PMA Scandal

It's time to stop ignoring pay-to-play
http://www.philly.com/inquirer/currents/20090301_It_s_time_to_stop_ignor...

Senate votes to preserve earmarks in spending bill
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5injFfO8MlwJfFFF_n29IR6...

Coburn, Flake Ready Challenges to PMA Lobbying Firm and Its Clients
http://www.cqpolitics.com/wmspage.cfm?docID=news-000003065173

Senate Rejects McCain Effort to Freeze 2009 Spending
http://www.cqpolitics.com/wmspage.cfm?docid=news-000003064991

President Walks Tightrope on Earmarks

Rep. Tim Ryan gets new earmark for client of raided lobbying firm
http://blog.cleveland.com/openers/2009/02/rep_ryan_gets_earmark_in_omnib...

Visclosky, Democrats defeat campaign earmarks probe
http://www.chestertontribune.com/Politics%20and%20Elections/226912%20vis...

Pork Chalks Up Two More Victories
http://blog.heritage.org/2009/02/26/pork-chalks-up-two-more-victories/

Piling on the Pork: Outrageous Legislation in Omnibus Bill
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,500844,00.html

Perk-filled spending bill passes House

House OKs $410B bill to boost domestic programs
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5injFfO8MlwJfFFF_n29IR6...

House Kills Effort to Investigate Lobbyist-Lawmaker Ties
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/02/25/house-kills-effort-investigat...

PMA's Exodus Grows, Founder Hires a Lawyer
http://undertheinfluence.nationaljournal.com/2009/02/pmas-exodus-grows-f...

Flake’s earmark crusade converts some Dems
http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/flakes-earmark-crusade-converts-some...

Flake targets earmarks in wake of scandal
http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/rep.-flake-going-after-earmarks-in-w...

Flake targets earmarks in wake of scandal
http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/rep.-flake-going-after-earmarks-in-w...

One Representative has had enough and Jeff has identified some specific PMA earmarks in the omnibus spending bill, which is a new discovery.
http://flake.house.gov/
ID'd specific earmarks.
http://flake.house.gov/News/DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=112328

“If clients of a lobbying firm currently under federal investigation are receiving earmarks in it, this bill has not received adequate scrutiny,” said Flake.

Flake also has an Opt-Ed in the New York Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/24/opinion/24flake.html?_r=1

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Earmark Requests from Obama Transportation Secretary
http://blogs.abcnews.com/thenote/2009/02/earmark-request.html

Region's politicians tied to embattled lobbying firm
http://www.lehighvalleylive.com/jessica-coomes/index.ssf?/base/news-0/12...

Two tips of the hat and a little nudge
http://www.dailyitem.com/0110_editorials/local_story_054001532.html

Ryan will return donations if they are found illegal
http://www.cantonrep.com/ohio/x426338866/Ryan-will-return-donations-if-t...

Perlmutter, Udall, Lamborn among lobby firm’s lawmaker friends

Earmark reform? 2009 spending bill contains 9,000 of them
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/homepage/story/62614.html

Earmark reform? 2009 spending bill contains 9,000 of them
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/homepage/story/62614.html

Back in 2007, I noticed that special interests were creeping into Marcy's
campaign funds. Of course Unions are special interests, but I was referring specifically to lobbyists. I found a quote from Marcy and put it in that story suggesting that she should heed her own words. Well she did not and continued accepting even more money to the point that a lobbying firm was her biggest donor during the 2008 cycle. Some have wondered why single out Marcy? The reason is simple, because she has been very outspoken in the past about special interests and the problems it creates, yet here she is right in the middle of the problem.

This is in the nationaljournal.com in the story titled "Most Lawmakers Keeping Questionable PMA Contributions":

A spokesman for Rep. Marcy Kaptur, D-Ohio, another member of the Defense Appropriations panel, said "her campaign's decision will hinge on how the story unfolds because we really don't know very much right now." PMA Group was Kaptur's single-largest donor, giving $26,500 in her most recent race.

http://www.nationaljournal.com/congressdaily/cdp_20090220_7211.php

Ohio representative Tim Ryan says:

Most Lawmakers Keeping Questionable PMA Contributions
http://www.nationaljournal.com/congressdaily/cdp_20090220_7211.php

Kanjorski, Carney delay action on funds from embroiled firms
http://www.thetimes-tribune.com/articles/2009/02/21/news/sc_times_trib.2...
and
http://www.thedailyreview.com/articles/2009/02/21/news/tw_review.2009022...

