Will Greg Shaw's Campaign Come Clean?
October 31st, 2008Washington Money Spent on Shaw Outpaces His Own Campaign
A shadowy group just outside of Washington, D.C., that goes by the misleading name of “The Center for Individual Freedom” has now pumped a total of $1,274,815 into the Alabama Supreme Court race on behalf of Republican Greg Shaw, outspending even the candidate’s own campaign, according to the campaign of Judge Deborah Bell Paseur, his Democratic opponent in the election coming up Tuesday, Nov. 4.
More than $250,000 was added just this week. Though the Shaw campaign started five weeks earlier, CFIF has spent almost two hundred thousand dollars more than Shaw.
The campaign of Paseur renewed its call on Judge Greg Shaw to keep his campaign’s commitment to transparency in funding, as a new link between the Shaw campaign and CFIF became clear. Terry Benham, a Shaw consultant and oil and gas lobbyist, worked along with CFIF on a campaign to promote the appointment of certain federal judges.
On Tuesday, FactCheck.org, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization whose mission “aims to reduce the level of deception and confusion in U.S. politics,” added the following to its Website:
“It’s also the case that a top consultant to Shaw, to whose firm he has paid more than $300,000 in this campaign, is Terry Benham. Since August, 2006, Benham has been affiliated with federal lobbying reports. It’s not clear how much the oil and gas interests might have paid additionally for state and local lobbying, which is Benham’s specialty. And Benham’s biography on the LinkedIn professional networking Web site says that he “has interests…in oil and gas exploration.”
“CFIF has not yet filed as a PAC with the Alabama Secretary of State’s office, a clear indication that they do not intend to disclose their finances by Thursday’s campaign deadline,” said Marion Steinfels, Paseur Campaign Manager. “We are simply asking the Shaw Campaign to keep their commitment to make public the names of those funding their campaign. The people of Alabama have a right to know why this out-of-state group has pumped over a million dollars into Judge Shaw’s campaign.”
The officers and former officers of CFIF have lobbied Congress on behalf of oil and tobacco interests. CFIF has routinely refused to reveal its funding sources, running afoul of election laws while attempting to affect the outcome of judicial races in other states. Earlier this month, a federal judge ruled against them, keeping their television advertisements off the air in West Virginia.
Greg Shaw claims his hands are clean of Big Oil money and influence — so why has he paid more than $1 million to a Washington DC oil lobbyist to run his campaign?
Campaign finance reports filed Thursday show Greg Shaw has paid another $955,000 over the last month to a company run by oil lobbyist Terry Benham. Total payments to Benham have now topped $1.2 million.
Even more, the Annenberg Public Policy Center’s Factcheck.org this week disclosed that Benham’s Washington, D.C., company pocketed $820,000 in payments from the U.S. Oil and Gas Association, ChevronTexaco, Shell Exploration, and other Big Oil interests over the last two years alone. The non-partisan group also reported that Benham discloses on a Website that he holds business interests in “oil and gas exploration…”
Alabamians know Shaw’s dishonest campaign is being paid for by oil interests. But the latest public disclosure proves that from Day One, Big Oil runs his campaign, too.
“Why is Greg Shaw paying an oil lobbyist to run his campaign,” said Marion Steinfels, Paseur’s Campaign Manager. “It’s time for Shaw to come clean and tell Alabama voters why he hired a political shill for Big Oil to run his campaign for the Alabama Supreme Court.”
This week radio stations across the state refused to continue airing false ads paid for by secret donors to Shaw’s dishonest campaign for Alabama’s highest court. They’ve spent millions attacking Judge Deborah Bell Paseur, but Shaw’s secret donors refuse to tell voters who is paying for their vicious lies and attacks.
It’s time for Greg Shaw to come out of the gutter, and tell Alabama voters why he hired an oil company lobbyist to run his campaign for the Alabama Supreme Court.
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November 6th, 2008 at 5:55 pm
[...] race has been who takes more money from oil special interests, which was briefly outlined in the only blog post we’ve done in this [...]