Consider it a tale of two congressmen in the crosshairs.
One, Pennsylvania Democrat John P. Murtha, proudly embraces his ‘King of Earmarks’ nickname, and has requested dozens of new earmarks for 2010, including millions for former clients of the PMA Group, which shut its doors last month in the fallout over a federal probe into campaign finance irregularities. The lobby firm, which was founded by a former Murtha aide, had donated millions to Murtha’s campaigns.
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The other, Indiana Democrat Peter J. Visclosky, another longtime ally of the PMA Group, released his earmark list late last week without a single request for a former PMA client. Visclosky also announced that he is returning donations from the defunct lobby firm – although so far, he has given away $18,000, just a fraction of the $369,750 he collected from the firm and its clients in 2007 and 2008, according to the New York Times.
The names of both lawmakers have repeatedly come up since the FBI raided the PMA Group’s offices last November, apparently on suspicions that founder Paul Magliocchetti had funneled donations to lawmakers through straw donors to circumvent campaign finance laws. The Justice Department has declined comment on its investigation of the firm. which specialized in winning earmarks and government contracts for clients such as Boeing, Lockheed Martin and MTS Technologies.
Murtha, a 76-year-old former Marine, chairman of the House Appropriations Committee and PMA’s best-known ally, insists he is not a target and that he has not hired a lawyer.
“I don’t have a clue what it’s all about,” he told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette last month.
What Murtha says he does know is that without earmarks, “Johnstown [PA] would have been like Detroit is today. We would have been a ghost town.” At another point, he declared: “If I’m corrupt, it’s because I take care of my district.”
To that end, he has sought new earmarks for several companies once represented by PMA Group and which are located in his district, including Advanced Acoustic Concepts, Argon ST, MTS Technologies and Mobilvox.
“Every request is properly reviewed and vetted through a lengthy and thorough process,” he said in a note accompanying the entire earmark list.
Visclosky, 59, has taken the opposite tack, steering a wide berth around PMA Group clients, although in the past, he had also earmarked millions for them, and maintained a close bond with a former aide, Richard M. Kaelin, who became a PMA lobbyist. Visclosky is also a member of the Appropriations Committee.
After Murtha, Visclosky had been the No. 2 recipient of campaign contributions from the firm, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
Sources told the Times that Visclosky was taking steps to prepare for legal scrutiny, including retaining lawyers to review his compliance with campaign finance laws.
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