Ky. lawmakers linked to lobbying firm under investigation

By Halimah Abdullah – habdullah@mcclatchydc.com

U.S. Rep. Ben Chandler, D-Versailles

WASHINGTON — Several Kentucky lawmakers, including Rep. Ben Chandler, D-Versailles, helped secure millions in earmarks for clients of PMA, a lobbying firm under federal investigation for contributing to the campaigns of Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., and other lawmakers.

According to data compiled by the watchdog group Taxpayers for Common Sense and analyzed by Congressional Quarterly, Chandler helped PMA clients net $2.4 million in defense earmarks. Rep. Geoff Davis, R-Hebron, helped the firm’s clients receive $6.8 million in earmarks.

The two lawmakers received a combined total of roughly $1,200 in campaign contributions from the firm, according to federal campaign finance records. Roughly a quarter of the House — some 100 members — helped the firm’s clients get earmarks, and since 2001, many of those same members received $1,815,138 total in total campaign contributions from PMA’s political action committee and employees of the firm, the report said.

Earlier this month, FBI agents raided the offices of PMA, which was created by former Murtha aide Paul Mag liochetti. As the company faced mounting scrutiny, it also shuttered its Virginia-based political action committee.

Chandler’s office said he backed a defense earmark last year to help destroy conventional weapons at the Blue Grass Army Depot in Madison County — a project Kentucky’s congressional delegation and many local and state lawmakers have pushed for decades.

“We are unaware of the precise nature of the Defense project to which CQ (Congressional Quarterly) refers. However, in 2008, Congress appropriated $2.4 million for the Blue Grass Army Depot to help destroy conventional weapons,” said Chandler spokeswoman Jennifer Krimm. “While Congressman Chandler’s campaign received a contribution of $250 from PMA in 2005, the request for this critical Blue Grass Army Depot project was funded in the 2008 budget.”

Chandler’s office records reflect no contact with PMA representatives on this or any other project, and the office is unaware of the nature of any relationship between PMA and the Blue Grass Army Depot, Krimm said.

Davis’s office said PMA has never lobbied the congressman.

“The funding referred to in today’s CQ article supported the upgrade of portable decontamination systems and was secured in the fiscal year 2008 Department of Defense appropriations bill,” said Davis’ spokeswoman Alexandra Haynes. “Our involvement was on behalf of DRS Technologies. Until today, we did not know that PMA worked with DRS Technologies. DRS has a facility in Florence, Ky., that manufactures equipment for the Department of Defense. We work with the local employees of DRS.”

Taxpayer watch groups have long criticized Murtha’s relationship with lobbyists and, in the wake of sweeping government transparency efforts and a 2007 push by Democrats for earmark reform, political experts say lawmakers might be forced to return campaign contributions or clarify earmarks.

The scope of the federal investigation into PMA remains unclear.

“It shows you how good they were,” Keith Ashdown, chief investigator at Taxpayers for Common Sense, told Congressional Quarterly. “The sheer coordination of that would take an army to finish.”