John Kerry's "Special Interest" Quid-Pro-Quo

[Closer]

1) Kerry gets rent free housing and contributions from Cassidy & Associates, then writes letter for their foreign client to Coast Guard
2) Kerry's largest career patron is Mintz Levin - his brother's law firm - he has sponsored numerous pieces of legislation sought by Mintz Levin's lobbying
3) Kerry has taken $75,000 in soft money to his 527 soft money PAC from "Big Dig" contractors after securing additional $100 million for "Big Dig" and fighting off efforts to cap spending
4) In committee, Kerry opposed Hollings' legislation to halt FCC relaxation of media crossownership rules, then missed vote in Congress on rollback (despite flip-flop to rhetorical support for the effort), and took $60,000 from Murdoch's Newscorp, and his staff took free trips courtesy Newscorp
5) Kerry opposed strong internet privacy legislation - working with AOL for weaker approach - took over $145,000 from AOL for campaigns
6) Kerry back weak industry sought cable bill in early 90s along w/ Bob Packwood - then was 3rd top recipient of cable contributions in '96 election

Specific Lobbyists and Industries Kerry Has Supported

1) Cassidy & Associates

In 1980s, Kerry Lived for a Year Rent-Free Courtesy of Cassidy & Associates Vice President - “Most Aggressive, High-Profile Lobbying Firm,” in Washington. On October 18, 1996, the Boston Globe reported, “During his first term in the US Senate, Sen. John F. Kerry lived for periods totaling at least a year in two Boston condominiums provided for him by a political contributor and one of his leading fund-raisers - for a fraction of the cost of a normal rental. And in 1989, after he sold his town house in Washington to buy his own condominium in Boston, Kerry stayed from time to time over three months - without paying any rent - at an $ 8,000-a-month Washington waterfront apartment leased by Robert A. Farmer. Farmer was then vice president of Cassidy & Associates, a major Washington lobbying firm that owes much of its success to access to US senators. The Globe discovered Kerry's unusual living arrangements during a review of his finances. The review also turned up suggestions that Kerry had taken steps in the 1980s to effectively conceal the information - efforts continued in the last two weeks as Kerry and a top aide at times offered evasive and contradictory information about where he lived and when. At one point Kerry, embroiled in a tough reelection battle with Gov. William F. Weld, his GOP challenger, told the Globe he could not recall where he lived in Boston for a 20-month period during his first term in office….In several interviews, Kerry insisted that he had no obligation to report the value of the subsidies as gifts on his Senate disclosure forms, which require members to list gifts valued at $ 250 or more. And the senator said he did not violate a Senate rule that bars any gift of more than $ 100 from anyone with a ‘direct interest’ in legislation. Instead, Kerry asserted, Farmer was not acting as a lobbyist, but a friend offering him ‘hospitality’ that he said is permitted under Senate rules. And he said his payments to the developers for using their condos, although less than he would have had to pay under a normal apartment lease, were appropriate. ‘I've never taken anything that I shouldn't have,’ Kerry said, ‘and certainly never given anything back to these individuals or anyone else.’”

In 2004, Kerry Intervened for Cassidy & Associates Lobby Coast Guard Issue then Received Campaign Contributions from an Interested Party Law Firm. The Washington Post reported, “The Hill, a Washington-based publication covering Capitol Hill, this month reported that Kerry in 1999 lobbied the Coast Guard on a rule-making process that benefited a foreign company represented by Cassidy & Associates. Soon after, employees of Cassidy & Associates sent Kerry $7,250 in bundled contributions. Jim Ruggieri, the Coast Guard official who handled the matter, told the paper it was highly unusual for a senator to intervene on such a matter.”

