See:
http://www.raisingkaine.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=4270 Davis's biggest lobbyist contributor is Dan Mattoon, a lobbyist who worked with DeLay and Abramoff on the K Street Project and a principal in the 18-year-old firm of PodestaMattoon, which describes itself as a "bipartisan government relations and public affairs" firm.
Mattoon's online biography says he has worked with Republican representatives for over 30 years. He is a close friend of House Speaker Dennis J. Hastert (R-Ill.) At Hastert's request, Mattoon left BellSouth, where he had been vice president of congressional affairs for 15 years, to help
run the and help the GOP retain control of the House in 2000. Mattoon's biography says, "for more than 30 years, he has provided political and strategic legislative counsel to House Republican members, and is a trusted advisor to many of the Washington political elite, including Speaker Hastert, House Majority Whip Blunt, House Republican Conference Chairwoman Pryce, and NRCC Chairman Reynolds." Each of the four is among the top 10 congressional recipients of campaign contributions from Mattoon. Mattoon also hired Joshua Hastert, the speaker's son, as a lobbyist. Mattoon's wife, Jane, once served as treasurer of Hastert's leadership Political Action Committee.
Mattoon was involved in a Republican effort to wring more money out of lobbyists for Republican candidates. He was one of a small group of lobbyists who met with then-House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) at a dinner hosted by now-disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff at Abramoff's Signatures restaurant in January 2004 to discuss the issue. "There has been a concern that not enough folks who are out there making money based on their relation to the Hill are giving enough of their own money to the Republican Party," a GOP aide said of the initiative to gin up more lobbyist contributions to Republican lawmakers.
While the deputy director of the in 1999, , Mattoon seems to have been involved in a decision to transfer $500,000 from the NRCC to the U.S. Family Network, a 501(c)(4) group that operated in the same Capitol Hill townhouse as the political action committees of House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) and Majority Whip Roy Blunt (R-Mo.).
Mattoon said the transfer was made because of the ties former DeLay Chief of Staff Ed Buckham had to the group, and with the expectation that the money would be used to aid Republicans in the 2000 elections. "The Family Network is a group that based on our view of Ed Buckham's strengths in the family community and his political strengths will have an equally important impact in the elections, favorably for Republicans," Mattoon said.
In 2004, the FEC fined the NRCC $280,000 for its transfer of the $500,000 and the subsequent use of the money to finance ads attacking vulnerable Democrats.
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
