Mary Landrieu News

Corruption Alive And Well In Landrieu

Landrieu earned her position of prominence when she accepted what CREW called a bribe from the D.C. lobbying firm O'Connor & Hannon, which Voyager Learning Company cofounder and CEO Randy Best hired to push through a $2 million earmark.

Once the proposed expenditure was passed in the Senate, Best and his colleagues threw a fundraiser for Landrieu at his Dallas mansion.

While Landrieu claims the allegations are "wholly without merit," neither Best nor his colleagues ever donated to Landrieu until she agreed to the earmark.

Although this level of corruption is appalling, it's hardly something new to residents of Louisiana.

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Corrupt Liberal

Mary Landrieu's ethical issues -- as detailed by third parties

WASHINGTON, DC -- Democrat Senate candidate Mary Landrieu was named to Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington's 20 most corrupt members of Congress list. Unfortunately for Landrieu, they aren't the only ones commenting on Mary's ethics or lack thereof.

Others have been beating the drum -- others like The Times-Picayune, The Washington Times, The Advocate, and Gannett News Service.

A sampling of what they're saying?

The Advocate: "The Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington released its annual report last week of who they consider the most corrupt members of Congress -- and included Landrieu." (Gerard Shields, "Landrieu Listed In Report," The Advocate, 9/15/08)

The Advocate: "The liberal government watchdog group has filed a Senate Ethics Committee complaint against Landrieu for her backing of a $2 million District of Columbia reading program in 2001 that was operated by one of her campaign contributors." (Gerard Shields, "Landrieu Listed In Report," The Advocate, 9/15/08)

The Washington Times: "A Washington watchdog group yesterday accused Sen. Mary L. Landrieu of taking a bribe." (S.A. Miller, "Landrieu Accused Of Taking Bribe," The Washington Times, 1/9/08)

The Times-Picayune: "An ethics watchdog group Tuesday asked the Justice Department and Senate Ethics Committee to investigate whether Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., violated federal bribery laws in getting a $2 million earmark for a reading program whose executives and lobbyists donated to her 2002 re-election campaign." (Bruce Alpert, "Ethics Group Targets Landrieu Earmark," The Times-Picayune, 1/9/08)

The Advocate: "The nonpartisan Citizens for Responsibility for Ethics in Washington... said in the complaint that the Louisiana Democrat should be investigated over whether she committed bribery by accepting campaign contributions from the contractor." (Gerard Shields, "Landrieu Subject Of Complaints," The Advocate, 1/9/08)

Gannett News Service: "A government watchdog group has asked the Justice Department and the Senate ethics committee to investigate whether Louisiana Sen. Mary Landrieu traded favors for campaign cash in securing $2 million for a program run by a campaign donor." (Ana Radelat, "Group Files Ethics Complaint Against Landrieu," Gannett News Service, 1/10/08)

"Mary Landrieu has done the impossible -- uniting watchdogs from all sides and news media from Louisiana to Washington behind a growing drumbeat," said NRSC spokeswoman Mary-Sarah Kinner said. "It's only a matter of time before the anti-corruption message that took Louisiana Democrats down in recent elections snags Mary."

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Favor For Salazar Comes Back To Burn Louisiana Senator

A Louisiana senator's favor for Sen. Ken Salazar is coming back to haunt her in her re-election bid, as a Republican challenger tries to gain traction by vilifying her Colorado "friend."

In May, Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., cast a committee vote against Colorado Sen. Wayne Allard's bill to remove restrictions on oil shale development. She did so, she said, at the request of Salazar, who calls for a more cautious approach to such development in the West.

Louisiana's economy relies on the energy industry. So, Landrieu's Republican opponent, state treasurer John Kennedy, has been pounding the incumbent, saying she should keep her home state's interests in mind, not just do favors for buddies like Salazar.

Landrieu, who campaigns as a "pro-energy production" advocate, said she was inclined to side with Allard because she also wants oil shale production to be expedited.

Still, "Sen. Salazar asked me to vote no. I did so at his request," Landrieu said at the time, vowing to push for a compromise that advances exploration.

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Landrieu Playing Defense On Energy

Republicans sense she is sensitive to being lumped together with her party, especially on energy, and are eager to point out her recent votes and her more liberal positions.

In July, Landrieu provided the decisive vote in the Appropriations Committee against a GOP amendment to lift a ban on mining and processing oil shale in the Western United States. Landrieu said she wanted to seek a compromise between Colorado's two senators ­— Democrat Ken Salazar, who opposes lifting the ban, and Wayne Allard (R), who authored the amendment.

Kennedy says that Landrieu is more willing to side with Salazar than voters suffering from high gas prices. Landrieu does not support lifting the ban on oil shale production until there are more commercially viable ways to extract the fuel.

