Harris Shuns Spending Requests

[paineinthearse]

See cross-post in Editorials - Dirty Harris - from the St. Petersburg Times - http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x194548

http://news.tbo.com/news/metro/MGB5MTE1CKE.html

Harris Shuns Spending Requests
By KEITH EPSTEIN [email protected]

Published: Mar 3, 2006

WASHINGTON - U.S. Rep. Katherine Harris, linked to a campaign finance scandal, is turning away even routine requests to provide funding for special interests. Harris has taken pride in going after these earmarks - so-called pork barrel spending - but on Thursday she stayed away from meetings with special interests, including executives from Florida's university system. Among the reasons for her absence was a meeting with top-gun campaign finance lawyer Ben Ginsberg, whom she hired as a "precaution," Harris spokeswoman Kara Borie said.

On the sixth day after she was identified as a recipient of illegal campaign contributions, the Republican congresswoman from Longboat Key stayed behind closed doors. She issued a statement in which she denied knowing that contributions made to her by defense contractor Mitchell Wade had been illegal. She also had her employees release a partial series of documents, requested by the Tribune, that relate to her attempts at obtaining federal tax dollars for dozens of special interests since 2004.

Among the documents: An April 26 letter to defense appropriations subcommittee Chairman C.W. Bill Young, the Largo Republican, in which Harris seeks $10 million for a Navy project backed by Wade. In the letter, Harris emphasizes the importance of the project, asking that it be added to her list of five priorities and identifying it as her new No. 3 choice. She denied any connection between her help for Wade's company, MZM Inc., and the illegal contributions. Wade told prosecutors he personally handed over the contributions to Harris in 2004. A year later, he gave her his proposal for the project. At the time, MZM-related contributions to Harris' 2004 campaign amounted to more than any other source. "I never requested funding for this project in exchange for contributions, but rather to bring more high-skill, high-wage jobs to the region," Harris said in her statement.

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Wade pleaded guilty Feb. 24 to bribing a California congressman, Randy "Duke" Cunningham, and funneling illegal contributions by reimbursing employees who wrote checks to Harris and a Virginia congressman, Virgil Goode. Cunningham, Harris and Goode helped Wade and MZM in their attempts to secure federal tax dollars by slipping appropriations into massive spending bills. Like Harris, Goode has touted the benefits to his district, where MZM, he said, would bring jobs and spur economic development. Harris, a candidate for U.S. Senate, said in her statement Thursday that she had not been contacted by officials regarding the MZM investigation. Nor have her employees been contacted or been sent "target letters," Borie said.

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edit: added cross-post.


F*ck you and the horse you rode in on!