2) Mintz Levin

Kerry Has Been Strong Supporter of Legislation Supported by His Brother’s Lobbying Firm – Also His Largest Campaign Contributor – Kerry’s Brother Said, Regarding His Lobbying Work, “What Am I Going to Do? Go to Lieberman if He Doesn’t Vote ‘Right’?” On May 8, 2003, the Boston Globe reported, “Over most of his political career, Kerry's biggest financial supporter has been the Boston law firm of Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky, and Popeo P.C. Its members have donated nearly $187,000 since 1984. Among the firm's partners is Cameron F. Kerry, the senator's younger brother. He joined Mintz Levin in 1983, the year after Kerry was elected lieutenant governor and a year before his campaign for the US Senate. According to the firm's website, Cameron Kerry's practice ‘has represented cable industry and communications clients before the Federal Communications Commission, federal and state courts, state regulatory bodies, and municipalities under the Federal Communications Act.’ Cameron Kerry said in an interview: ‘I'm his brother and I've been involved in his political activities since before I was a lawyer. What am I going to do? Go to Lieberman if he doesn't vote 'right'?’ - referring to Senator Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut, who also is seeking the Democratic nomination…In its report, the center noted that Mintz Levin's clients include the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association. ‘Kerry has taken positions that closely reflect the legislative agenda of the CTIA,’ the report says. Between January 1999 and December 2002, he sponsored two bills for which the CTIA lobbied, and co-sponsored six more, the center found. In one case, Kerry urged the FCC to delay an auction for part of the nation's telecommunication's system. The telecom trade association supported the delay, as did two public interest groups, the Consumers Union and the New America Foundation, the report conceded.”

3) Big Dig Contractors

Kerry Accepted $75,000 in Soft Money Donations From Big Dig Contractors. Sen. Kerry’s section 527 soft-money PAC – the “Citizen Soldier Fund” accepted $75,000 in soft money donations from central artery contractors:
Contributor Total Hard Money Soft Money
Jay Cashman Construction $25,000 $0 $25,000
American International Group $25,000 $0 $25,000
Modern Continental Co $25,000 $0 $25,000


Kerry Secured Additional $100 Million Specifically for the Big Dig as Part of 1998 Highway Bill. On October 23, 1998, the Associated Press reported, “Not only did the bill contain the entire transportation spending bill for 1999, it had extras like the additional, $ 100 million specifically designed to ease Massachusetts' $ 11.6 billion construction headache known as the Central Artery/third harbor tunnel project, or Big Dig. The money raised some eyebrows, even though Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., who played a key role in obtaining it, didn't originally plan to work through the catchall spending bill.” On May 23, 1998, the Telegram & Gazette reported, “Kerry, after intense negotiations with Chafee and Senate leaders from both parties, won assurances from Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., and Minority Leader Thomas A. Daschle, D-S.D., that Massachusetts would receive a $ 20 million earmark for each of the next six years for the Big Dig, according to Jones. But Kerry received no written agreement on the deal, which was not seen by House leaders. What's more, the agreement includes no provision should the lawmakers involved lose or retire. ‘This is a deal,’ Jones said. ‘John Kerry's taking these guys at their word.’”

Harvard Affiliated Academic Institute Cited Kerry as Being Persuaded to “Silence His Criticism of Cost Overruns,” by Business Group Supporting Big Dig During 1996 Campaign. On December 25, 2003, the Boston Globe reported, “A Harvard-affiliated academic institute studying the Big Dig has uncovered a behind-the-scenes lobbying campaign by a high-powered Boston business group that says it persuaded US Senator John F. Kerry to silence his criticisms of cost overruns…. In one episode, the report says, ABC helped silence Kerry when he began to make the project an issue early in his 1996 reelection battle with then-governor William F. Weld. The senator was asking the US transportation secretary to look into reports the project was over budget and behind schedule during Weld’s governorship. ‘ABC’s leaders met privately with Kerry urging him not to discuss the project in the campaign . . .’ the report states. ‘Kerry stopped raising the issue.’ ABC was not always able to control the political rhetoric.” According to the Boston Globe, the report further stated, “one Beacon Hill political figure who did not buckle to the group’s requests was former state treasurer Joseph Malone, a Republican maverick who attacked the project as he challenged then-governor Paul Cellucci for the 1998 GOP gubernatorial nomination. ‘When Bill Weld and John Kerry were running for the Senate, we got their word that they wouldn’t bring up the Big Dig as an issue,’ Malone is quoted in an interview, contained in the report, after the cost overruns rocked the project in 2000. ‘they both stuck with that promise ‘Joe, why don’t you do the same thing?’ I said you’re in the wrong place if you think I’m going to let this boondoggle get further and further out of control.’”
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<!----> Kerry Blocked McCain Amendment to Stop Self-Insurance Policy Run by American Insurance Group for Big Dig That Was. On February 8, 2000, the States News Service reported, “Last November, McCain tacked an amendment on to an uncontroversial transportation bill that could have cost the Big Dig project $150 million. The amendment would have barred one of the project’s funding mechanisms: a self-insurance policy in which dollars for highway projects dollars are invested in corporate bonds. Mass. Senators Edward Kennedy and John Kerry lobbied to remove the provision, but there is no reason why McCain couldn’t introduce it again, aides said, possibly bringing the Big Dig project into a campaign debate over government spending.” On February 15, 2000, the Boston Herald reported, “McCain, a crusader against congressional pork barrel projects, was outraged after an audit revealed half the income generated by three $150 million Big Dig trust funds went to the project insurer, American Insurance Group. Sens. Kerry and Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) persuaded McCain to back down, but aides to the Arizona senator and GOP presidential candidate said he may reintroduce the amendment.”

