Source:
Washington PostMore Forgeries Emerge in Climate Lobbying Effort
By David Farenthold
The office of Rep. Tom Perriello (D-Va.) has revealed the names of the two more groups whose names were forged on letters urging him to alter the House's climate-change bill.
Perriello received eight of the letters -- all purporting to come from constituents or groups in his district, but actually written by the Washington lobbying firm Bonner and Associates. The names on six were already known: one appeared to come from a Latino social-services group, and five from non-existent members of the Charlottesville NAACP.
The other two, Perriello spokesman Jessica Barba said, carried the names of the Jefferson Area Board for Aging -- a group that assists seniors in the Charlottesville area -- and a Charlottesville branch of the American Association of University Women.
An official at the AAUW said Thursday that her group doesn't have a Charlottesville branch.
"We've worked a long time to build up a reputation, and keep our name untarnished, and the notion that someone would come along and take that name ..... it's deceit. It's outright deceit," said Lisa Maatz, the group's director of public policy and government relations.
In all, 12 fraudulent letters were sent to three Representatives -- all relatively new Democrats from coal-producing states. Three went to Rep. Kathy Dahlkemper (Pa.), who is a first-termer like Perriello, and one went to Rep. Chris Carney (Pa.), in his second term.
Read more:
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/capitol-briefing/2009/08/more_forgeries_emerge_in_clima.html?wprss=capitol-briefing