Dean: Land Deals for Donors Show McCain's Real Priorities, Blatant Hypocrisy
May 9, 2008
On the same day John McCain gave a speech aimed at repositioning himself as a "moderate" for the general election by claiming to be a "conservationist," the Washington Post highlights Senator McCain's true priorities. According to the report, Senator McCain reversed himself and backed legislation resulting in a land swap that allowed one of his biggest donors to develop federal park land despite concerns from forestry officials that the deal would short-change taxpayers. Senator McCain "became a key figure in pushing the deal through Congress after the rancher and his partners hired lobbyists that included McCain's 1992 Senate campaign manager, two of his former Senate staff members (one of whom has returned as his chief of staff), and an Arizona insider who was a major Senator McCain donor and is now bundling campaign checks." [Washington Post, 5/9/08]
While Senator McCain claims voters should trust him to not put his special interest friends ahead of the public good, today's story is the latest in a string of scandals that highlight his pattern of casting aside the public interest and his own principles to benefit his campaign contributors and favored lobbyists. Senator McCain helped steer a $35 billion dollar defense contract to a European defense contractor that hired three of Senator McCain's top campaign officials, weighed in on the sale of a Pittsburgh TV station after meeting with a campaign contributor involved in the deal, and has loaded his campaign with lobbyists from the telecommunications companies he was responsible for overseeing as chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee.
Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean today issued the following statement:
"Senator McCain can cast himself as a friend of the environment all he wants, but the only friends he really stands up for are the donors and lobbyists running his campaign. Senator McCain thinks he can simply say 'trust me' and the American people will turn a blind eye to his disturbing pattern of putting his special interest friends ahead of the public good. The voters know that Senator McCain's campaign rhetoric on the environment means nothing when he's willing to give his donors sweetheart deals and appoint right wing judges bent on gutting environmental regulations. Senator McCain's hypocrisy on ethics and lobbying reform is one more reason he is the wrong choice for America's future."
McCain's Shady Land Deal
McCain Reversed Opposition After Developer Hired Lobbyists Who Worked for Him. "Initially reluctant to support the swap, the Arizona Republican became a key figure in pushing the deal through Congress after the rancher and his partners hired lobbyists that included McCain's 1992 Senate campaign manager, two of his former Senate staff members (one of whom has returned as his chief of staff), and an Arizona insider who was a major McCain donor and is now bundling campaign checks. When McCain's legislation passed in November 2005, the ranch owner gave the job of building as many as 12,000 homes to SunCor Development, a firm in Tempe, Ariz., run by Steven A. Betts, a longtime McCain supporter who has raised more than $100,000 for the presumptive Republican nominee." [Washington Post, 5/9/08]
Environmentalists Opposed the Deal. "The Audubon Society described the exchange as the largest in Arizona history. The swap involved more than 55,000 acres of land in all, including rare expanses of desert woodland and pronghorn antelope habitat. The deal had support from many local officials and the Arizona Republic newspaper for its expansion of the Prescott National Forest. But it brought an outcry from some Arizona environmentalists when it was proposed in 2002, partly because it went through Congress rather than a process that allowed more citizen input." [Washington Post, 5/9/08]
Federal Officials Said Deal Would Shortchange Taxpayers. "Although the bill called for the two parcels to be of equal value, a federal forestry official told a congressional committee that he was concerned that 'the public would not receive fair value' for its land. A formal appraisal has not yet begun. A town official opposed to the swap said other Yavapai Ranch land sold nine years ago for about $2,000 per acre, while some of the prime commercial land near a parcel that the developers will get has brought as much as $120,000 per acre." [Washington Post, 5/9/08]
2005 Deal Part of String of McCain Intervention on Behalf of Donors. "Betts is among a string of donors who have benefited from McCain-engineered land swaps. In 1994, the senator helped a lobbyist for land developer Del Webb Corp. pursue an exchange in the Las Vegas area, according to the Center for Public Integrity. McCain sponsored two bills, in 1991 and 1994, sought by donor Donald R. Diamond that yielded the developer thousands of acres in trade for national parkland. In the late 1990s, McCain promoted a deal in Arizona's Tonto National Forest involving property part-owned by Great American Life Insurance, a company run by billionaire Carl H. Lindner Jr., a prolific contributor to national political parties and presidential candidates." [Washington Post, 5/9/08]
McCain Loves His Lobbyists
Top McCain Advisors Lobbied for EADS on Controversial Tanker Deal. "Top current advisers to Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign last year lobbied for a European plane maker that beat Boeing to a $35 billion Air Force tanker contract, taking sides in a bidding fight that McCain has tried to referee for more than five years. Two of the advisers gave up their lobbying work when they joined McCain's campaign. A third, former Texas Rep. Tom Loeffler, lobbied for the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co. while serving as McCain's national finance chairman." [Associated Press, 3/11/08]
McCain Intervened With FCC on Sale of Pittsburgh TV Station to Paxson Communications. In the midst of a "successful lobbying campaign to persuade McCain and other members of Congress to send letters to the Federal Communications Commission on behalf of Paxson," McCain "wrote two letters to the FCC urging a vote" on a "high-contentious" Paxson acquisition of a Pittsburgh TV station; FCC Chairman William Kennard dubbed McCain's letters as "highly unusual." According to the Washington Post: "At the time he sent the first letter, McCain had flown on Paxson's corporate jet four times to appear at campaign events and had received $20,000 in campaign donations from Paxson and its law firm. The second letter came on Dec. 10, a day after the company's jet ferried him to a Florida fundraiser that was held aboard a yacht in West Palm Beach." [Washington Post, 2/21/08]
McCain Wrote Another Letter for Glencairn Ltd. to Preserve Ownership Loophole. "In late 1998, Senator John McCain sent an unusually blunt letter to the head of the Federal Communications Commission, warning that he would try to overhaul the agency if it closed a broadcast ownership loophole. The letter, and two later ones signed by Mr. McCain, then chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, urged the commission to abandon plans to close a loophole vitally important to Glencairn Ltd., a client of Vicki Iseman, a lobbyist. The provision enabled one of the nation's largest broadcasting companies, Sinclair, to use a marketing agreement with Glencairn, a far smaller broadcaster, to get around a restriction barring single ownership of two television stations in the same city." [New York Times, 2/23/08]
USA Today: Campaign Loaded With Telecom Lobbyists. "Republican presidential candidate John McCain has condemned the influence of 'special interest lobbyists,' yet dozens of lobbyists have political and financial ties to his presidential campaign -- particularly from telecommunications companies, an industry he helps oversee in the Senate. Of the 66 current or former lobbyists working for the Arizona senator or raising money for his presidential campaign, 23 have lobbied for telecommunications companies in the past decade, Senate lobbying disclosures show…. People who lobbied for telecom companies on those issues include McCain's campaign manager, his deputy manager, his finance chief, his top unpaid political adviser and his Senate chief of staff. Telecom companies have paid the lobbying firms that employed those top five McCain advisersmore than $4.4 million since 1999, lobbying records show." [USA Today, 3/23/08]