U.S. Attorney’s Office Investigated Inappropriate Use of Overpaid Funds By American Insurance Group. On October 12, 2000, the Boston Herald reported, “the U.S. Attorney's office is investigating whether Big Dig officials overpaid the project's premiums and then shared investment income with its insurer, . Last spring, a senior vice president of AIG, Richard Thomas, told a congressional panel reviewing the Big Dig that the trust fund had ballooned because paid claims amounted to less than 20 percent of premiums paid by the project. One of the key recommendations in the new report is for the Big Dig to renegotiate the fees charged by AIG. The insurer has allegedly raked in $ 75 million in fees and bled the project for another $ 23.5 million in investment dividends.”

Kerry Opposed McCain Amendment to Cap Cost Overruns at Big Dig. On May 3, 2000, Congressional Quarterly reported, “Saying the federal government has tossed enough money down a big hole, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said Wednesday that he would aim to cap funding for Boston’s ‘Big Dig’ highway tunnel project…..But John Kerry, D-Mass., said McCain was too late. A bill that would cap spending, he said, was unnecessary. ‘It is moot, because Sen. Kennedy and I will not ask for more money,’ Kerry said, referring to his Massachusetts Democratic colleague.”
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Cashman’s Project “Ballooned From $218 Million to More Than $280 Million.” On February 6, 2002, the Boston Globe reported, “Like many major Big Dig contracts, Cashman/Kiewit/Atkinson's contract, which ran from Chardon Street in downtown Boston to the foot of the Zakim Bridge, has ballooned from its original price of $218 million to more than $280 million, records show. The three firms that make up the company are prime contractors on $1.36 billion worth of Big Dig contracts, work now worth $414 million more, thanks to changes and claims, records show.”

Modern Continental’s Bad Credit Was Cited as a Reason for Big Dig Delays. On April 17, 2003, the Associated Press reported, “Federal transportation officials are warning that the Big Dig faces up to a nine-month delay on the opening of the southbound lanes of Interstate 93, in part because of financial problems of a major contractor. In a statement to bond investors in February, the state said the Big Dig ‘faces a risk that insolvency of a major contractor could lead to cost increases and schedule delays.’ The statement was included in a report released Wednesday by the U.S. Transportation Department's inspector general, which warned of potential project delays, and said the federal government will require the Big Dig to include the disclosure in its annual budget statement. Although their statement did not mention Modern Continental Construction by name, state officials confirmed that the company's financial condition prompted their disclosure, The Boston Globe reported Thursday. Modern Continental is responsible for more than half of the work on the $14.6 billion Big Dig. The company holds the largest remaining Big Dig contract - completing the I-93 south tunnel and razing the elevated Artery.”

4) Newscorp

Kerry Has Taken Over $60,000 From Rupert Murdoch’s Newscorp. Newscorp, the parent corporation of Fox News owned by Rupert Murdoch, has given $64,950 to Kerry’s campaigns.


Kerry Did Not Vote on the Media Ownership Bill. On September 16, 2003 Kerry did not vote on a Senate resolution to disapprove of the FCC’s decision to relax media ownership rules. The bill, “ the broadcast media ownership rule submitted by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and received by Congress on July 10, 2003. (That rule replaces the prohibition on common ownership of daily newspapers and broadcast outlets in the same market and the restrictions on common ownership of radio and television outlets in the same market with Cross Media Limits; revises the market definition and the way stations are counted for purposes of the local radio rule; revises the local television multiple ownership rule; modifies the national television ownership cap from a 35% national audience reach limit to a 45% reach limit, and retains the dual network rule.)” The bill passed 55-40.

