Fwd: [DemocraticResearch] Complaint says Ralph Reed violated lobbying rules

Complaint: Reed violated lobbying rules

Travis official to look at groups' claim about consultant hired to fight Texas
casinos

By Laylan Copelin
By Jim Galloway
COX NEWS SERVICE
http://www.statesman.com/hp/content/metro/stories/12/2reed.html

Friday, December 02, 2005

The Travis County attorney is reviewing a criminal complaint accusing the former
head of the Christian Coalition of failing to register as a lobbyist when he was
being paid millions to influence gambling issues in Texas on behalf of
Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

Three government watchdog groups filed the complaint Thursday against Ralph
Reed, who left
the Christian Coalition in 1997 to become a political consultant.
He is now a Republican candidate for lieutenant governor of Georgia.



"We will review the complaint to see if any action is necessary," County
Attorney David Escamilla said. He said he would make a decision whether to
initiate an investigation later this month.

Failing to register as a lobbyist is a Class A misdemeanor punishable by a
maximum fine of $4,000 and up to one year in jail. Under Texas law, a person
must register if paid to directly communicate with state officials, lawmakers or
staffers to influence legislation or encourage an administrative action by an
agency.

The complaint, filed by Common Cause Texas, Public Citizen and Texans for Public
Justice, claims that Abramoff and his lobbying partner, Michael Scanlon, hired
Reed in 2001 to lobby Texas officials to shut down the Tigua Indian tribe's
Speaking Rock Casino near El Paso and
to defeat legislation that would have kept
it open. The Louisiana Coushatta had hired the lobbyists to eliminate
competition from Texas casinos.

Reed declined to personally respond to the charges.

But in a written statement, Reed's campaign manager, Jared Thomas, called it a
"specious complaint that has more to do with politics than the facts."

The complaint represents the ripple effect of federal investigations into
whether Abramoff and Scanlon, who were paid $80 million by six tribes with
casinos from 2001 to 2004, conspired to bribe public officials. Scanlon pleaded
guilty last week to the charge, and the investigation of Abramoff continues.

The Texas complaint cites e-mails among Reed, Abramoff and Scanlon that surfaced
during hearings by the U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs.

"Mr. Reed's own correspondence appears to indict him," said Suzy Woodford,
director of Common Cause Texas.

State
law requires lobbyists to disclose their clients, the issues they are
working on and fees they are being paid.

Thomas, the campaign manager, said in a written statement that Reed was hired
"to contact grass-roots citizens in Texas and encourage them" to oppose gambling
in the state.

"We were not retained to lobby Texas public officials," Thomas said.

Crucial to the complaint is whether Reed directly communicated with state
officials or limited his activities to organizing social conservatives to lobby
against gambling.

The statement from Reed's campaign did not address several instances in which
Reed, in e-mails to Abramoff, mentioned contacts with the office of
then-Attorney General John Cornyn.

In one e-mail, Reed asked Abramoff, "Get me details so i can alert cornyn and
let him know what we are doing to help him."

In another, Reed warned Abramoff that the Tigua Indians were making big

donations to candidates: "Tiguas gave candidates more than $500,000 we're
getting this in the water with the right people."

When pressed about Reed's e-mails that referred to contacts with Texas
officials, Thomas declined to comment.

Cornyn, now a U.S. senator, has said he never met Abramoff and can't remember
talking to Reed. He said Reed was taking credit for the attorney general's
effort to close the Indian casino.

As Cornyn pressed his case in court for closing the casino, Abramoff suggested
in an e-mail to Reed in 2002 that legislation be filed in Texas and Alabama to
deny state contracts to any vendor providing goods or services to a casino: "Let
one of our tigers go get em."

Reed wrote back: "Easy to get our tigers to introduce that in both places."

In a March 27, 2001, memorandum, Reed laid out a strategy for defeating Texas
legislation that would keep the Tiguas in the casino business. He
stressed
targeting members of the Texas House Calendars Committee, who schedule bills for
floor votes



--
          Regards, TOM BLACKWELL, PO Box 25403, Dallas, Texas 75225
                   http://pages.sbcglobal.net/tom.blackwell/

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