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Scandal? What Scandal?

Outer ripples of Abramoff corruption probe hit New York state, but cause little stir

 

Rick Marshall

Metroland Magazine 3/23/06

 

Capital Region residents might do well to pay more attention to the fiasco surrounding corrupt Washington, D.C., lobbyist Jack Abramoff, as the political fallout has begun hitting close to home in recent months.

 

Last week, local congressman Rep. John Sweeney (R-Clifton Park) was one of several members of Congress to have his financial records pulled by a U.S. Department of Justice investigator involved with the Abramoff scandal. At the same time, the investigator pulled the records of several other prominent lawmakers with public connections to the disgraced lobbyist, including Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Texas) and Sen. Conrad Burns (R-Mont.), as well as those of a handful of Democrats with no known connection to him.

 

Sweeney has claimed to have no personal connection to Abramoff. When the scandal broke, he donated to charity about $2,000 in campaign contributions he had accepted from one of the lobbyist’s clients. (Sen.  Hillary Clinton did the same.) However, Sweeney’s decision to attend a $2,000-per-person (the maximum limit for individual contributions) fund-raiser with pharmaceutical industry lobbyists at a Utah ski lodge a week after donating the money has caused editorial and letters-to-the-editor pages alike to question his sincerity when it comes to wanting to restore public faith in congressional lawmakers.

 

While the critical eye cast on Sweeney by the mainstream media in the wake of this news turned more sympathetic recently when the congressman spent several days in the hospital for blood-pressure-related problems, the extent of his connections with Abramoff is still uncertain—a fact that Sweeney’s rival, Democrat Kirsten Gillibrand, has repeatedly pointed out.

 

Meanwhile, the specter of the Abramoff scandal looms large over New York’s decision-making process regarding voting machines. According to the New York State Commission on Lobbying, Abramoff’s former lobbying firm, Greenberg Traurig Inc., spent more than $275,000 pushing for voting machine manufacturer Diebold to gain a foothold in the governor’s office, the New York State Board of Elections, the New York City Board of Elections and the Legislature.

 

Diebold’s former CEO, Walden O’Dell, who famously declared in 2003 that he was “committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president,” resigned last year amid reports that the company was being investigated for fraud and various other illegal activities. In addition to numerous reports regarding the ease with which Diebold machines’ vote tallies can be manipulated, more than 20 percent of the machines failed or otherwise incorrectly reported vote results last year in one of the largest tests conducted on the electronic machines.

 

Nevertheless, many of New York’s state and local lawmakers appear to be leaning toward using similar machines, rather than the more reliable optical-scan balloting machines—a situation that, according to many voters-rights groups, indicates the level of influence lobbyists like Abramoff’s firm have been able to buy in New York.

 

Now, as headlines regarding the Abramoff scandal fade from the front pages of mainstream newspapers and evening news programs, the calls for reform put out by Sweeney and other federal lawmakers have also faded away. Although a yet-to-be-introduced Senate bill would prevent lawmakers from accepting meals and gifts from registered lobbyists, the bill’s counterpart in the House—originally an expansive prohibition on gifts from lobbyists—has diminished to a simple requirement for more disclosure. With federal and state lobbying groups already saying they don’t expect these ramifications of the Abramoff scandal to affect the way the way they go about their days, Capital Region residents may not be too far off base in wondering how the scandal will affect the way they go about theirs.

 

Calls to Sweeney’s office were not returned.

 

Metroland

The Alternative Newsweekly of New York's Capital Region