Democrat Corruption out of control folks

August 24, 2007

Now a Lobbyist, an Ex-Senator Uses Campaign Money

By RAYMOND HERNANDEZ and DAVID W. CHEN

When he was last running for the United States Senate from New Jersey in

2002, Robert G. Torricelli collected donations from thousands of people who

apparently wanted to see him re-elected. They might be surprised to see how

he spent a portion of their money.

Mr. Torricelli, a Democrat who was one of the Senate's most flamboyant

personalities and prodigious fund-raisers, abruptly quit the 2002 race amid

allegations of ethical misconduct and became a lobbyist. Since then, he has

given $4,000 from his campaign fund to Puerto Rico's nonvoting member of

Congress, $10,000 to Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich of Illinois and more than

$40,000 to Nevada Democratic Party organizations and candidates linked to

the Senate majority leader, Harry Reid.

All of those politicians had one thing in common: influence over Mr.

Torricelli's, or his clients', business interests.

In early 2006, for instance, Mr. Torricelli contributed $10,000 from his

Senate account to the mayor of Trenton and his slate of City Council

candidates, just as city agencies were reviewing an ultimately successful

proposal by the former senator to develop retail and office space in the

city.

There is no evidence that Mr. Torricelli, who declined to be interviewed for

this article, violated federal rules, which allow retired officials to give

leftover campaign funds to charities, candidates and political parties. Sean

Jackson, Mr. Torricelli's campaign treasurer and a partner in his lobbying

firm, said in an interview that any suggestion that the contributions were

tied to his business interests was "ridiculous." He said that Mr. Torricelli

contributed to people he knew or with whom he shared policy goals.

"Bob has supported people who he believes in, and he doesn't regret doing

it," Mr. Jackson said.

Mr. Torricelli had more campaign money, $2.9 million, than any other senator

who has retired in the last 20 years, except John Edwards, who is running

for president, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a campaign

finance watchdog group.

In all, he has spent almost $900,000 from his account since leaving

Congress, much of it on gifts to charities and nonprofit organizations like

hospitals as well as political campaigns and parties. At least $65,000 went

to politicians, or organizations linked to them, that had influence over

business interests of Mr. Torricelli or his clients.

Campaign finance watchdogs say Mr. Torricelli's spending raises questions

about federal regulations dictating how former politicians can spend unused

campaign contributions.

The rules prohibit former officials from using their leftover campaign money

for personal expenses. And although Mr. Torricelli has not done that,

campaign finance watchdogs say he seems to have found a legal wrinkle to

spend those funds in ways that could buttress his private business. His

case, they say, underscores the need to tighten the rules.

Massie Ritsch of the Center for Responsive Politics, said Mr. Torricelli

could have considered giving the money back to donors or to charity.

"Contributors should reasonably expect that their money will go for

campaigning and not that it will sit in an account for years and be doled

out to build someone's personal business," he said.

A day after being asked about Mr. Torricelli's spending from his Senate

account, Mr. Jackson called The New York Times to say that the bulk of the

remaining money would go to a foundation that Mr. Torricelli had established

earlier this year to help causes like breast cancer awareness and open space

preservation.

Mr. Torricelli quit the 2002 race in October of that year, several weeks

after the Senate Ethics Committee issued a letter "severely admonishing" him

for accepting three gifts from a contributor, David Chang.

Two months after leaving the race, Mr. Torricelli founded a lobbying

practice, Rosemont Associates, which now has clients including the

government of Taiwan and the owner of Cablevision.

The business has taken him far beyond New Jersey. In February 2005, Aveta

Holdings L.L.C., of Hackensack, which provides managed care to Medicare

recipients in Puerto Rico and other places, hired his firm for $10,000 a

month as it was moving to acquire a managed care company that served

Medicare recipients on the island, according to a copy of his contract. He

was to build support for the company and meet with political leaders on its

behalf.

In May 2006, Mr. Torricelli made two contributions totaling $4,000 from his

Senate campaign account to Luis G. Fortuno, Puerto Rico's nonvoting member

of Congress. Three weeks later, executives with Aveta Holdings and their

relatives made donations of $12,000 to Mr. Fortuno's campaign committee.

Mr. Fortuno's office said that he advocated an approach that would foster

competition in the Medicare program by allowing more companies to

participate. Federal regulators eventually adopted such an approach, the

office said. Mr. Torricelli, in turn, dropped in on Mr. Fortuno this year to

thank him for his efforts, according to a person familiar with the meeting

who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss

the matter.

Mr. Jackson said that Mr. Torricelli's donations to Mr. Fortuno had nothing

to do with Aveta, and were made because he, like Mr. Fortuno, has long

supported Puerto Rican statehood. Contributors to Mr. Fortuno connected to

Aveta did not return phone calls to their offices and homes. Aveta's

chairman, Daniel E. Straus, also declined to comment.

Mr. Torricelli has also tapped his campaign account to make sizable

donations to Nevada politicians, including several Democrats close to

Senator Reid. In 2003, $25,000 from the Torricelli for U.S. Senate account

was given to Silver State Victory 2004, the committee coordinating the

Democratic effort in Nevada that year.

