Cong. Latourette R-Oh, linked to Ratners and Abramoff

[Kolesar]

There has been much discussion here of the gambling ballot issue (constitutional amendment). Today, Yellow Dog Sammy, the preeminent Ohio blogger, puts the story together at his site

There's a powerful stink of pay-to-play influence-peddling coming from Ohio's 14th Congressional District, despite the denial by Rep. Steve LaTourette (R-Painesville) of any wrongdoing after his name came up in the Abramoff scandal. Records show that LaTourette has received large amounts of campaign cash from the Ratner family of Cleveland, of the Forest City real estate empire, who recently received a colossal development contract from a federal agency supervised by a LaTourette-chaired Congressional subcommittee.

...snip for copyright...

It is important to note that the Ratner family and Forest City are intensely interested in gambling. They and other Cleveland interests formed the Ohio Earn and Learn Committee, which is spending something like $15 million to promote a state constitutional amendment on the ballot in Ohio this November that would place slot machines at certain race tracks and in other locations in Cleveland, including a location controlled by Forest City. If the measure passes, the promoters estimate the slot machine revenues could exceed $2.5 billion per year, with 38% slated for education and economic development. Forest City also has an interest in a gambling/development opportunity in Pittsburgh. Gambling is thus a common thread connecting them to David Safavian, the former gaming lobbyist, and Abramoff and his Indian tribe clients, also pursuing gambling opportunities.

...snip for copyright...

Much more research is needed on the ties among the Ratner/Salzberg interests, LaTourette, the GSA, and the variety of people and firms who lobby for those interested in gambling/development opportunities. I am certain that the constellation of small contributions linked to these people and companies is much larger than what I have noted, and the precise interaction of LaTourette and his subcommittee and the GSA remains to be detailed. However, the whole situation is at the least extremely suspicious, just based on what has been uncovered to date.

There is much more to this and I am short on time to post. go to the website: http://ohio2006elections.blogspot.com/

[cmd]

1. LOTS of good stuff at that website including these numbers:

MyDD is reporting that the new Majority Watch poll by Constituent Dynamics shows Democratic candidates leading in three key Congressional races in Ohio:

2nd District:
48% Wulsin (D)
45% Schmidt (R)

15th District:
53% Kilroy (D)
41% Pryce (R)

18th District:
51% Space (D)
42% Padgett (R

[geiger]

2. THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT POST ON OHIO FORUM

right now. DU what u can, in whatever way. Time to move, darlings, everywhere.

[cmd]

4. Just a note about the GSA

It is headed by Steven Perry, and ex-Timken executive. There are lots of dots to connect in this story....Latourette...Bush Pioneer, now Ambassador to Germany, "Timmy" Timken.......Ney.......the Ratner family.....Safavian.....Perry.

[geiger]

5. If we can take down LaTourette

well, that would be mind-boggling. Keep the story moving. I'll do some research over the weekend.

[cmd]

6. Here's a start

from 2005

http://www.jdland.com/dc/timeline.cfm

June 2 - The GSA and Forest City Enterprises have at last signed their development agreement, and yesterday Forest City was handled a symbolic key to the 44 acres of the Southeast Federal Center, the first time the feds have ever allowed private development on government land. Plans are to turn this area on the Anacostia waterfront over the next five years into a "vibrant new neighborhood destination with up to 1.8 million square feet of office space, 2,700 residential units, 250,000 square feet of retail and a five-acre waterfront park with a promenade along the Anacostia River, as well as other public amenities." Construction is currently slated to start in 2007.

[Ninga]

3. I am very interested in this and LaTourette is my congressman. Question?

The devil is in the details.

Where do I go to find more??

[geiger]

7. Money numbers for Ohio gambling and casino influence here

http://www.followthemoney.org/database/IndustryTotals.phtml?i=63&s=35

[geiger]

8. Over half of LaTourette's money comes from PACS

http://www.tray.com/cgi-win/x_statedis.exe?DoFn=&State=OH&rb=2006

[geiger]

9. Does anyone know what "The Freedom Project" is?

I see LaTourette as its sponsor and the top contributor is listed as "Indian Tribe." (from Political Money Line website)

[cmd]

10. Boehner's PAC to elect republicans

Top donors included several tribes and connections to tobacco and student loans. Remember Boehner passed out checks from a tobacco co. on the floor a few years back.

http://www.opensecrets.org/pacs/PACGAVE.asp?strID=C00305805&txtSort=N&Cycle=2006&Format=&Page=2

[geiger]

12. did Boehner pass it off to LaTourette?