Kerry Opposed a Bill to Limit FCC’s Ability to Relax Ownership Rules. Kerry opposed legislation that “would limit the FCC's ability to scrap some media-ownership rules. The bill would require the FCC to look at any transactions in which cross-ownership rules are involved, which the commission doesn't necessarily have to do now.” The bill was opposed by FCC Chairman Michael Powel and he said, ‘he opposed making the agency wait that long—‘That's an age in regulatory time,’ he said--though he said the agency would ‘abide’ by Congress' wishes if such a law were passed. Several powerful senators, including John McCain (R-Ariz.), John Breaux (D-La.), Peter Fitzgerald (R-Ill.), George Allen (R-Va.) and John Kerry (D-Mass.), also expressed their opposition to Hollings' bill at a hearing before the Senate Commerce Committee,” according to Broadcasting & Cable.

Hollings’ Bill Would Have Required the FCC to Examine Crossownership Rules During Transactions of Media Companies. On July 17, 2001 Sen. Hollings introduced a bill that, “Requires the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to modify its regulations concerning the multiple ownership of broadcast stations to: (1) require the immediate review of a license for any AM, FM, or TV broadcast station (station) held by any party that acquires the ownership, operation, or control of a daily newspaper; and (2) require the modification or revocation of such license, or divestiture of such ownership, unless such ownership will not cause a radio contour overlap or overlap a third station. Authorizes the FCC to grant a permanent or temporary waiver of such requirement when consistent with the principles of competition, diversity, and localism in the public interest. Prohibits the FCC from requiring such modification, revocation, or divestiture when it is against the public interest, convenience, or necessity. Requires the FCC to further modify its regulations so that it will determine compliance with such modified multiple ownership requirements whenever: (1) a party that holds a license for such a station acquires ownership, operation, or control of a daily newspaper; or (2) a party that owns, operates, or controls a daily newspaper acquires a license for any such station. Allows the FCC to modify or repeal its media ownership rules after reporting an explanation thereof to specified congressional committees.”

5) AOL

Kerry Signed a Letter to the FCC Chairman Opposing Regulation of Internet Service Providers as Telephone Companies. John Kerry signed onto a letter to FCC Chairman William Kennard opposing the extension of telephone regulations to internet service providers. The letter said, “if the FCC reverses course and subjects information services to phone regulation, ‘it would chill the growth and development of advanced services to the detriment of our economic and educational well-being.’”

Kerry Opposed FTC Internet Privacy Regulations Because He Feared a “Draconian” Response to Restrict Industry – Eventually Flip-Flopped to a More Moderate Position Backed by Industry – Specifically HP, AOL and Walt Disney. In 2000, Kerry opposed FTC efforts to regulate internet privacy, and supported weaker internet privacy legislation because he feared a “draconian” response that would have restricted industry practices. Eventually Kerry flip-flopped to support a more moderate approach, co-sponsored by Republican Sen. John McCain. According to National Journal, Kerry “took a posture much more sympathetic to businesses.” On March 26, 2001, Infoworld reported, regarding the eventual Kerry privacy bill, “After years of industry opposition to the idea, many corporations decided a single set of privacy laws -- crafted by Congress and the industry – might well be a far better fate than scattered state laws on privacy. HP, America Online, and Disney have all gotten behind the Consumer Privacy Enforcement Act introduced by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass.”

6) Cable Industry

For 1995-96 Kerry Received Almost $50,000 From the Cable TV Industry, Making Him the 3rd Top Recipient Among Senate Candidates. For the 1996 election cycle, Kerry was the 3rd top Senate candidate recipient of cable industry contributions, receiving $48,050.

In 1995, Kerry Opposed an Amendment that Would have Limited Cable Deregulation. Kerry opposed an amendment that would have limited the deregulation of cable. The trade publication Multichannel News reported, “In 1995, the Massachusetts Democrat stood on the Senate floor to oppose an amendment that would have limited cable-rate deregulation provisions ultimately contained in the Telecommunications Act of 1996. ‘I think all of us have learned that when you have regulation, you inevitably have a skewing of the market which impacts the capacity of people to take risks, people to raise capital, people to invest and diversify,’ Kerry said in opposition to the cable amendment.”

In 1995, Kerry Voted Against Protecting Consumers From Higher Cable Rates. On June 15, 1995 Kerry voted for the Pressler motion to table the Lieberman amendment to the Telecommunications Act of 1996 to bar large and mid-sized cable companies from raising rates for 'enhanced basic' programs substantially above the average rates in cable markets where there is effective competition. The bill would bar increases substantially above the average for all cable markets, which is a higher level. The motion passed 67-31.


Note: this research IS from an opposing campaign's, and NOT Dean's.