We know that Tom Davis and his lovely wife have been a bit, er, ethically challenged in the past. See here, for instance ("Wife, Friend Tie Congressman to Consulting Firm"). Now comes this (bolding added for emphasis):
...Jeannemarie and her campaign manager/husband are using the Central Contractor Registration database, or CCR, to hit up Federal Government contracting executives for donations (treating the "CCR" as a Central Contributor Repository, instead).It is inappropriate for the Ranking Member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee - which has jurisdiction over investigations into Federal contractors' activities - to lend his name and cache to fundraising activities that target those contractors, especially when the candidate in question is his wife. This creates the perception that donating to her campaign curries favor with him.
I say this as an independent-minded, staunchly moderate registered Republican who voted Webb, will vote Mark Warner, and would vote for you (if I lived in your district instead of adjacent to it). Tom Davis is the Tom Delay of Virginia, and his wife's campaign crossed the line into Abramoff territory with this series of campaign e-mails, in my opinion.
I have never before received a campaign e-mail at that e-mail address, but I frankly wasn't surprised when I saw Tom Davis' name in the text.
I am weighing whether or not to write jointly to Chairman Waxman (Chair of the House Oversight Committee) and to Chairwoman Jones (Chair of the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct) to complain about how Congressman Davis and his wife have abused the data in the CCR. Given her consulting firm's previous ethics problems, I would have thought she would have learned her lesson by now.
I can only imagine the outcry if Senator Clinton had done this, can't you?
The question is not whether there's an APPEARANCE of impropriety here. That's certain. The question is whether Tom Davis and his wife (who shall not be named) have broken the law. I mean, it can't possibly be legal to do what they're doing here, can it?!? Any lawyers in the house?
What Committee did TD Chair? House Committee on Government Reform.
Who did they oversee? Contractors
Who was his Chief Investigative Counsel? Jennifer Safavian
http://en.wikipedia....
Who was she married to? The first person convicted in the Abramoff scandal - David Safavian
http://en.wikipedia....
What was he in charge of? He was the Federal Government's Chief Procurement Officer.
http://www.whitehous...
Where would JMDD be able to get a list like that? Gee I dunno.....
Note that the invitation mentions that she's the Husband of U.S. Congressman Tom Davis:
After questions from The Post, Davis requested an opinion from the House ethics committee on whether Devolites Davis's work for ICG violates House rules."Generally the answer is 'no,' " the committee members said in their response Wednesday. But they told Davis that the rules could be violated if his wife invoked his name or position when "soliciting clients or conducting other activities on behalf of the firm, whether or not the client was previously known to you or your wife."
The committee told Davis that compensation to his wife could be considered indirect compensation to him and that he needs "to bear in mind" that issue when he considers any efforts "that may benefit your wife's business interests." Davis should contact the ethics committee for "particular guidance" about requests to appear at conferences sponsored by ICG that might benefit his wife, the letter said.
Does this ethics opinion apply to campaign donations requested from contractors?
If someone gave her a list, it's an in-kind contribution that should be reported somewhere, right?
I guess "appearance" depends upon who is doing the looking.
Of note is this excerpt from the bottom of the first page of the privacy statement:
"Private information is restricted to authorized government officials. Registrant provided contact information, including e-mail addresses and company address information, may be used to forward items of interest."
I refuse to believe that the Executive Branch officials who run the site could ever justify sharing the e-mail addresses of registrants with either a Member of Congress or a candidate for state office for the purpose of sending campaign-related information to the registrant.
I note that Joe Abbey, Chap's campaign manager, asked the person who submitted that comment to Chap's Ox Road South blog to contact Joe. Whether the commenter does contact Joe or not, I hope Chap's campaign objects loudly, asks Tom and Jeannemarie to explain, and insists on an investigation.
It should be in a small paragraph in the Virginia quickie update..........
Chap Petersen is an honest, decent man. Jeannemarie is anything but Honest and Decent. I'll be so glad to see her jobless come January.
In a letter sent out Tuesday by Roy Baldwin, Petersen's lawyer, the Democrat's campaign charged that Rep. Davis' re-election campaign, Tom Davis for Congress, actually paid for the anti-Petersen ads his wife is currently running. Baldwin suggested this was a violation of federal campaign law, and he asked the stations to pull the ads unless Tom Davis, not Devolites Davis, appears in a required disclaimer at the end of the commercial stating as much.
Maybe, maybe, someone in the MSM will pay attention to the contractors' issue too, which on its face seems aromatic, in the Denmark sense.