Taxpayer funds used to pay for Republican campaigns

As part of the probe, committee investigators found that White House

drug czar John Walters took 20 trips at taxpayers' expense in 2006 to

appear with Republican congressional candidates.

In a separate investigation, the independent Office of Special Counsel

concluded that GSA Administrator Lurita Alexis Doan violated the Hatch

Act, which limits the political activities of government employees.

Witnesses told investigators that Doan asked at the end of one

political briefing in January 2007 what her agency could do to help

GOP candidates.

Doan has said she doesn't recall that remark.

.................................................................................................

In the months leading up to the 2002 election, then-Commerce Secretary

Don Evans, Bush's former campaign finance chairman, made eight

appearances or announcements with Republican incumbents in districts

deemed by White House aides either as competitive districts or

battleground presidential states.

During the stops, he doled out millions of dollars in grants,

including in two public announcements with Rep. Heather Wilson, a New

Mexico Republican in a competitive district.

................................................................................................................

In 2004, Evans and his aides significantly scaled back appearances

with candidates, but an assistant treasury secretary returned to New

Mexico to announce with Republicans Sen. Pete Domenici and Rep. Steve

Pierce the release of $2.5 million in economic development funds.

Evans, who now heads the Financial Services Forum, a trade association

for financiers, declined comment, a Forum spokesman said.

In 2006, Evans' successor, Carlos Gutierrez, and his aides also made

public announcements with several Republican congressional incumbents,

including in the battleground states of Missouri, Pennsylvania and New

Mexico.

Weeks before the 2006 election, Gutierrez and Congresswoman Wilson

announced $3.45 million in grants for Albuquerque organizations.

Also in the weeks before the election, a deputy secretary and

Republican Sen. Rick Santorum announced that the department would be

investing $2.25 million in Philadelphia.

The same year, then-Treasury Secretary John Snow and Santorum

announced an award of millions in tax credits to Pennsylvania

organizations.

................................................................................................

Snow and his aides also made appearances in 2006 with Republican

incumbents or doled out grants in Virginia, Iowa and Ohio, states seen

as crucial to the GOP retaining control of Congress.

.....................................................................................................

John D. "Jerry" Hawke, who served as Treasury undersecretary for

domestic finance in the Clinton administration, said the

campaign-style briefings for Treasury appointees were unusual.

"Nothing remotely like that happened," during the Clinton

administration, Hawke said.

"I never experienced anything like that. The notion that the White

House would be holding meetings with Treasury appointees just didn't

fit."

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/227/story/19034.html

August 17, 2007

Commerce, Treasury funds helped boost GOP campaigns

By Marisa Taylor and Kevin G. Hall | McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON