The Influence Game: Mixing Donations, Earmarks
But last months event, with tickets starting at $1,400, was missing one longtime friend: Paul Magliocchetti, the founder of a lobbying firm that over the past two decades has been one of Murthas biggest sources of campaign donations.
Magliocchetti was absent because of what had happened three months earlier. At 7:30 one evening shortly after Thanksgiving, the FBI raided his lobbying firm, carting off records of the firms political action committee and files of some of its lobbyists.
The work of those lobbyists took them often to Murthas Capitol Hill office, as well as those of fellow Democrats Peter Visclosky of Indiana, Jim Moran of Virginia and others on the defense appropriations subcommittee that Murtha chairs. The FBI says the investigation is continuing, highlighting the close tie between special-interest spending provisions known as earmarks and the raising of campaign cash.
For Murtha, Visclosky and Moran the practice has paved the way for their congressional careers. In 2007 and 2008, the three directed $137 million to defense contractors who were paying Magliocchettis PMA Group to get them government business. That kind of clout put the midsized 33-lobbyist firm into the big leagues, ranking it in the top 10 in billings among Washington lobbying shops.
At the same time, the three lawmakers received huge amounts of political donations from PMA lobbyists and their clients. Murtha has collected $2.37 million in campaign contributions from PMAs lobbyists and the companies it has represented since 1989, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, which tracks political money. Visclosky has collected $1.36 million; Moran, $997,348.
Those political donations have followed a distinct pattern: The giving is especially heavy in March, which is prime time for submitting written earmark requests. Over the past two decades, $1.1 million has flowed to the campaigns and leadership PACs of Murtha, Visclosky and Moran from PMA and its clients in March alone.
Asked about the relationship between earmarks and contributions, Murtha spokesman Matthew Mazonkey said, “Every person that comes into our office with an appropriations request is treated equally.” He said every request is properly vetted, and the office recommends funding only for meritorious, cost-effective requests. Morans office said that it checks with the Pentagon on proposed earmarks and that whether someone “chooses to provide campaign support has no bearing on our vetting process.” Viscloskys office did not return calls and e-mails seeking comment.
Not since the FBI caught him on videotape in the Abscam corruption probe nearly three decades ago has Murtha faced so many questions about his ethics.
In that 1980 sting operation, agents captured Murtha on videotape turning down a $50,000 bribe offer, while holding out the possibility that he might take money in the future. “We do business for awhile, maybe Ill be interested and maybe I wont,” Murtha said on the tape.
Six congressmen and one senator were convicted in the case. Murtha wasnt charged, but the government named him an unindicted co-conspirator, and he testified against two other congressmen.
This time around, the issue is congressional earmarks. The practice became infamous in the 2004 scandal that sent superlobbyist Jack Abramoff to prison and earned the congressional spending committee a new nickname: “The Favor Factory.” Earmarking continues, and Congress defends it as an exercise of its constitutional powers and its knowledge of local needs.
President Barack Obama says he wants to curb earmarks, but nonetheless recently signed a $410 billion spending bill that contains 7,991 of them.
PMAs political giving is large for a firm its size. Since 1989, the firms employees have given current members of Congress $3.4 million in campaign donations, more than most of the larger firms in town.
Murthas earmarks for defense contractors include $14.7 million in the past two years for Kuchera Defense Systems, a Windber, Pa., firm raided in January by the FBI and by investigators from the Pentagon. Washington lobbyist Jim Ervin, who has long represented Kuchera, attended Murthas Feb. 27 fundraiser.
Murtha has become such an institution that major defense contractors headquartered elsewhere have opened offices in his district.
Recent Murtha earmarks to former PMA clients both large and small amount to $50 million to 10 firms in Pennsylvania towns such as Lemont Furnace, Latrobe, Indiana and Johnstown.
Murtha and Magliocchetti have ties that go back to the 1980s, when Magliocchetti worked on the defense subcommittee staff.