[cmd]

16. could be. I'll have to dig some more n/t

[geiger]

17. I think LaTourette is the current "sponsor"

If you get a chance, look at the Political Money Line website.

[cmd]

22. I think it is still Boehner

at least as of the end of Sept.

LaTourettes seems to be a beneficiary. I found this breakdown on Open Secret. Forest City was his biggest single contributor.
http://www.opensecrets.org/1996os/detail/H4OH19036.htm


As WC said, Forest City spreads its money around to every party. Dems have benefitted greatly. However, from what I've seen, Forest City doesn't do thinks just for the heck of it. They are always looking down the road for an advantage. If they were really interested in helping, they would be developing in Cleveland. That isn't happening.

[geiger]

24. that's exactly why they give to both; when something comes up, they have

advantage and accessibility

[geiger]

29. not that there's anything necessarily wrong with tha t, except that the

R's have proven they not know how to be prudent....

[AnOhioan]

11. The trail is not cold yet....

Research shows that the Ratner family, the Miller family, the Salzberg family all donated to both LaTourette and Don Young (R-Alaska)shortly after letters were written by LaTourette and Young to the GSA which resulted in Forest City Enterprises being awarded the contract for the Southeast Federal Center project. These families have donated a considerable sum in the election cycles since.

Is this quid pro quo? Time will tell but where there is smoke there is generally fire.

[WCGreen]

15. If you look, you will see that they are the largest donors in

NE Ohio...

They spread the cash around...

Did you know that the Ratner democratic talkshow host out of New York is from the same family...

Not excusing what they do, just pointing out that this is not out of the ordinary for them...

[Kolesar]

18. Sammy's point is that the $$$ went up with the Anacostia project

Campaign donations are how developers guarantee access. You are correct in pointing out that this is typical business. At the moment, we only have a suggestion of a quid-pro-quo: campaign donations for federal funding.

[AnOhioan]

19. The timing comes into play here...

The initial donations to Young and LaTourette all occurred within a two week period from the date of the letters to the GSA. No donations from the parties involved had occurred in the prior election cycle (2000).

The donations in 2002 were timed very suspiciously. Since then the amount of money donated to LaTourette has been substantial.

I agre that families like the Ratners "spread the money around". But this particular set of circumstances arouses some serious suspicion.

[WCGreen]

20. La Tourette didn't need money before 2000....

L'm not saying thee isn't a quid pro Quo but it would be really hard to prove...

Hell Sam Miller gave me money when I ran for State Senate back in 1996 and I had no chance of winning....

[AnOhioan]

25. Actually, LaTourette did not need heavy donations until 2004

His opponent in 2000 & 2002 was man who did not actively raise funds. He did not even raise enough to file with FEC if my memoery serves.

The point is, LaTourette started getting these funds in 2002, with larger amounts in 2004 and this year. All of a sudden the Ratners, the Millers et al became interested in Mr. LaTourette. Maybe because he could "Get things done"?

[WCGreen]

26. He needed money to advance in the GOP House Leadership...

He needed to spread money around to other candidates and actively show the leadership that he was indeed a team player...

[AnOhioan]

27. Maybe so...but I smell a behind the scenes deal.

I figure you can judge a man by the company he keeps....Mr. LaTourette's choices of buddies include Abramoff, Delay and Ney.

No proof yet, but I would not be surprised to see Steve end up as frontpage news in the near very near future.

[WCGreen]

28. That would be so great....

He is one of the four terms and outers from 1994 who reniged on his pledge...

[WCGreen]

13. The Ratners give everyone money......

They donated over 4000 to the campaign I was working on this primary season....

[geiger]

14. to cover all bets

commom practice among many high dollar contributors

[WCGreen]

21. In Cuyahoga County, they actually give more to the Dem's

than the Republicans...

They practically owned Jane...

The did own Mike White...

The whole disaster over the Juvenile Court location has Miller and Ratner hands all over the place...

They forced a few businesses out and then bought land and then got the county to buy the land at a healthy increase....

Miller claims he actually saved the country money because he assembled the parcels..

Bull Shit...

But again, very hard to prove...

[geiger]

23. and a lot to Voinovich

[geiger]

30. In trying to do work and also blog today,

I may have responed to cmd instead of you. Just because one gives to both parties is not necessarily a bad thing; it's what happens after that.

