Rhode Island AG Took DuPont Lobby Money Before, After Settlement

[hatrack]

PROVIDENCE -- Attorney General Patrick C. Lynch accepted $4,250 in campaign contributions from DuPont Corp. lawyers and lobbyists before and after reaching a $12-million settlement with the company in the state's lead-paint case. Lynch's opponent in the upcoming election, J. William W. Harsch, filed a complaint yesterday with the state Ethics Commission, saying Lynch's acceptance of money from a company he was prosecuting is in "substantial conflict with his duties."

Harsch, a Republican, said his campaign discovered the donations while doing opposition research on Lynch, a Democrat. "It is a total abuse of the office of attorney general," Harsch said in an interview. "It is one of the things that will occur if the office is being used as a stepping stone to higher office."

"I am the only attorney general in the country to force DuPont to pay any amount, much less millions of dollars," Lynch said in a statement yesterday. "For Bill Harsch to now assert that I was not fighting as hard as I could on behalf of all Rhode Islanders against the lead-paint producers is political opportunism at its worst, and the content of the charge is utterly baseless. There is no reason to return the contributions in question."

Lynch was attending the summer meeting of the National Association of Attorneys Generals in Idaho yesterday. In the complaint, Harsch says Lynch accepted $2,500 from Bernard Nash, one of DuPont's lawyers, and from Nash's wife. Also donating were three people from DuPont's lobbying firm, the Dewey Square Group: Francine Katz who gave $1,000; Joseph Eyer, who gave $500; and Olivia Morgan, who gave $250.

EDIT

http://www.projo.com/extra/election/content/projo_20060630_lynch30.1a3de1f.html