Lobbyists

Ben Lowe Pledges to Refuse PAC Money While Peter Roskam Rakes in Corporate Cash

On July 12, 2010, in Ben Lowe, Campaign Finance, Coal Industry, Congressional Elections, Financial Sector, Lobbyists, Peter Roskam, Peter Roskam's Corporate Agenda, Utilities Industry, by RSR
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We had the pleasure this past Saturday of attending the opening of Ben Lowe’s campaign headquarters in Lombard. Ben, of course, is the Democratic candidate challenging Peter Roskam in the Illinois 6th Congressional District this fall. We had a chance to meet briefly with Ben and his campaign staff, but only briefly as turnout was great and Ben and his team took time to meet everyone. As on our first visit, we were very impressed with Ben and amazed at what he has accomplished running a campaign on a shoestring.

Notably, as Ben spoke to the crowd, he announced a pledge to accept no corporate or PAC donations, but rather to run his campaign solely on donations from individual concerned citizens.  This is is a tough way to go, but we were pleased as we have plenty of experience of what it is like to have a Congressman beholden to big corporations and industry lobbies.

Peter Roskam, in contrast, has raised $1,343,340 in the current cycle (and still we got an email message pleading for “a generous contribution of $100, $250, $500 or more” at the end of the 2nd quarter). Over $600,000 of that is PAC money, with the largest chunk coming from the financial sector, followed by healthcare and energy industries.If you want to know how Roskam will vote, just follow the money. He has voted against increased regulation in the financial sector & against health reform legislation opposed by the healthcare industry. Roskam opposes legislation to combat the threat of catastrophic global climate change that is opposed by energy industries and has lobbied against increased regulation of hazerdous coal waste.

It is clear that if we are to resolve our nations most pressing problems, we must replace legislators like Peter Roskam, who obstruct progress in the interests of corporate sponsors, and replace them with people of integrity who are not bought and paid for by the multinational corporations.

Fortunately, we in the 6th District are blessed to have such a candidate in Ben Lowe. But Ben needs our help. He is entirely dependent on concerned citizens to help get his message out. We hope that you will consider making a contribution to Ben’s campaign and/or helping the campaign out as a volunteer or by hosting an open house to help Ben get to know your friends and neighbors, or by putting up a yard sign. You can make a donation online at Ben’s website.  You can contact Ben’s campaign by phone at (800) 630-0684.

We can make no progress in putting the unemployed back to work, in preventing catastrophic climate change, in ending our dependence on fossil fuels, or in reigning in Wall Street corruption unless we throw out legislators like Roskam who cater to corporate interests. Please help Ben win in November.

 

Shameless Illinois Rep Seeks Well-Endowed Industry Lobbyists Willing to Talk Dirty Coal

On February 10, 2010, in Congressional Elections, Environment, Lobbyists, Peter Roskam, by RSR
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Just in time for Valentine’s Day, Polluter Harmony.com:

PolluterHarmony is the #1 matchmaking site

for polluters, industry lobbyists, & politicians!

EXPERIENCE THE pHARMONY DIFFERENCE!

* Now it’s FREE to receive and review your matches

* Each match pre-screened for you across 57 dimensions

* Start your long-term collusion today! Simply register and take the questionnaire to receive your matches!

Wow. This is so perfect for Peter Roskam. He’ll be able to meet  new coal and utility lobbyists who share his passion for unregulated contaminated coal waste to entertain him in Washington while filling his already brimming campaign coffers with more PAC money. Good luck, Peter!

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Peter Roskam Receives Contributions from Lobbyists Acting for Libya

On October 1, 2009, in Foreign Policy, Friends of Peter Roskam, Libya, Lobbyists, Peter Roskam, by RSR
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roskam_khaddafi

6th District Congressman Peter Roskam and members of his staff were contacted numerous times during 2008 by a Washington lobbying firm acting on behalf of the Great Socialist People’s Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, that is the government of Libya, and Roskam received 3 campaign contributions, totaling $1500, from one of the lobbyists involved. This according to information provided by the new Foreign Influence Lobbying Tracker produced in a joint venture by ProPublica and the Sunlight Foundation. The tool uses Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) disclosures filed by foreign governments and their representatives to document the influence foreign governments may have over our legislative process.

The lobbying firm involved is the Livingston Group, LLC., founded by former Republican representative and speaker-elect Bob Livingston after he resigned from Congress in 1999 having acknowledged an affair during the impeachment of President Bill Clinton.  According to the disclosures, the contacts concerned the possibility of amending a statutory provision against U.S. trade with Libya.  It is not known from the disclosures what commitments, if any, may have been received from Roskam.  The full list of disclosures may be viewed here.

Roskam’s willingness to receive campaign contributions made on behalf of any foreign government is appalling to me as a constituent. That the government involved was that of Libya is outrageous.