Then in October 2004, he gave $10,000 to the Nevada State Democratic Party,

of which Mr. Reid is the titular head. The same month Mr. Torricelli also

gave $250 to Josh Reid, the senator's son, who ran unsuccessfully for a City

Council seat in Cottonwood Heights, Utah.

Shortly afterward, Mr. Torricelli began reaching out to Mr. Reid on behalf

of a client that retained him for $15,000 a month: the government of Taiwan.

On Feb. 2, 2005, before contacting any other senator, Mr. Torricelli called

Mr. Reid to set up a meeting with Taiwan's representative in the United

States, according to federal lobbying records, to discuss Taiwan's

opposition to a new Chinese law that authorized the use of force if Taiwan

declared independence.

By February 2007, Mr. Torricelli had contacted Mr. Reid or his staff some

two dozen times about Taiwan's interests, going beyond what he did with

other Democratic Senators, the records show.

A spokesman for Mr. Reid said that it was unfair to single out the donations

that Mr. Torricelli made in Nevada, given that the state was drawing

significant attention from Democrats around the country who viewed its role

as crucially important in the presidential election.

Mr. Jackson said Mr. Torricelli's donations to Mr. Reid stemmed from their

long relationship, not his lobbying on Taiwan.

"It would be surprising - it would be amazing - if he didn't support Harry

Reid," Mr. Jackson said.

Money has gone elsewhere. On Oct. 29, 2003, Governor Blagojevich of Illinois

made a fund-raising trip to New York and had a private meeting with Mr.

Torricelli and Leonard Barrack, whose law firm, Barrack, Rodos & Bacine, had

hired the former senator as a consultant, according to an article in the

Chicago Sun-Times.

Five days after the meeting, Mr. Torricelli and the firm itself each gave

$10,000 to Mr. Blagojevich's reelection campaign account, according to

campaign disclosure reports. (Mr. Torricelli drew on his Senate campaign

account for his donation.)

On Feb. 20, 2004, the law firm was placed on the Illinois State Teachers

Retirement System's list of preferred outside attorneys, according to a

spokeswoman for the state fund.

The retirement system's board of trustees decides who is placed on that

list, not the governor. But the governor appoints 4 of the 11 members of the

board.

A spokeswoman for Mr. Blagojevich said that the governor's office was unable

to comment on the meeting because she did not have access to the governor's

campaign schedule and it appeared to be part of a campaign-related trip. Mr.

Jackson said that Mr. Torricelli does not recall meeting Mr. Blagojevich.

As a lobbyist in Trenton, Mr. Torricelli counted his biggest client in 2006

as CSC Holdings, the operator of Cablevision, which paid him $162,000 that

year. In early 2006, Mr. Torricelli's firm was lobbying state regulators to

seek changes in a bill sponsored by State Senator Joseph V. Doria Jr., a

Democrat, that would have allowed telephone companies like Verizon, a chief

rival of Cablevision's, to provide pay television service.

In May, Mr. Torricelli contributed $5,000 from his Senate campaign account

to a slate of municipal candidates headed by Mr. Doria, who is also the

mayor of Bayonne. Eventually, the bill passed, but Cablevision succeeded in

weakening some provisions, according to lobbyists in Trenton.

Mr. Doria did not return a call last week seeking more information about the

law. Mr. Jackson said that Mr. Torricelli has supported Mr. Doria for years.

Mr. Torricelli has also given contributions from his campaign account as he

has pursued real estate deals in his home state.

In September 2005, Mr. Torricelli purchased the Golden Swan, a boarded-up

historic building situated a couple of blocks from the State House in

Trenton, for $1 from the City of Trenton, according to real estate records.

Mr. Torricelli and Trenton's mayor, Douglas H. Palmer, were signatories. Mr.

Torricelli then began investing at least $3 million in restoring the

building.

But he needed city approvals. In the spring of 2006, Mr. Torricelli

contributed $10,000 from his Senate campaign account to Mr. Palmer, and his

slate of City Council candidates for the June municipal election.

Those donations came as city agencies, including the Council, were reviewing

Mr. Torricelli's proposal for the Golden Swan, which called for the creation

of retail and office space in the building. That fall, the Council,

including Mr. Palmer's slate, gave Mr. Torricelli an $89,000 grant to

install an elevator in another building he was developing in Trenton's

downtown. This March, the Council also approved a state loan application for

the Golden Swan.

"It's not like if you give me money, you're going to get stuff - it doesn't

work like that," Mr. Palmer said. Mr. Jackson said: "If anything, Torricelli

did something to help people and the city."

Margot Williams contributed reporting.

--

What we find is that the surge has troops going into areas, where for 4 1/2

years we have not seen our military in action. Naturally, they are routing

out al Qaeda in those areas. That's a good thing.

-- Sen. Dick Durbin

"Stupid Dope" <HHHA@aol.com> wrote in message

news:46d0b123$0$15356$4c368faf@roadrunner.com...

