Texas' Washington lobby firm held DeLay fundraiser - BUSTED

[sonias]

http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/local/01/27lobby.html
Texas' Washington lobby firm held DeLay fundraiser
Money given to PAC on same day contract with state signed.

The day the new paperwork was signed, Cassidy & Associates senior Vice President Todd Boulanger and Vice President Ali Amirhooshmand each contributed $1,000 in in-kind services to DeLay's Americans for a Republican Majority PAC (ARMPAC). Boulanger is the firm's lead lobbyist for Texas.

Cassidy & Associates' political action committee, Cassidy Companies Inc., contributed $4,306 that same day; all three donations were to help cover expenses for a March 2 fundraiser for DeLay that Cassidy & Associates Chairman Gregg Hartley was hosting.

Two weeks later, Hartley donated another $5,000 to DeLay's PAC.

Cassidy spokeswoman Aimee Steel said the timing "was purely coincidental," and that Hartley, a longtime associate of DeLay, had been involved in the planning of the fundraiser for several months.

MelissaG posted the first link to this story on the 20th. Jim Dunham and Texas State Democratic party called on Perry to cancel the contract and stop wasting tax dollars rewarding partisan lobbyists. Melissa's thread located here:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=180x25326

"Purely coincidental" how many times to they expect do get away with that lie? Perry should tank even further for this one.

Sonia

edited to add link

[MagickMuffin]

1. Great Find Sonia

Pass the :popcorn: Please

Here's some other info on Todd. He use to be a pro Skateboarder... This article was from March '05.

His credentials are solid. He worked for several years for ex-Sen. Bob Smith (R-N.H.) and is close to earning a master’s degree in economics from Johns Hopkins.

And he’s well-connected. Tony Rudy, a former aide to Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas), introduced Boulanger to his future wife, Jessica Incitto, a former Syracuse cheerleader who has worked for DeLay and GOP Conference Chairwoman Deborah Pryce (Ohio). The two met in Broward County, Fla., during the 2000 presidential election recount.

She is now Majority Whip Roy Blunt’s (R-Mo.) press secretary, and the couple live in a basement apartment with a bamboo plant.

http://www.hillnews.com/thehill/export/TheHill/Business/031505_lobbyist.html

Todd Boulanger for instance. You may remember Boulanger as the "Team Abramoff" lobbyist who drafted an unprecedented letter to Interior Secretary Gale Norton on behalf of the client Louisiana Coushatta tribe --a letter ultimately signed by Speaker Hastert, Republican Leader Tom Delay, and Republican Whip Roy Blunt. Abramoff, with Boulanger's help, took the Coushattas for about $32 million.

http://www.firedupmissouri.com/club_abramoff

Even with the news coverage and questions about Abramoff's business dealings, Greenberg gave its new lobbyist little in the way of supervision, two former firm employees say. In one February 2003 e-mail exchange released by the Senate, then-Greenberg lobbyist Todd Boulanger provided a glimpse of the independence Abramoff had developed within the firm.

"Haahahhhaah. I love how we all act: You team ... and the rest of greenberg . It's gotta piss them off," Boulanger wrote to Abramoff on Feb. 18, 2003. Boulanger, who is now with Cassidy & Associates, declined comment, other than to say through a Cassidy spokeswoman, "Greenberg Traurig is a great firm. I enjoyed my three-plus years there very much and maintain many close relationships with its professionals throughout the firm."

http://www.judicialaccountability.org/articles/lawfirmfailedtosee.htm

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Todd_A._Boulanger