Thursday, January 12, 2006

Roskam's Fund-Raising Ties to D.C. Lobbyists

In her column in your Chicago Sun-Times, Lynn Sweet gives us a glimpse into the degree to which Peter Roskam is already strongly allied with the scandal-ridden syndicate of Republicans and lobbyists in Washington:

Former Rep. Michael Flanagan (R-Ill.) is a Washington lobbyist. He raises money from other lobbyists for congressional candidates he wants to help. When we talked on Wednesday, he was in the midst of planning fund-raisers for Rep. Gil Gutknecht (R-Minn.) and state Sen. Peter Roskam (R-Wheaton), who is running to fill the seat being vacated by Rep. Henry Hyde (R-Ill.). ***

If Flanagan was not nice enough to tell me, there would be no official document filed any place that would indicate he was organizing fund-raisers for Gutknecht -- a 1994 "classmate" -- or Roskam. Federal disclosure reports call only for listing direct donations or in-kind contributions. ***

The Jan. 25 Roskam event in Washington developed after Flanagan got a call from Roskam's campaign manager, Ryan McLaughlin. "He called me and asked me for my help early in the cycle," Flanagan said. ***

Until [Jack Abramoff's guilty plea to mail fraud, tax evasion and conspiracy charges], pending ethics, lobbying and campaign finance reform legislation authored by members of both parties was buried by GOP leaders.
Of course the GOP leader most responsible for burying those anti-corruption reforms was Roskam mentor and Abramoff buddy, Tom DeLay. Mr. DeLay is facing charges of money laundering and conspiracy.

Well, so far...

Cross-posted at the So-Called "Austin Mayor" blog

3 comments:

Bill Baar 2:54 PM  

Check my post of Dec 17th.

Abramoff's crime is greed.

I'd like to see all the candidates in a race where the central issue is war on Islamic Fascism renounce financial influence from the likes of Abdurahman Alamoudi.

Greed like Abramoff's voters understand how to deal with in Illinois.

Influence from extremists --and they have plenty of money to spread around-- is something we don't recognize so quickly in Illinois.

Anonymous,  3:13 PM  

I'm sure Delay was consulting Roskam throughout all this...so let's string Peter up I say!

Anonymous,  9:42 AM  

you guys are pretty desperate to jump up and down about a former congressman turned lobbyist helping with a DC fundraiser.

I guess what will really kill you is when you find out who it's with. Of course, it is already sending shock waves through the dems as durbin, rahm and Jan are making calls and visitsto turn the tide.

I just can't wait till all the howling starts after the primary is over.

Dozer

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