All propaganda has to be popular and has to accommodate itself to the

comprehension of the least intelligent of those whom it seeks to reach.

-Adolf Hitler

On Sat, 25 Aug 2007 18:56:20 -0700, "The Woodsman"

<FunnyGeorge@CrawfordRanch.net> wrote:

>All propaganda has to be popular and has to accommodate itself to the

>comprehension of the least intelligent of those whom it seeks to reach.

>-Adolf Hitler

Neut Gingrich, taking a page right out of Mein Kamph,

advocated exactly that in his GOPAC Lectures (Shown on

C-SPAN, ca 1995), ----and most recently (last spring)

on Faux Snooze when he said that the, "GOP needs to

craft a message and get it out over and over again

until it becomes associated with the party"

Click@Knicklas.com wrote in news:0tn1d3lmvoall3dcgofici22ja8ujc83gm@

4ax.com:

> On Sat, 25 Aug 2007 18:56:20 -0700, "The Woodsman"

> <FunnyGeorge@CrawfordRanch.net> wrote:

>

>

>>All propaganda has to be popular and has to accommodate itself to the

>>comprehension of the least intelligent of those whom it seeks to reach.

>>-Adolf Hitler

>

> Neut Gingrich, taking a page right out of Mein Kamph,

> advocated exactly that in his GOPAC Lectures (Shown on

> C-SPAN, ca 1995), ----and most recently (last spring)

> on Faux Snooze when he said that the, "GOP needs to

> craft a message and get it out over and over again

> until it becomes associated with the party"

>

And Newtie is just the person to deliver the GOP message,

to be sure.

Mitchell Holman

"Females have biological problems staying in a trench

for 30 days."

College Professor Newt Gingrich, on why women should not be

allowed to serve in combat, Jan 19,1995. He later justified

his remark citing the "infections" women get every month.

"Mitchell Holman" <Noemailplease@comcast.com> wrote in message

news:Xns9997DF515F0ta2eene2@216.196.97.131...

> Click@Knicklas.com wrote in news:0tn1d3lmvoall3dcgofici22ja8ujc83gm@

> 4ax.com:

>

>> On Sat, 25 Aug 2007 18:56:20 -0700, "The Woodsman"

>> <FunnyGeorge@CrawfordRanch.net> wrote:

>>

>>

>>>All propaganda has to be popular and has to accommodate itself to the

>>>comprehension of the least intelligent of those whom it seeks to reach.

>>>-Adolf Hitler

>>

>> Neut Gingrich, taking a page right out of Mein Kamph,

>> advocated exactly that in his GOPAC Lectures (Shown on

>> C-SPAN, ca 1995), ----and most recently (last spring)

>> on Faux Snooze when he said that the, "GOP needs to

>> craft a message and get it out over and over again

>> until it becomes associated with the party"

>>

>

>

> And Newtie is just the person to deliver the GOP message,

> to be sure.

>

>

> Mitchell Holman

>

> "Females have biological problems staying in a trench

> for 30 days."

> College Professor Newt Gingrich, on why women should not be

> allowed to serve in combat, Jan 19,1995. He later justified

> his remark citing the "infections" women get every month.

Put Newt in a Confederate uniform and send him to Richmond.

He'd be swearing up and down he's doin' it fer Gen'l Lee.

"The Woodsman" <FunnyGeorge@CrawfordRanch.net> wrote in news:_Z7Ai.5407

$i75.1891@newssvr19.news.prodigy.net:

>

> "Mitchell Holman" <Noemailplease@comcast.com> wrote in message

> news:Xns9997DF515F0ta2eene2@216.196.97.131...

>> Click@Knicklas.com wrote in news:0tn1d3lmvoall3dcgofici22ja8ujc83gm@

>> 4ax.com:

>>

>>> On Sat, 25 Aug 2007 18:56:20 -0700, "The Woodsman"

>>> <FunnyGeorge@CrawfordRanch.net> wrote:

>>>

>>>

>>>>All propaganda has to be popular and has to accommodate itself to the

>>>>comprehension of the least intelligent of those whom it seeks to reach.

>>>>-Adolf Hitler

>>>

>>> Neut Gingrich, taking a page right out of Mein Kamph,

>>> advocated exactly that in his GOPAC Lectures (Shown on

>>> C-SPAN, ca 1995), ----and most recently (last spring)

>>> on Faux Snooze when he said that the, "GOP needs to

>>> craft a message and get it out over and over again

>>> until it becomes associated with the party"

>>>

>>

>>

>> And Newtie is just the person to deliver the GOP message,

>> to be sure.

>>

>>

>> Mitchell Holman

>>

>> "Females have biological problems staying in a trench

>> for 30 days."

>> College Professor Newt Gingrich, on why women should not be

>> allowed to serve in combat, Jan 19,1995. He later justified

>> his remark citing the "infections" women get every month.

>

> Put Newt in a Confederate uniform and send him to Richmond.

> He'd be swearing up and down he's doin' it fer Gen'l Lee.

>

Most Southerners think "General Lee" refers to

the car on "Dukes Of Hazard"............