Dennis Shulman for U.S. Congress: Sensible Leadership for New Jersey’s 5th District

October 31st, 2008

Friday, October 31, 2008
BY HERB JACKSON
WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT

Rep. Scott Garrett benefited from a White House effort to have top administration officials appear around the country, usually at taxpayer expense, with favored Republican candidates before the 2006 election, a House committee report says.

Garrett, R-Wantage, said through his campaign manager Thursday that the report, issued two weeks ago, was a weak political attack by a Democrat-controlled committee just before an election.

“Scott is glad to welcome government officials to visit with his constituents,” campaign manager Amanda Gasperino said. “It is in the best interests of all New Jersey taxpayers that our government decision-makers see firsthand the 5th District projects and issues that deserve support.”

A White House spokeswoman said that the office directing the trips “has been here for decades” and operated “within the rules.”

The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, which issued the report, conceded that the White House Office on Political Affairs was created under President Ronald Reagan and operated during President Bill Clinton’s administration to help Democrats.

But the report said “the extent of political activity by the current White House and its deep and systematic reach into the federal agencies is unprecedented.” The committee recommended strengthening the law that bars most federal employees from political activity.

The top Republican on the committee, Virginia Rep. Thomas M. Davis, said the report failed to support its conclusions by providing comparable data for the Clinton administration.

The report documents what it calls an aggressive “asset deployment” effort during the 2006 election year, when Republicans lost control of the House. It involved getting the leaders or top deputies of at least 16 federal agencies to appear with favored Republican candidates at 425 events.

Sixty pages of White House memos obtained by the committee detail “suggested event participation” with 326 candidates and at 92 Republican Party gatherings between Jan. 1 and Election Day 2006.

They include nine events during seven trips to Garrett’s district; attendance at the Bergen County Republican Organization’s Lincoln Day Dinner; and three appearances with Senate candidate Tom Kean Jr., including a “Hispanic rally” with Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez two days before Kean lost to Democrat Bob Menendez.

Garrett’s events, as described in the memos, news coverage and releases from his office were:

* A June 1 tour by Veterans Affairs Secretary Jim Nicholson of the Paramus Veterans Home, where Garrett lobbied for more funding.

* A pair of “public meetings on keeping communities safe from illegal drugs” on July 22 in Augusta and Rochelle Park with the deputy director of the White House’s “drug czar” office.

* An Aug. 4 economic forum and awards presentation in Paramus with Steven Preston, head of the Small Business Administration.

* An Aug. 28 business roundtable with Labor Secretary Elaine Chao and state and local Chamber of Commerce leaders at BMW’s North American headquarters in Woodcliff Lake.

* A private Sept. 18 discussion of “economic policies that have helped to create jobs” with Gutierrez and Hispanic leaders at Bergen Community College in Paramus, followed by a lunch fund-raiser for Garrett with Gutierrez in Washington Township.

* An Oct. 16 tour and discussion with acting Transportation Secretary Maria Cino of traffic near Ramapo College where Routes 17 and 287 intersect in Mahwah.

* An Oct. 27 visit to a middle school in Paramus by Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Stephen L. Johnson.

The White House also suggested three other events with Garrett that did not occur and are listed on memos as “regretted”: an undated event with Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta; a late August event with Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt; and a November event with Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne.

All but the Gutierrez fund-raiser were listed by the White House as “official” events, which, according to the House committee, meant the government paid for travel and expenses. The Kean events were all listed as “political,” meaning his campaign was responsible for reimbursing the government’s costs.

Gutierrez’s fund-raiser with Garrett included an official meeting the same day, however, and his campaign finance report for the quarter when the event was held does not include any reimbursement.

The committee’s report includes an e-mail — which is not connected to a Garrett visit — in which a White House official urged the Veterans Affairs Department to try to find an “official component” for a trip “to save the campaign as much $$ as possible.”

Dennis Shulman, the Democrat vying to unseat Garrett in next week’s election, called the trips “illegal subsidies.”

“He hypocritically calls himself a champion against government waste while deploying scarce federal resources in service of his reelection campaign,” Shulman said.

“We call upon Garrett’s campaign to reimburse the taxpayers for the illegal subsidies he has received and to start standing up for taxpayers, not his personal self-interest or the special interests who ordinarily fund his campaigns.”

Gasperino said the report “is a blatant, last-ditch attempt to tie Republicans to President Bush, and frankly, a poor one at that.”

She also assailed Shulman for relying on the work of the Democratic chairman of the report, Rep. Henry Waxman of California, one of the House’s more liberal members.

“If the Shulman campaign would like to capitalize on Waxman’s comments, it’s just further evidence that Dennis Shulman seeks to align himself with leftist elites who want to increase taxes on every American at exactly the time taxpayers are hurting the most,” she said.

http://www.northjersey.com/politics/Report_says_government_officials_boosted_Garrett.html

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