[geiger]

31. Abramoff-LaTourette link

From: http://tpmmuckraker.com/safavian.php


"David Safavian was the chief of staff of the General Services Administration (GSA) and later the head of the Office of Federal Procurement Policy. He resigned from that position on Friday, September 16, 2005, prior to his arrest on Monday, September 19 for lying and obstructing the investigation into the dealings of Jack Abramoff. He was indicted on October 5, 2005 and went to trial on May 22, 2006. On June 20, 2006, a jury convicted Safavian on four of five counts...."
"...An Iranian-American trained as a tax lawyer, Safavian worked as a lobbyist with Jack Abramoff during the 1990s at the law firm of Preston Gates and Ellis. From 1995 to 1997, Abramoff and Safavian worked closely together...on the accounts of the exiled government of Macedonia, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, and the Microsoft Corporation, among others.

....While at GSA, Safavian was Abramoff's man on the inside, repeatedly passing him information that could help his clients....

...In July 2002, Abramoff was seeking to acquire two properties administered by the GSA on behalf of tribal clients. He ... helped Abramoff draft a letter that Reps. Don Young (R-AK) and Steven LaTourette, R-OH sent to the GSA that would have helped Abramoff's clients acquire the property.....

...Safavian lied and obstructed justice in the government's investigation of Abramoff....

...Safavian was indicted for making false statements to Senate investigators and GSA ethics officials regarding a golf trip Safavian took to Scotland in 2002 with Abramoff, Rep. Robert Ney (R-OH), and Ralph Reed.....

...Safavian was very close to Grover Norquist....



Research by Asheesh Siddique

[geiger]

32. Ohio R Chair's press release Friday makes me even more suspicious

of LaTourette. I think by the state apparatus issuing strong statements villifying Ney as a cancer and such, is a reflection of the deep concern over where all of this is going next. They've all been in this up to their eyebrows, back to when asshole Newt was around. Dig, guys, dig. This won't take long.

FROM: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13052757/

A partner of Abramoff’s at the time, Neil Volz also outlined in U.S. District Court how the Abramoff team received assistance from several Republican congressmen or their aides including Rep. Bob Ney of Ohio, Rep. Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, Rep. Don Young of Alaska and Rep. Steven LaTourette of Ohio.

[geiger]

33. And dont forget the Duke connection

FROM: http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/113005B.shtml

Sen. Jim Talent (R-Mo.) has returned money from lobbyist Jack Abramoff, the center of another congressional ethics scandal, while Republican Reps. Jeb Bradley (N.H.), Kenny Hulshof (Mo.), Heather Wilson (N.M.) and Steve LaTourette (Ohio) gave back contributions from DeLay after he was indicted in September.

[AnOhioan]

34. LaTourette's opponent is Lew Katz...

Great guy but does not have the PAC support Steve does. Every little bit helps ...if you can, drop a few bucks to Lew. http://katzforcongress.com/

[InkAddict]

35. Steve LaTourette (R-Painesville)

http://www.inslawinc.com/about/history.html

http://www.eff.org/legal/cases/INSLAW/inslaw_case.article

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/external/pre-election/bios/1385.html?SITE=OKTULELN&SECTION=POLITICS&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

He worked as a public defender in Lake County from 1980 to 1983, before going into private practice for six years. He was Lake County's prosecutor when he was elected to the U.S. House in 1994.

LaTourette has five children, four by a previous marriage.

Profile
Steven LaTourette's no-nonsense reputation, and politically valuable name recognition, emerged four years before his election to Congress, when he was a prosecutor.

snip

His image was tarnished in 2003 when his wife complained that he had called to inform her by phone that he was involved with a lobbyist and wanted a divorce.

"Washington corrupts people," Susan LaTourette said. "He was a wonderful husband and father, the best I ever saw, until he went there. I told him I was trying to get him out of the dark side, all that power and greed and people kissing up to them all the time. Now he's one of them."

[AnOhioan]

36. More threads about LaTourette

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=172x20115


http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=172x20049


http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=172x20129

[AnOhioan]

37. Feds expanding Abramoff inquiry, LaTourette at risk?

"The U.S. News & World Report indicated yesterday that the "FBI and Justice Department appear to be expanding their probe into the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal in hopes of nabbing another member of Congress and aides," acting on more information Abramoff and other scandal figures. "We thought it was wrapping up, but they've indicated that it is really about to expand," said one source involved in the case. "It's not ending anytime soon or even when he goes to jail."

No members of Congress are mentioned by name in the brief news item, but 14th Congressional District incumbent Steve LaTourette (R-Concord Township) is among those with reason to sweat...."


The rest at http://ohio2006elections.blogspot.com/2006/10/cong-oh-14-abramoff-probe-expansion.html

[geiger]

38. good