannon returned $2,000 in donations he received from Abramoff. He has opted not to return money he received from tribes who were Abramoff's clients.

Curt Weldon
Cleanup: external links (particularly Iran and Able Danger

Add:

"I think the jury is still out on WMD," Weldon said in June 2006. He also believes Saddam Hussein may have smuggled the weapons to Syria with Russian assistance prior to the March 2003 invasion.

Consider moving: foreign policy non-controversial topics.

Think about:

Yugoslavia:   The Clinton administration find bizarre interventions on behalf of Slobodan Milosevic to be less than helpful. Note: seems way complicated; need impartial analysis. Maybe check wikipedia articles on this subject, at least for references? A lot of details here:

Check if this is in article:
 * Able Danger:

Trent Franks
Franks steadfast in funding and defending embattled DeLay

Hal Rogers
Sourcewatch; AP profile (not much)

Posted by: | Saturday, May 13, 2006 at 11:10 PM http://www.bluegrassreport.org/bluegrass_politics/2006/05/is_hal_rogers_n.html

Another of Hal Rogers misdeeds was when he helped his buddy Somerset developer Bob Kenison of the Villas of Woodson Bend circumvent the long established ,highly regulated U.S.Army Corps of Engineers Shoreline Management Plan which was updated and approved in 2002 which restricts new docks around Lake Cumberland in order to preserve the intrinsic natural appearance of the shore area. On February 20, 2003 Rogers introduced a rider attached to an Army appropriations bill which stated: "PL 108-7 ,Division D, Section 121, FY03 Appropriation Act dated 20 February 2003 "The Secretary of the Army, acting through the Chief of Engineers, shall modify the Shoreline Management Plan for Lake Cumberland ,Kentucky, to allow for construction of a privately owned moorage facility at Woodson Bend Peninsula on the South Fork of the Cumberland River at Lake Cumberland." This misdeed along with giving another buddy of Hal Rogers , businessman J.D. Hamilton , owner of Lee's Ford Marina on Lake Cumberland $600,000 of taxpayer money to blacktop Hamilton's private marina parking lot.

I remember when Hal Rogers threatened Transportation Security Administration employee Michael Baber on April 27,2003 at the Monterey Peninsula Airport in California, becoming verbally abusive when Rogers was aked to turn over a bag to be weighed. Rogers threatened to have Baber"fired". Baber submitted an incident report saying Rogers became abusive when Rogers was flying out after a golf outing when he was told one of his bags might be over the 50 pound weight limit, and an American Eagle employee was asked to weigh it. "At this point passenger Harold Rogers became very belligerant" the report said "He told me it was not my job to tell the ticket agent to check his bag for weight." "He then very strongly stated that he is on the TSA Committee and that he was my boss, and by law I was not to ask the airlines to check his bag for weight" the report says "Passenger Rogers then loudly states that he signs my paycheck and that tomorrow he was going to have my wages lowered. Then he goes on to say he was going to have me fired."

CREW 13
Astonishingly, I don't think the the material from this list has systematically been posted to wikipedia articles, if Tom Feeney is typical.