Report: U.S. Rep. Dicks was No. 4 in earmarks for questioned PMA Group
http://www.theolympian.com/politicsblog/story/764966.html

Ryan to return funds

Massachusetts pols allegedly got funds for busted lobbyist’s clients
http://news.bostonherald.com/business/general/view/2009_02_21_Massachuse...

Tim Ryan Among Valley Congressmen Named in Campaign Contribution Probe
http://www.wytv.com/content/news/local/story/Tim-Ryan-Among-Valley-Congr...

PMA Group Contributions Hard to Track
http://www.rollcall.com/news/32470-1.html

Embattled firm donated thousands to Carney, Kanjorski

Through my poking around I have found that Linda Lynch is a very busy lady. She is a homemaker, housewife, a PMA attorney, a teacher, a real estate agent, a consultant and maybe a PMA lobbyist. They are all of Woodbridge VA and possibly Dumfries VA. If I were a betting man, I think that this lady will have some explaining to do. Maybe there is more than one Linda Lynch in the area, but given the numbers and the donating behavior, I think she is another funnel for the PMA group. You won't read that anywhere else.

I listened to the NPR segment on the PMA Group online this evening and one of the things it mentioned was:

Among the PMA donors were two of the company's board members, who are friends of Magliocchetti from Florida, where he has a beach condo. In campaign reports, contributions from the two Floridians often appear to be coordinated — same day, same dollar amount, same recipient.

That could suggest PMA was making the contributions in their names, which would be illegal.

Please bear with me, since this is breaking news, I will be posting quite a bit about the scandal as different angles appear or something noteworthy shows up.

The Hill is reporting another donor, Jon Walker, never existed or at least did not work for the company reported.

Unlike the donor in the Washington Post article, this donor has given to Marcy Kaptur.

From The Hill:

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List of stories of interest on the PMA scandal:

Lobbying Firm's Ties To Democrats Under Scrutiny -really good
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=100850606

The next lobbying scandal
http://blog.nj.com/njv_thurman_hart/2009/02/the_next_lobbying_scandal.html

Firm with Murtha Ties Got Earmarks From Nearly One-Fourth of House (CQ Politics)
http://www.taxpayer.net/resources.php?category=&type=Project&proj_id=193...

PMA Group Shuttering Its Lobbying Practice
http://www.cqpolitics.com/wmspage.cfm?docID=news-000003055876

The Congressional Quarterly has a feature story today on how PMA secured 300 million in earmarks in one bill. Marcy Kaptur is included in the 104 and is solely responsible for 1.6 million in earmarks specifically for PMA clients. This ranked her 29th out of 104 for that bill. There are 435 members of the house and only those 104 asked for earmarks for PMA clients in the 2008 defense appropriations law. Marcy Kaptur is #19 out of the top twenty recipients of PMA lobbying money.
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Read the story at:
http://www.cqpolitics.com/wmspage.cfm?docID=news-000003055541

The person at the center of the PMA scandal, Paul Magliocchetti, is accused of funneling money to candidates sometimes through fictitious names. It is clear he tried to pump money to candidates through different means. Lets look at some examples of questionable behavior on Marcy's campaign.

Marcy was #19 out of #20 top recipients of PMA money, of course this is the money where the donors wrote down PMA as an employer.
http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2009/02/embattled-lobbying-firm-pma-ta.html

The campaign finance scandal that Marcy Kaptur is involved with to the tune of 40k, is now causing some Democrats to return money. Today in the Hill is reporting some questionable behavior by the donor, the same donor that gave Marcy campaign contributions this past year. **On a side note, this story is a gut check for the Toledo Blade. For a newspaper who made a point about campaign finance scandals, this one involves Marcy and now they have cold feet. If they were to follow the path they so proudly highlight, will they apply it to Ms. Kaptur? Will they treat her with kid gloves?

More is being reported on Marcy Kaptur's largest donor last year, the lobbyist group PMA. There are some very shady campaign finance/lobbying reporting going on as reported by the Washington Post. This is potentially could be as big as Tom Noe or Jack Abramoff and you know how many people they brought down in 06. Has the Blade run any reports on this? I may have missed it.
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What? Marcy Kaptur taking big bucks from a lobbying firm? I thought she denounced the special interests. Well this special interest, which she accepted big money from, is now under investigation.
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A defense lobbying firm that is a top political donor to several Ohio members of Congress has been raided by federal law enforcement authorities.
...
Hobson got $87,500 from PMA throughout his career, while Kaptur got $40,500. During the last election cycle, PMA gave Kaptur's campaign $26,500. Kaptur's top all-time donors are unions.
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