Power of revolving door seen in N.J. congressman's earmark requests
Spring is in the air and earmarks are flowing to the well-connected. The Hill newspaper illustrates that point this morning with a tale of how a New Jersey congressman has requested approximately $40 million in earmarks for clients of a lobbying firm managed by his former chief of staff.
Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-N.J.), the ranking member of the House Appropriations Energy and Water Development subcommittee, has made 12 earmark requests for entities represented by Winning Strategies, the firm managed by his former chief of staff, Donna Mullins.
Three of the earmark requests, totaling $9 million, went to generous campaign donors. Winning Strategies was one of Frelinghuysen's top five campaign donors in the last election, with Mullins donating $13,600 since 2003. The Hill finds that neither Frelinghuysen nor Winning Strategies appear to be breaking any rules in their actions, but notes that the requests demonstrate the importance of the revolving door in the lobbying process. As Steve Ellis of Taxpayers for Common Sense told The Hill, "People with very tight connections are able to deliver for their clients." Frelinghuysen says that his earmark requests serve the interests of his constituents. His office would not comment on the relationship between the congressman and Winning Strategies.
Among the congressman's earmark requests for clients of Winning Strategies was $2 million to Honeywell for "ink-based desktop electronic materials." Honeywell was Frelinghuysen's second-biggest campaign donor last year, giving over $14,000 toward the congressman's re-election. A total of $9 million was slated to go to the Stevens Institute of Technology, for research in military technology. The president of the Stevens Institute is Harold Raveche - who, with his family, has donated more than $20,000 dollars to the congressman's campaign since 2004.
LegiStorm has a searchable database of all 2008 earmarks courtesy of Taxpayers for Common Sense and will be publishing all 2009 earmarks soon.
Home
Salaries
Trips
Financial Disclosures
Foreign Gifts
Earmarks
The Score
About Us
Leave a reply