Libya has been much in the news in recent weeks. In August, Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi, convicted of 270 counts of murder in the 1988 bombing of PanAm Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, was released by the Scotish Government on humanitarian grounds because of a reported terminal illness. He was returned to Libya and given a heroes welcome by the Libyan government. Then, earlier this month, Moammar Gadhafi, “Guide of the First of September Great Revolution of the Socialist People’s Libyan Arab Jamahiriya”, came to New York to address the 64th United Nations General Assembly. Livingston Group was reportedly involved in negotiations surrounding the Libyan strongman’s plans to visit Englewood, New Jersey and erect a bedouin tent.

200px-Muammar_al-Gaddafi_at_the_AU_summit

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Peter Roskam’s Ex-Campaign Manager Launches New Firm to Lie to Latino Voters

On June 5, 2009, in Congressional Elections, Friends of Peter Roskam, Gay Rights, Latino Voters, Lobbyists, Peter Roskam, by RSR
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RSR notes with interest this item from Politico yesterday. Jason Cabel Roe, Peter Roskam’s former, campaign manager, has launched a new consulting firm, Revolvis Consulting. The firm “will focus on strategies to bring Latino voters into the Republican fold”. Revolvis’ initial focus is on a number of races in California.

Jason Roe’s bio on the Revolvis web site indicates that he was Chief of Staff for Republican Congressman Tom Feeney of Florida from 2003 to 2007. It fails to mention that Roe left Feeney in 2007 to work for Mitt Romney’s Presidential campaign, then abruptly resigned in April 2007, citing family obligations, after the FBI started questioning Feeney regarding his ties to lobbyist and felon Jack Abramoff. Feeney had accompanied Abramoff on that famous golf outing to Scotland. Roe memorably defended Feeney in an email message stating “Any assertion that this office knew Abramoff paid for the Scotland trip is a g–d—– lie.”

Roe previously founded Federal Strategy Group, a Washington lobbying firm that advertised its access to to politicians like Roskam.

Roe managed Peter Roskam’s famously dirty Congressional campaign against Iraq war veteran Tammy Duckworth 2006.  That campaign attacked Duckworth as wanting to give “handouts to illegal aliens”:

You may recall that Jason Roe & Peter Roskam made Keith Olberman’s “Worst Person in the World” list for Roskam’s infamous remark that Duckworth wanted to “cut and run” from Iraq (Duckworth, of course, lost both of her legs while serving In Iraq) and Roe’s subsequent distortion of what was actually said.

So anyway, now Roe wants to help bring Latino’s into the fold. The Revolvis web site actualy has a “Latino Services” page. That’s impressive. The Latino Services page states that “an effective Latino program is a vital component to any public policy and/or candidate campaign”.  (Isn’t that warm and fuzzy – a “Latino program”). But Roe is right, the current Republican “Latino program” – smearing the first Latina Supreme Court nominee as a racist and calling the National Council of La Raza a Latino “KKK” – is not proving to be working, if you believe the polls. (We wonder though whether this handiwork from the Revolvis portfolio will be typical of a Revolvis “latino program”.)

How does Revolvis plan to sway Latino voters, then? Wedge issues!:

Latinos, like other voters groups are not single issue voters. While immigration is an important issue, Latinos have consistently ranked national security, the environment, education, healthcare, and the economy as issues of greater importance to them. The Democrats do not hold sway over the Latino community on all of these issues. In California, we saw Latinos overwhelmingly supporting both Obama and the gay marriage initiative (Proposition 8). Avenues exist for Republicans to make inroads into these communities.

California’s Proposition 8 (Gay Marriage Ban), and additional survey data, illustrates that Republicans don’t have to change their principles, we just need to communicate with all voters, year-round.

Charming. Roe plans to win over Latinos by demonizing gay people.

These pricks, Roskam and Roe, and Limbaugh and all their kind , they just don’t get it. Until they do, the Republican Party will sink further and further into oblivion. Their program of lying to middle class people about caring for their needs while demonizing outsiders and sowing fear is bankrupt. It won’t work anymore.

Latinos aren’t stupid. If Republicans truly want to win Latino voters, and midldle class working people in general, then they need to start viewing them as people and not just votes -  they have to learn to start doing the right thing by ordinary people and not just for big business and the very wealthy:

  • Ensuring that workers are paid just wages, have safe working conditions, and their right to organize is protected
  • Ensuring that everyone has access to affordable quality health care
  • Ceasing to demonize immigrant workers and gay people
  • Supporting policies that give consumers a fair shake against giant corporations
  • Providing services for our returning servicemen who are strugling with health problems and unemployment

Until Republicans catch on, the party is going to continue to dwindle into a southern regional coalition of religious extremists and hate groups.

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Peter Roskam, “Hero of The Taxpayer” …Not so much

On October 23, 2008, in Congressional Elections, Ethics Reform, Lobbyists, Peter Roskam, by RSR
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Thanks to Progress Illinois for this.  It seems Congressman Peter Roskam has found himself the subject of an ethics complaint filed by Public Citizen, a national non-profit consumer advocacy group founded by Ralph Nader in the early 1970s. This is not a front group. Its a serious non-partisan organization working in the public interest. Here’s what Senator John McCain had to say about them:

Public Citizen has been a powerful and persistent voice for cleaning up our campaign finance system which has corrupted our legislative process and distorted government policies. The group continues to fight for average citizens whose voices are muted by the monied special interests.

