[EL] Pay-to-play will thrive in budget debate

Thu Sep 22 14:59:50 PDT 2011

So as I understand it, you want to make sure that federal procurement
officials have access to this information so that they can more readily
consider it. Is that correct?

Bradley A. Smith

Josiah H. Blackmore II/Shirley M. Nault 

  Designated Professor of Law

Capital University Law School

303 East Broad Street

Columbus, OH 43215

(614) 236-6317

bsmith at law.capital.edu <mailto:bsmith at law.capital.edu> 

http://www.law.capital.edu/faculty/bios/bsmith.asp
<http://www.law.capital.edu/faculty/bios/bsmith.asp> 

From: law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu
[mailto:law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu] On Behalf Of
Craig Holman
Sent: Thursday, September 22, 2011 3:57 PM
To: law-election at uci.edu
Subject: Re: [EL] Pay-to-play will thrive in budget debate

Trevor correctly points out that laundered contributions by government
contractors are not disclosed at all, not even to political scientists.
But it is also very time-consuming and difficult for political
scientists and reporters to connect the dots between the itemized
contribution database in the FEC files, with the level of occupational
employment of each itemized contributor with a company, and with whether
that company is a government contractor. The executive order would make
all this information available in one database easily accessible by the
public.

Craig Holman, Ph.D.
Government Affairs Lobbyist
Public Citizen
215 Pennsylvania Avenue NE
Washington, D.C. 20003
TEL: (202) 454-5182
CEL: (202) 905-7413
FAX: (202) 547-7392
Holman at aol.com

-----Original Message-----
From: Trevor Potter <tpotter at capdale.com>
To: Smith, Brad <BSmith at law.capital.edu>; Joseph Birkenstock
<jbirkenstock at capdale.com>; Craig Holman <holman at aol.com>; law-election
<law-election at UCI.EDU>
Sent: Thu, Sep 22, 2011 2:00 pm
Subject: RE: Re: [EL] Pay-to-play will thrive in budget debate

How , exactly, do we know that  Solyndra gave no money to C4s or C 6s or
other 

non-disclosing groups to finance political expenditures?? That
information is 

exactly what is currently not disclosed by federal contractors...

Trevor Potter

Sent by Good Messaging (www.good.com)

 -----Original Message-----

From:   Smith, Brad [mailto:BSmith at law.capital.edu
<mailto:BSmith at law.capital.edu?> ]

Sent:   Thursday, September 22, 2011 12:55 PM Eastern Standard Time

To:     Joseph Birkenstock; Craig Holman; law-election at UCI.EDU

Subject:       Re: [EL] Pay-to-play will thrive in budget debate

Solyndra wouldn't have been affected at all by the type of disclosure
Craig and 

Joe seek. The company's unknown spending was on lobbying, not campaign 

contributions. The contributions of executives were already disclosed;
the 

company itself did not make campaign expenditures, which were, we note,
illegal 

at the time it got the loan guarantees anyway. Indeed, it is the fact
that these 

disclosures are already required that allowed Prof. Zullo to conduct his

research uncovering the "suspicious pattern."  

The question is not whether companies inform "officeholders and party
officials" 

whom they support or oppose but whether we insist that they include that

information, including data on the activities of their employees and
data on 

giving that is not necessarily related to politics at all, on their
applications 

to be reviewed by purchasing officials.  Craig and Joe still offer no
reason for 

requiring that disclosure.

Bradley A. Smith

Josiah H. Blackmore II/Shirley M. Nault 

  Designated Professor of Law

Capital University Law School

303 East Broad Street

Columbus, OH 43215

(614) 236-6317

bsmith at law.capital.edu <mailto:bsmith at law.capital.edu
<mailto:bsmith at law.capital.edu?> > 

http://www.law.capital.edu/faculty/bios/bsmith.asp
<http://www.law.capital.edu/faculty/bios/bsmith.asp> 

From: law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu
[mailto:law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu
<mailto:law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu?> ] 

On Behalf Of Joseph Birkenstock

Sent: Thursday, September 22, 2011 12:41 PM

To: Craig Holman; law-election at uci.edu

Subject: Re: [EL] Pay-to-play will thrive in budget debate

Craig, stop being silly.  Everyone knows corruption in government
contracting 

only comes when political spending of the prospective contractors is
broadly 

disclosed to the public, not when that information is privately known
only to a 

subset of activists and politicians.  For example, I recall several long
chains 

of commentary attacking the way that public disclosure (but only public 

disclosure) will lead to the enforcement of an "enemies list" of
business 

partners that are presumptively unwelcome as government vendors.  

