PolitickerCO uncritically published misleading interview comments from Schaffer, Wadhams

Summary: The political news website PolitickerCO published an interview with U.S. Senate candidate Bob Schaffer (R) in which it failed to challenge Schaffer's inaccurate claim that the campaign of U.S. Rep. Mark Udall (D), his opponent, "admitted receiving cash payments from Jack Abramoff." The donations to which Schaffer referred in fact reportedly came from the political action committees of two law firms for which the now-jailed Abramoff worked as a lobbyist at the time of the donations. PolitickerCo also uncritically reported a denial by Schaffer's campaign director that Abramoff's law firm arranged Schaffer's controversial 1999 trip to the Northern Mariana Islands.

In an April 28 article about an interview with Republican U.S. Senate candidate Bob Schaffer, the political news website PolitickerCO uncritically published Schaffer's claim that the campaign of his Democratic opponent, U.S. Rep. Mark Udall, "admitted receiving cash payments from Jack Abramoff." In fact, as Colorado Media Matters has noted, Udall's campaign reportedly received contributions from the political action committees of law firms that employed the lobbyist at the time of the donations, not from Abramoff.

The interview by Jeremy Pelzer also uncritically reported Schaffer campaign manager Dick Wadhams' denial that Abramoff's former law firm -- Preston Gates -- had organized a controversial 1999 "fact finding" trip to the Northern Mariana Islands during which Schaffer met with Abramoff's clients and after which Schaffer advocated for their interests. But PolitickerCO omitted that reporting by The Denver Post cited an archived memo from Schaffer's congressional papers noting that "Schaffer was told that travel arrangements to the Mariana Islands had been made by Preston-Gates."

As Colorado Media Matters has documented, controversy over Schaffer's 1999 trip to the Northern Mariana Islands as a U.S. congressman arose after an April 7 Post profile in which Schaffer "pointed" to the islands "as a successful model for a guest-worker program that could be adapted nationally." Follow-up Post articles on April 10, April 11, and April 13 raised questions about Schaffer's trip and its purported connections to Abramoff.

From the April 28 PolitickerCO article by Jeremy Pelzer, "Monday Morning Politicking with Bob Schaffer":

This week's Monday Morning Politicking is a wide-ranging, sometimes contentious, conversation with Schaffer. He discussed recent reports regarding his 1999 trip to the Northern Marianas Islands and offered a response to allegations he received thousands of dollars from groups and PACs "directed and influenced" by Jack Abramoff. He also suggested the as-yet-unexplored issue he feels will play a major role in the campaign.

PolitickerCO.com interviewed Schaffer in Westminster last Tuesday. Schaffer was accompanied by his campaign manager, Dick Wadhams, who jumped into the conversation at several points.

In response to a question from PolitickerCO referencing accusations reportedly leveled by the Udall campaign that Schaffer had "taken $33,000 from groups and PACs that were 'directed and influenced' by Jack Abramoff," Schaffer stated that "[t]he Udall campaign is the only campaign that's admitted receiving cash payments from Jack Abramoff":

PolitickerCO: And my last question is, I did want to get your take on this, there have been accusations that, up in the Udall campaign, that you have taken $33,000 from groups and PACs that were "directed and influenced" by Jack Abramoff. And I wanted to get your response to that.

Schaffer: Sure. The Udall campaign is the only campaign that's admitted receiving cash payments from Jack Abramoff.

PolitickerCO: And what about the accusation that they make?

Schaffer: Well, they put out a press release about their receipt of funds from Jack Abramoff for the Udall campaign. I think that's the only press release they've sent out.

PolitickerCO: There have been news articles in which the Udall campaign has made these accusations.

Schaffer: Well, they've only documented receipts that the Udall campaign has received from Abramoff, and I don't think that they've documented anything else on that matter.

PolitickerCO did not point out, as Colorado Media Matters has, that the campaign contributions that Schaffer said Udall received "from Jack Abramoff" in fact came from political action committees of two law firms that employed Abramoff as a lobbyist at the time of the respective donations. According to an April 16 article in the Rocky Mountain News, "Udall got $500 in 2000 from the Preston Gates firm, which employed Abramoff. Later, Abramoff worked for Greenberg Traurig LLP, which in 2002 gave $1,000 to Udall." Abramoff worked at Preston Gates from 1994 to 2000, while he worked at Greenberg Traurig from 2000 to 2004.

According to data from OpenSecrets.org, the website of the Center for Responsive Politics, the contribution from the Preston Gates political action committee was among the $133,303 the firm gave to U.S. House members overall during the 2000 election cycle. During that period Abramoff contributed $500 to the Preston Gates PAC. The $1,000 Udall's campaign received from Greenberg Traurig's PAC was among $116,247 the PAC donated to House members during the 2002 election cycle, during which Abramoff did not contribute to the firm's PAC.