And here’s what Public  Citizen has to say about Peter Roskam:

U.S. Rep. Peter Roskam (R-Ill.) appears to have abused his franking privileges and violated U.S. House of Representative rules against using taxpayer funds to pay for political mailers promoting himself within 90 days of the general election, Public Citizen charged today in a complaint filed with the House Commission on Congressional Mailing Standards.

Members of Congress are allowed to distribute mass mailings to their constituents at taxpayer expense touting their legislative records (“franked” mail), but not within 90 days of an election. A bipartisan Commission on Congressional Mailing Standards, known as the “Franking Commission,” is responsible for oversight and regulation of the franking privilege in the House of Representatives.

“Right up into October, just weeks before the election, voters have been receiving two-page color mailers paid for by taxpayers, with Peter Roskam’s name splashed all over them,” said Joan Claybrook, president of Public Citizen. “Taxpayers should not be footing the bill to advertise Roskam’s candidacy for Congress.”

“Using tax dollars to pay for campaign literature is a clear violation of the franking laws,” said David Arkush, director of Public Citizen’s Congress Watch division. “The mailers are campaign advertisements, plain and simple. They promote Roskam for things like ‘Protecting Children from Poison’ and ‘Securing Our Borders.’ ”

Roskam consistently has tapped taxpayers to pay for mass mailings to his congressional district, amounting to almost $200,000 in legitimate franked mail from January 2007 through June 2008. The franking rules bar sending mass mailings to constituents after Aug. 6.

If the commission finds a violation, it will refer the matter to the House ethics committee for enforcement. The ethics committee has wide latitude in all its enforcement actions, ranging from a private letter of reprimand, to civil penalty, to removal from office. This issue likely would result in a letter of reprimand and a requirement that the campaign reimburse taxpayers for the franked mail.

“We urge the ethics committee to severely reprimand Roskam and require him to pay a civil penalty and pay back the taxpayers for any franked mail sent out since early August,” said Craig Holman, campaign finance lobbyist for Public Citizen.

The  text of the complaint aginst Roskam can be found here.

The complaint against Roskam is, on one hand, hardly surprising because Roskam has not been a supporter of Congressional ethics reform and has shown himself, both in this election campaign and his last, to be willing to say or do just about anything to win.  And Roskam’s coziness with Washington lobbyists has provided further evidence of his lack of concern for occupying the ethical high ground. But one wonders why Roskam would need to use taxpayer money to promote his candidacy when he is so flush with cash from his corporate sponsors. I guess Peter just likes playing with a stacked deck.

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Telco Contributions Return Big Dividend in Peter Roskam’s FISA Vote

On June 29, 2008, in Civil Rights, George Bush, Lobbyists, Peter Roskam, Peter Roskam's Corporate Agenda, by RSR
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Earlier this month, Peter Roskam voted to give a big gift to telephone companies: retroactive immunity from civil lawsuits for their role in George Bush’s illegal scheme to spy on Americans. Peter Roskam, would tell you, no doubt, that large campaign contributions from telephone companies and Roskam’s close personal ties to lobbyists for Verizon had absolutely no influence on his vote to obliterate the constitutional rights of his constituents. 

The vote came on 6/20. The bill was H.R. 6304, FISA Amendments Act of 2008. This so-called “compromise” on FISA allows the federal government to conduct mass untargeted surveillance of all communications coming into or going out of the country without any need to seek court approval, even if there is no evidence of wrongdoing. In those circumstances where court review is required, where there is a specific target, a prior court order is not required and the courts are not allowed to know who is being targeted. They may only review general procedures for establishing targets. When a court rules against the government it will be allowed to continue spying while it exhausts all appeals. The measure allows no effective check to the power of the government to spy on Americans and no effective oversight regarding the manner in which it applies that power.

The gift to the telephone companies contained in the bill is the assurance it provides that all lawsuits pending from the companies’ illegal activities in support of the Bush spying program will be dismissed. It does this by changing the standard so that the companies are not required to have received a legal order – any order is fine. ATT, one of Peter Roskam’s largest campaign contributors, and Verizon, who’s lobbyist’s Jason Roe and Kirsten Mork have close ties to Roskam, are no doubt pleased by this provision. Maplight.org, a campaign finance watchdog group , found that those lawmakers who voted for the bill received, on average, twice the amount in donations from large telephone companies.

Roskam’s vote is just one more example of his consistent pattern of giving a “rubber stamp” of approval to the worst abuses of the Bush administration and of placing corporate interests over the interests of his constituents. Voters who care about civil liberties should contact Roskam to protest his vote. Roskam can be reached at his Washington office at (202) 225-4561 or in Bloomingdale at (630) 893-9670.

Before the FISA amendment becomes a law, it faces a vote in the Senate. That vote has been delayed until next month. Concerned voters should also contact Senators Durbin and Obama to pressure them to do the right thing and protect our civil liberties and deny immunity to the telephone companies that have broken the law.

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