The attacks intensified late last month when she voted with her party to limit amendments on a bill to crack down on oil speculators, who some experts blame for driving up gas prices. Even though no vote was scheduled on a drilling amendment and Landrieu supports repealing the offshore drilling ban, Kennedy is characterizing her procedural vote as a de facto vote against drilling since the GOP wanted to offer amendments boosting oil supplies.

Next month's consideration of a continuing resolution (CR), which would keep the government operating and maintain the congressional ban on offshore drilling, could put her in a jam.

Landrieu said she wasn't "even going to speculate on the CR right now because I think it's important for us to stay focused on this effort regarding energy," referring to a bill offered last week by five members from each party that would lift part of the offshore drilling ban.

Kennedy derided that bipartisan bill as "more talk, no action."

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Kennedy Attacks Landrieu On Shale Vote

Republican Senate candidate John Kennedy is trying to punch holes in Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu's image as a lawmaker willing to buck her party in support of increased oil production.

The Kennedy campaign is citing Landrieu's deciding committee vote in May against a Republican proposal to end a moratorium on oil shale production -- extracting oil from fine-grained sedimentary rock through heat or a chemical process.

"Sen. Landrieu is wrong on this issue," Kennedy said Thursday during an interview on WRNO-FM radio.

Landrieu said she voted against the proposal in committee at the request of Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo., whose state has the largest shale reserves, and that she had a good reason to do so. Salazar was a key Democratic supporter who helped pass 2006 legislation opening 8.3 million acres in the Gulf of Mexico to oil production that will mean billions of dollars in royalty revenue for Louisiana and other producing states, Landrieu said.

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Will Landrieu Flip-Flop On Oil Shale?

Has local pressure forced Landrieu to support oil shale production?

WASHINGTON, DC -- With gas prices at an all time high, Sen. Mary Landrieu, a supposed proponent of domestic oil production, cast the deciding vote in Committee in opposition to lifting the ban on oil shale exploration in the western United States.

After casting the defeating vote Landrieu offered the following defense, "Sen. [Ken] Salazar [D-CO] asked me to vote no. I did so at his request." (Rocky Mountain News, 5/15/08)

The same Sen. Ken Salazar who voted against shifting funds from the "bridge to nowhere" to help rebuild after Hurricane Katrina, who voted to block drilling in ANWR and who voted against repealing the death tax. (RCV #262, 10/20/05; RCV #364, 12/21/05; RCV #164, 6/8/06)

Salazar's leadership political action committee (PAC) has also donated $7,000 to Landrieu's re-election bid.

Shouldn't Landrieu defer to the requests of her constituents and Americans that expect Congress to act to lower gas prices?

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Taxing Mary

Does LA Senator care about your growing tax burden?

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- As Louisianans get ready to pay their federal taxes today, it's only appropriate to take a look at Mary Landrieu's record on taxes.

According to a study released last week, Mary Landrieu received a "D" grade from the National Taxpayers Union.

And in 2002, Mary Landrieu bragged about her record of cutting taxes in her campaign, and even proposed to cut them further.

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Getting Schooled On Earmarks

Of all the companies that claim to sell terrific products, of all the groups that claim to do good works, how do certain ones get access to members of Congress? How do they convince those members of Congress to give them special tax dollars in the form of "earmarks"? The answer often lies in lobbyists and political connections. And, as it turns out, the company or group seeking favor often ends up making campaign contributions to the members of Congress who "help" them by giving them your tax dollars.

Critics say it's nothing more than members of Congress using your tax dollars to attract and reward campaign donors. If a direct quid pro quo can be proven, it can be a violation of federal law. But often, that direct connection is difficult to make. It's just the circumstances that are so suggestive and can look so ... bad.

Some think that's the case with Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., and the founder of a company that sells a reading program called "Voyager," Randy Best. There are hundreds of reading programs out there, but Sen. Landrieu favored Best's program, giving it a $2 million earmark of tax dollars to put it in Washington, D.C. public schools (which had not asked for the program in its budget). Best had gotten access to Landrieu while lobbying for Voyager on Capitol Hill. Landrieu doesn't claim to have done any comparative research to see how Randy Best's product stood up against others. She simply said she met him, he impressed her and his program impressed her. She made sure they got the money.

Wouldn't many people or companies like the chance to present their idea one-on-one to a member of Congress, without having it measured against the competition, and walk away with millions of tax dollars just because they impressed that one member?

Back to the case of Landrieu and the Voyager earmark. As the earmark was working its way through the Congressional process, Randy Best arranged a lucrative fundraiser for Landrieu. And his employees, friends and family suddenly became new donors to the Landrieu re-election campaign. They quickly raised more than $30,000 for the Landrieu campaign chest. In the campaign world where individual donations are subject to federal limits, that's a huge chunk of change. And to many people, it looks like there was a deal: Landrieu gave Best the money he wanted, and he gave her lots of campaign donations in return. However, both Landrieu and Best strongly insist the earmark and campaign donations are not connected whatsoever.

