A Small-Town Lobbyist and Her Big Connection (Curt Weldon-R-PA)

[realFedUp]

http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/la-na-weldon28jan28,1,4386588.story?ctrack=1&cset=true

January 28, 2006

THE NATION
A Small-Town Lobbyist and Her Big Connection
By Ken Silverstein, Times Staff Writer

WASHINGTON — The lobbying firm of Grimes and Young Inc. is not on K Street, famous address of some of the nation's most influential lobbyists. In fact, Grimes and Young is about a 2 1/2 -hour drive from the halls of Congress, in politically remote Media, Pa. (pop. 5,469).

The firm has no office. It has no website. It has only one lobbyist — Cecelia Grimes. And she's a real estate agent. Her resume shows no past experience working on Capitol Hill or for the federal government.

But Grimes and Young has emerged as a niche lobbying firm with access to one powerful member of Congress — Rep. Curt Weldon (R-Pa.), vice chairman of the House Armed Services Committee and the House Homeland Security Committee.

It is not clear how a small-town real estate agent moved from selling bungalows in suburban eastern Pennsylvania to trading access and influence in the nation's capital.

But with a scandal looming over Congress since lobbyist Jack Abramoff agreed to cooperate in a federal influence peddling probe, congressional ties to lobbyists are coming under renewed scrutiny.

continued.

[chat_noir]

1. clients - anything here?

DYNAMIC DEFENSE MATERIALS
LASERSENSE, INC
OTO MELARA NORTH AMERICA, INC
XENONICS, INC.

http://clerk.house.gov/pd/houseID.html?reg_id=37550


Xenonics Received Additional Purchase Orders Of $1,125,000 For U.S. Marines Non-Lethal Capability Program
CARLSBAD, CA, 19-Jan-2006

XENONICS HOLDINGS, INC. (AMEX:XNN) announced today that the U.S. Marines have ordered 391 NightHunter illumination systems through the non-lethal capability program. The latest purchase orders under this ongoing procurement program are valued at approximately $1,125,000. As of January 19, 2006, Xenonics has shipped $690,000 of this order to the U.S. Marines Corps and will ship $435,000 by mid-April, 2006.

http://www.xenonics.com/News.asp?CodeID=7338603463
http://www.xenonics.com/default.asp


Oto Melara keeps fighting for U.S. military market

Local production of a combat-ship weapon may help the firm win a deal. Or so it hopes.

By Harold Brubaker

Inquirer Staff Writer


Oto Melara S.p.A. began supplying guns for U.S. Navy frigates and Coast Guard cutters in the 1970s.

But in recent years, the Italian defense contractor, which had worked through a licensee in this country, has failed to win a role on two major U.S. shipbuilding programs.

Frustrated by these losses to a U.S.-based competitor - which happened to be its former partner - Oto Melara established its own U.S. operation last summer and named an American to run it.

http://72.14.203.104/search?q=cache:i_IhLisJhhgJ:www.philly.com/mld/philly/business/10067454.htm+OTO+MELARA+NORTH+AMERICA,+INC+&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=1

[Divernan]

2. Just read the whole article - Grimes/Weldon a corrupt duo.

The congressman's staff tells businessmen with the naivete to try to approach Weldon directly, that they need to hire Grimes! She gets $$$$, the businesses get huge contracts and then contribute generously to Weldon. And all the costs get folded into the contract amounts paid for by our tax dollars.

[chat_noir]

3. Advanced Ceramics Research Inc.

Anthony Mulligan, president of Advanced Ceramics Research Inc., a Tucson firm that retained Grimes, told The Times that she had done a great job lobbying the Arizona congressional delegation.


Advanced Ceramics Research Inc. is another defense contractor: unmanned vehicle systems

http://www.acrtucson.com/UAV/index.htm

[pk_du]

4. Looks like "Grimes" and "Young" go back to Galaxy Scientific

...as employess ( and Weldon contributors ) as well as apparently "moonlighting" as "Grimes and Young"....Hmmm...more to follow meethinks.

Cynthia Young Galaxy Scientific/executive $500 2004-09-10
Cecilia Grimes Galaxy Scientific/executive $500 2004-09-10


(from http://www.capweb.net/zip/19063 )

[saigon68]

5. Follow the Money Trail

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$44

[MidwestTransplant]

6. "Special" friends perhaps?

[realFedUp]

9. one would wonder....

He is married and has five kids. He's a member of the Select Committee on Homeland Security and founder of the Homeland Security Caucus. Congressman Weldon is a frequent keynote speaker at various defense and national security conferences across the country.

A senior member of the House Armed Services Committee , Weldon served six years as the Chairman of the Military Research and Development Subcommittee, overseeing the development and testing of key military systems, weapons programs, and technologies.

He's cozy with the defense lobbyists and businesses and having
them go through this friend of his is a cozy arrangement.

[PA Democrat]

7. Weldon has even more ethical problems. His daughter got a cushy lobbyist

job based upon daddy's position and his willingness to "do business" for her clients. Weldon is filthy dirty and I sincerely hope that some smart Dem runs against him as a reformer who will clean up the corruption in Congress.

Lucrative Deals for a Daughter of Politics
Karen Weldon, whose dad is a Pennsylvania congressman, is a lobbyist for three foreign clients who need his help, and get it.

By Ken Silverstein, Chuck Neubauer and Richard T. Cooper, Times Staff Writers


WASHINGTON — Karen Weldon, an inexperienced 29-year-old lobbyist from suburban Philadelphia, seemed an unlikely choice for clients seeking global public relations services.

Yet her tiny firm was selected last year for a plum $240,000 contract to promote the good works of a wealthy Serbian family that had been linked to accused war criminal Slobodan Milosevic.

Despite a lack of professional credentials, she had one notable asset — her father, U.S. Rep. Curt Weldon (R-Pa.), who is a leading voice in Washington on former Eastern Bloc affairs.

She got the contract after he championed the efforts of two family members, Dragomir and Bogoljub Karic, to win U.S. visas from the State Department, which so far has refused them entry.



http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/politics/la-na-weldon20feb20,1,3743912.story?coll=la-news-politics-national

[ShockediSay]

8. BAN LOBBYIST POLITICAL CONTRIBUTIONS

like Connecticut did after their Gov Rowland went to jail.

THIS, accomplished with considerable resistance, BY SUCCEEDING REPUBLICAN GOV RELL.