Source:
USA TodayWASHINGTON — Democrat Barack Obama's campaign on Wednesday demanded an accounting of work done by a lobbying firm founded by Republican John McCain's campaign manager for Freddie Mac, the mortgage giant recently bailed out by the federal government.
The New York Times reported that lobbying firm Davis Manafort received $15,000 a month from Freddie Mac, a central player in the crisis affecting Wall Street, from the end of 2005 through last month. The company was founded by Rick Davis, who left the firm in late 2006 to run McCain's campaign.
Stefanie Mullin, a spokeswoman for the Federal Housing Finance Agency, told Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call that all lobbying by Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, another troubled mortgage giant, had stopped and their political consulting contracts were being terminated.
The federal agency took over the mortgage firms last month.
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"The question that now needs to be answered is this: Did Freddie Mac or any other special interests buy access to John McCain by compensating top officials, including Rick Davis?" said Obama communications director Dan Pfeiffer.
Read more:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/election2008/2008-09-24-mccain-aide_N.htm?csp=34
Unsevered Ties?
Regulatory filings indicate that McCain campaign chief Rick Davis remains an officer with his lobbying firm.By Michael Isikoff | Newsweek Web Exclusive
Sep 24, 2008 | Updated: 7:18 p.m. ET Sep 24, 2008
Rick Davis, John McCain's campaign manager, has remained the treasurer and a corporate director of his lobbying firm this year, despite repeated statements by campaign officials that he had ended his relationship with the firm in 2006, according to corporate records.
The McCain campaign this week criticized news stories disclosing that, since 2006, Davis's firm has been paid a $15,000-a-month consulting fee from Freddie Mac, the troubled mortgage giant recently put under federal conservatorship. The stories, published Tuesday by NEWSWEEK, The New York Times and Roll Call, reported that the consulting fees continued until last month even though, according to two sources familiar with the arrangement, neither Davis nor anybody else at his firm did any substantial work for the payments.
Stefanie Mullin, a spokesperson for the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which has taken over Freddie Mac and its sister entity Fannie Mae, confirmed Wednesday that the Davis Manafort contract is being terminated. "All lobbying activity has stopped and political consulting contracts at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are in the process of being terminated," said Mullin. (Democratic strategist Paul Begala also was on the Freddie Mac payroll, according to sources familiar with the arrangement.)
In its initial statements to reporters this week, the McCain campaign said that the disclosure of the payments from Freddie Mac was irrelevant because Davis, who was never a registered lobbyist for the troubled housing corporation, had severed his relationship with Davis Manafort in 2006, and was no longer drawing any income from it. Jill Hazelbaker, the campaign's communications director, said in an e-mail Tuesday that Davis "left" Davis Manafort in 2006. In a statement attacking The New York Times, posted on the campaign's Web site on Wednesday, campaign spokesman Michael Goldfarb said that Davis "separated from his consulting firm, Davis Manafort, in 2006." (A senior campaign official, in an e-mail statement to NEWSWEEK that was not for attribution on Tuesday night, said "Rick is no longer affiliated with the firm.")
But those statements appear to have overstated the extent to which Davis had severed his relationship with his lobbying firm. Filings made by "Davis Manafort Partners" with the Virginia Corporation Commission as recently as April 1, 2008, show that Davis was still listed as one of only two corporate officers and directors of the firm, according to records on the commission’s Web site reviewed by NEWSWEEK. That filing records Davis as the "treas/clerk" of the firm; his business partner, Paul Manafort is listed as the president and chief executive officer.
Another filing by “Davis Manafort, Inc.” (with the same Alexandria, Va. address, and recorded on Oct. 17, 2007) also lists Davis as an officer and director of the firm, reporting his position as "T/Clerk," a reference to his formal title as corporate treasurer and clerk.
more:
http://www.newsweek.com/id/160713?from=rss
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