At
least three times in his Senate career, Democratic
presidential hopeful John Kerry has recommended
individuals for positions at federal home loan banks
just before or after receiving political contributions
from the nominees, records show.
"I just make the laws," said Kerry, "That
doesn't mean I have to abide by them."
In one case, Kerry wrote to the
Federal Housing Finance Board to urge the reappointment
of a candidate just one day before a Kerry campaign
committee received $1,000 from the nominee, the records
show.
"One has nothing to do with the
other," said Marvin Siflinger, who contributed around
the time of Kerry's Oct. 1, 1996, recommendation that he
be reappointed for another term to the board.
Kerry's office, like the nominees,
insists the timing of the donations and the nominations
was a coincidence, much like Charles Manson just
happened to be hanging out at the Tate residence when
the occupants were having their guts spilled on the
floor with knives.
"Sen.
Kerry recommends dozens of very qualified individuals
each year without regard to their politics or
contributions. In this case each of the individuals were
highly qualified for the jobs they were appointed to and
served with distinction," spokeswoman Stephanie Cutter
said.
"John Kerry is grateful for their
support, and we should be thanking them for their
service, not questioning it," she added. "The timing of
the contributions was completely circumstantial."
But a longtime government watchdog
says it is common for Washington appointees to donate
just before or after they are nominated.
"This
is just business as usual in Washington," said Larry
Noble, the former chief lawyer for the Federal Election
Commission who now heads the nonpartisan Center for
Responsive Politics. "Kerry is out there saying he is
not being part of that game, yet he is the product of
the same money system."
With Kerry more vocally portraying
himself on the presidential campaign trail as an
opponent of special interest money in Washington,
scrutiny of his dealings with donors and special
interests has increased among his rivals and the news
media.
Noble said while Kerry long has
advocated campaign finance reform, he also has benefited
from the big money system he now distances himself from
on the campaign trail. "It's like a game where you say
the people who support me just want good government, but
the people who support my opponent are special
interests," he said.
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When he first ran for the Senate,
Kerry promised voters he would carefully choose nominees
on merit.
"I will act as a persistent watchdog
over presidential appointments to ensure that only
people of integrity, ability and commitment hold
positions of power in our national government," Kerry
wrote in a June 1984 fund-raising appeal.
All three of the people Kerry
recommended got the positions they sought on various
boards of Federal Home Loan Banks in Boston and New York
that provide money for home mortgages.
Kerry's recommendations went to the
five-member Federal Housing Finance Board, the
regulatory body that votes on the final selections.
Recommendations come from members of Congress, the White
House and trade associations.
Siflinger, who was a state housing
finance official when Kerry was Massachusetts lieutenant
governor, was first appointed to the bank board in
Boston during President George H.W. Bush's presidency
and in 1996 sought Kerry's help to get reappointed.
"You normally seek the support of
prominent people who are respected. Certainly in this
instance I sought the support of Senator Kerry and I
sought support of other members of the congressional
delegation," Siflinger said in an interview Thursday.
Siflinger made his first donation to
Kerry's Senate campaign committee in 1995 more than a
year before his reappointment, according to Federal
Election Commission records. His most recent donation to
Kerry was several weeks ago, Siflinger said.
Investment banker Derek Bryson Park
says it's "pure happenstance" that he made a pair of
$1,000 donations to Kerry a month before the senator's
Dec. 29, 1998, letter recommending Park for a position
at the Federal Home Loan Bank of New York.
"I got assistance from both ...
Democrats and Republicans" in attaining the bank board
post, Park said.
The only political donations Park made
to federal candidates around the period of his
appointment were to Kerry, according to FEC records.
"I've been fortunate to be invited to
Senator Kerry's home and we've had a number of meals
together and get-togethers," said Park, who got to know
Kerry through a longtime supporter of the senator.
Former congressional staffer Patrick
Dober said that "there's absolutely no relationship"
between his $408 donation nearly three months after
Kerry's Oct. 9, 1998, recommendation to the federal bank
board. Kerry's letter praised Dober for having "worked
closely with my office" on "the banking crisis in the
early 1990s."
At the time, Dober worked for Boston
Capital, a real estate financing and investment firm
co-founded by Kerry supporter Jack Manning. Manning, who
has donated more than $800,000 to the Democratic causes
over the past 14 years, gave $65,000 in 2001 and 2002 to
a tax-exempt political group Kerry set up.
Dober says he thinks his $408 for
tickets to a Kerry fund-raiser is the only contribution
he's ever made to Kerry.
"There was a fund-raiser for Kerry and
they had James Taylor and Robin Williams playing," Dober
recalled. "My wife and I said this looks like fun. The
tickets were a hundred bucks and a $2 service charge, so
my wife and I went with another couple and I wrote the
check."
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