PolitickerCO also asked Schaffer about the Post's reporting on other purported links between Schaffer and Abramoff:

PolitickerCO: The campaign's been fairly quiet about the whole Mariana Islands controversy since it came out in the Post about a week or so ago. What's your take on this whole controversy and how it's played out?

Schaffer: Why don't you describe the controversy?

PolitickerCO: Well, just that the Post put out a series of articles detailing how, one, you went to the Marianas Islands and it was funded by or organized by Preston Gates...

Schaffer: Really? Was it?

Wadhams: No.

(Editor's Note: Schaffer's trip, according to the Denver Post, was not paid for by Preston Gates, jailed lobbyist Jack Abramoff's former law firm. According to the Post, it was paid for by the California-based Traditional Values Coalition, which Schaffer described as a religious group "concerned with human rights." The Post also reported that "Later investigations have shown that in many instances, TVC -- which claims to represent 43,000 churches -- acted virtually as a political arm of Abramoff's lobbying operation.") [italics in original]

Although the PolitickerCO article's "Editor's Note" cited the Post's reporting that Schaffer's Mariana Islands trip was funded by the Abramoff-linked Traditional Values Coalition, it did not note that -- contrary to Wadhams' denial -- the Post also had referenced a 1999 document that purportedly showed "Schaffer was told that travel arrangements to the Mariana Islands had been made by Preston-Gates." According to the Post's April 10 article:

Just before boarding a plane to the Mariana Islands in 1999, then-Congressman Bob Schaffer announced he was embarking on a fact-finding mission to get to the bottom of repeated allegations of labor abuse in the American protectorate.

"I plan to walk right into those factories and living quarters to see for myself what conditions exist," Schaffer said in a news release in August of that year.

What he didn't say was that the trip was partly arranged by the firm of now-jailed lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who represented textile factory owners fighting congressional efforts to reform labor and immigration laws on the islands and who was being handsomely paid to keep the islands' cherished exemptions.

Schaffer and his wife stayed for free at a palm-studded beach resort and, besides factories, also toured historical sites and met with clients of Preston-Gates, Abramoff's firm, according to a copy of the trip's agenda archived in Schaffer's congressional papers.

[...]

Values Coalition paid for trip

Schaffer's $13,000 trip was paid for by the Orange County, Calif.-based Traditional Values Coalition, which Schaffer described as a religious group "concerned with human rights."

"Whatever involvement (Abramoff) had with Traditional Values Coalition wasn't known at the time," Wadhams said.

Later investigations have shown that in many instances, TVC -- which claims to represent 43,000 churches -- acted virtually as a political arm of Abramoff's lobbying operation.

In one 2000 case investigated by The Washington Post, TVC lobbied heavily against a bill restricting online gambling that would have hurt one of Abramoff's clients, eLottery Inc. In return, the report said, TVC received a check from the client for $25,000. Abramoff and TVC head Louis Sheldon had cooperated successfully so often that the now-jailed lobbyist began referring to him as "Lucky Louie," the newspaper reported. A TVC official didn't return a phone call requesting comment.

At the time, Schaffer's staff also flagged the role of Abramoff's firm in the Marianas trip. In an August 1999 memo, Schaffer was told that travel arrangements to the Mariana Islands had been made by Preston-Gates. Handwritten notes on the agenda point out that a lunch meeting was with several current or former clients of the firm, including the Saipan Garment Manufacturers Association and the Western Pacific Economic Council. [emphases added]

PolitickerCO also neglected to report the substance of the connections between Schaffer and Abramoff that the Post reported and that Colorado Media Matters pointed out. For instance, on April 13 the Post reported that "Schaffer was one of the key players" in a hearing of the House Resources Committee that "provides a key context for a trip to the islands that Schaffer had taken a month before, partly arranged by Abramoff's lobbying firm and now an issue in Schaffer's campaign for the U.S. Senate." The Post reported that in a "secret memo" to a "textile tycoon on the Northern Mariana Islands," Abramoff had "mapped out" a strategy for congressional oversight hearings on labor issues in the Northern Marianas.

PolitickerCO also did not address the Post's April 11 report that after the trip Schaffer was "among several Republican U.S. lawmakers who stepped in to lend their support" at key junctures to Benigno Fitial, "governor of the Northern Mariana Islands and a powerful former ally of now-jailed lobbyist Jack Abramoff." The newspaper further claimed that "Schaffer was part of a concerted and public campaign by Republicans on the House Committee on Natural Resources to boost Fitial's public career when he became key to extending a multimillion-dollar lobbying contract for Abramoff from the island's government."

Additionally, the Post reported on April 18 that, according to records compiled by the Udall campaign, Schaffer received "$9,000 in contributions ... from Mariana Islands residents, including $2,500 from an Abramoff client on the island, Jerry Tan." The Mariana Islands trip, valued at "nearly $13,000," the Post reported, was "paid for by the Traditional Values Coalition, which was linked to several Abramoff causes."

—E.B.