In fact, it seems to me that every instance of reconsideration of the
DISCLOSE 

Act or policies toward the same effect has launched a mini-flood of
tweets under 

the #enemieslist hashtag - but never any consideration of whether a
private list 

of political help from companies known only to friendly public
officeholders 

could have any similar corrupting effect.  

To be sure, there haven't been any tweet floods at all, large or small,
under 

the #friendslist hashtag.  Haven't you been paying attention?

________________________________

Joseph M. Birkenstock, Esq.

Caplin & Drysdale, Chtd.

One Thomas Circle, NW

Washington, DC 20005

(202) 862-7836

www.capdale.com/jbirkenstock

*also admitted to practice in CA

From: law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu
[mailto:law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu
<mailto:law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu?> ] 

On Behalf Of Craig Holman

Sent: Thursday, September 22, 2011 11:36 AM

To: law-election at uci.edu

Subject: [EL] Pay-to-play will thrive in budget debate

Colleagues:

Below is a snippet of an op-ed I published in Roll Call today on the 

supercommittee and pay-to-play corruption. It would have been
appropriate to 

mention the Solyndra issue (but the story broke after I wrote the
piece), in 

which many congressional Republicans are beginning to realize -- in 

contradiction to their opposition to Obama's proposed transparency
executive 

order -- that the lack of full disclosure of political spending by
government 

contractors may result in pay-to-play favoritism in the awarding of
contracts.

http://www.rollcall.com/issues/57_33/craig_holman_pay_to_play_will_thriv
e_budget_debate-208921-1.html

Pay-to-play corruption thrives in the shadows. As long as the public is 

generally kept in the dark as to how much a corporation is spending on
behalf of 

super committee officials and their respective parties, pay-to-play can
be an 

exceedingly effective tool in shaping the budget debate.

There is a viable solution that could take effect almost immediately: a
proposed 

executive order under consideration by President Barack Obama that would
require 

government contractors to fully disclose their campaign contributions
and 

expenditures to the public, including corporate funds for spending on
elections 

laundered through third-party groups.

Craig Holman, Ph.D.

Government Affairs Lobbyist

Public Citizen

215 Pennsylvania Avenue NE

Washington, D.C. 20003

TEL: (202) 454-5182

CEL: (202) 905-7413

FAX: (202) 547-7392

Holman at aol.com

<- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ->

To ensure compliance with requirements imposed by the IRS, 

we inform you that, unless specifically indicated otherwise, 

any tax advice contained in this communication (including any 

attachments) was not intended or written to be used, and 

cannot be used, for the purpose of (i) avoiding tax-related 

penalties under the Internal Revenue Code, or (ii)  promoting, 

marketing, or recommending to another party any tax-related 

matter addressed herein. 

This message is for the use of the intended recipient only.  It is

from a law firm and may contain information that is privileged and

confidential.  If you are not the intended recipient any disclosure,

copying, future distribution, or use of this communication is

prohibited.  If you have received this communication in error, please

advise us by return e-mail, or if you have received this communication

by fax advise us by telephone and delete/destroy the document.

<- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ->

To ensure compliance with requirements imposed by the IRS, 

we inform you that, unless specifically indicated otherwise, 

any tax advice contained in this communication (including any 

attachments) was not intended or written to be used, and 

cannot be used, for the purpose of (i) avoiding tax-related 

penalties under the Internal Revenue Code, or (ii)  promoting, 

marketing, or recommending to another party any tax-related 

matter addressed herein. 

This message is for the use of the intended recipient only.  It is

from a law firm and may contain information that is privileged and

confidential.  If you are not the intended recipient any disclosure,

copying, future distribution, or use of this communication is

prohibited.  If you have received this communication in error, please

advise us by return e-mail, or if you have received this communication

by fax advise us by telephone and delete/destroy the document.

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://webshare.law.ucla.edu/Listservs/law-election/attachments/20110922/d95bb387/attachment.html>