Jack Abramoff: Council of Republicans For Environmental Advocacy

[PhilipShore]

TPMCafe
February 25, 2007

http://americaabroad.tpmcafe.com/blog/mrs_panstreppon/2007/feb/25/jack_abramoff_council_of_republicans_for_environmental_advocacy

Remember Italia Federici? She is the president of the Council of Republicans For Environmental Advocacy (CREA) , a faux grassroots organizaton which criticizes environmental groups. In November 2005, Federici testified as a witness about her relationship with Jack Abramoff and soon-to-be-indicted former Deputy Secretary of the Interior J. Steven Griles during John McCain's Senate Indian Affairs Committee hearings.

Someone is trying to keep the lid on information about CREA and its predecessor, the Coalition of Republican Environmental Advocates. The Coalition was founded by Gale Norton with help from Grover Norquist in 1998. A well-publicized kickoff dinner, held in Washington DC, raised $100k and both Senate Majority Leader Tent Lott and House Speaker Newt Gingrich attended. Norton was then attorney general for the state of Colorado.

The Coalition's website address was GOP4environment.org. A search of the internet archive results in a "Sorry, no matches" but a search for "all pages" returns two existing pages from the website and evidence that someone placed a block on 36 pages from the website in April 2006. One of the existing pages indicates that the Coalition had representatives in 50 states.

I can't find a corporate registration for the Coalition of Republican Environmental Advocates yet CREA operated under that name until 2000 when it registered as the Council of Republicans For Environmental Advocacy on September 14, 2000 in the Distrct of Colombia. Did the Coalition of Republican Environmental Advocates ever file a tax return? Or, for that matter, ever register as a corporation?