That was in 2001. Landrieu and Best have continued their mutually beneficial relationship. And it's now hounding Landrieu on the campaign trail as she faces re-election this year. Sen. Landrieu wouldn't agree to an interview with the Washington Post's investigative reporter James Grimaldi when he delved into the story.

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Ethics Group Targets Landrieu Earmark

An ethics watchdog group Tuesday asked the Justice Department and Senate Ethics Committee to investigate whether Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., violated federal bribery laws in getting a $2 million earmark for a reading program whose executives and lobbyists donated to her 2002 re-election campaign.

The money was earmarked for a Washington, D.C., public schools reading program operated by Voyager Expanded Learning, a Dallas company then headed by Randy Best.

The request for investigations came from Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington via letters to the Senate Ethics Committee, the Department of Justice and the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Louisiana and the Northern District of Texas.

"Sen. Landrieu appears to have traded a $2 million earmark for $30,000 in campaign contributions," said Melanie Sloan, the group's executive director. "It was a win-win situation for Best and Sen. Landrieu, but a lose-lose for the taxpayers and D.C. schoolchildren."

Officials at the Justice Department and Senate Ethics Committee declined to comment. ...

'Pay to play' questions

Best said "there was not the slightest inappropriate behavior in Voyager's or my dealings with Mary Landrieu.

"She visited Dallas and studied the program independently and talked to districts that used Voyager before supporting it," Best said. "The request for congressional support was submitted many months before a fundraiser."

Shannan Overbeck, spokeswoman for the current owners of Voyager Expanded Learning, said the company has a 90 percent renewal rate for its reading programs and thinks it win contracts "solely because our products work."

But Rebecca Fisher, spokeswoman for the National Republican Senatorial Committee, said the 2001 earmark for Voyager raises questions about whether it represented a "pay to play scheme."

"The question has been out there long enough; Louisianians deserve an answer, and Mary Landrieu should be well aware this isn't the last time she'll hear about this," Fisher said. The Republican Senatorial Committee has targeted Landrieu's re-election race this fall as a potential GOP gain.

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Under Pressure

Landrieu's misleading response to third party complaint still doesn't answer the important questions

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The wagons are circling and Mary Landrieu is feeling the pressure. Yesterday, a third-party government watchdog organization filed a complaint with the Department of Justice, the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District for Louisiana and the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas calling for an investigation into the alleged bribery of Mary Landrieu. Last night, Landrieu's office attempted to respond, and ended up only exposing more questions.

Landrieu's office claims she was asked to sponsor a federally-funded earmark for a reading program on April 25, 2001 by the government of Washington, D.C.. But Landrieu's office doesn't attempt to explain why she waited to act until after she received $30,000 in campaign donations, so voters are left to ask more questions: (Mary Landrieu Press Release, 1/8/08)

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The Cost of Mary's Pay-To-Play

Third-party government watchdog group asks for investigation into alleged violation of federal bribery laws

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- It's only Tuesday, but it's already been a busy week for Democrat Mary Landrieu. Dodging questions about a political pay-to-play scheme will do that to you. Unfortunately for Landrieu, it's about to get a whole lot worse.

On Sunday, Landrieu dodged on-air questions from New Orleans's WWL-TV regarding her involvement in a potential pay-to-play scheme.

In late-December, The Washington Post broke the story questioning Landrieu's efforts in pushing a program as a federally-funded earmark after she received hefty campaign contributions from the company which had been exploring ways to secure the earmark. (The Washington Post, 12/20/07)

At the time, Landrieu refused to speak with the Post about the contributions she received and the earmark she pushed, a fact Post editors wrote about yesterday on their blog. (The Washington Post Investigations Blog, 1/7/08)

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Landrieu's Ethics Questioned Over 2001 Earmark For Texas Company

Louisiana Sen. Mary Landrieu is facing questions over a $2 million education earmark she authored in 2001 that benefited a Texas company shortly after she received $30,000 in campaign contributions from the company's executives and their relatives.

On Tuesday, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a watchdog group, asked the Department of Justice to investigate the relationship between Landrieu, D-La., and Voyager Expanded Learning, a company founded by Randy Best, a Dallas merchant banker and prodigious Republican donor.

The earmark was inserted by Landrieu in a $7.1 billion spending bill for the District of Columbia and provided $2 million for use of the Voyager reading program in kindergarten and first-grade classes in the D.C. school district.

In October 2001, Best held a fundraiser for Landrieu. On or about Nov. 2, Landrieu received $30,000 from Best, company employees and their relatives, according to Federal Election Commission records. Four days later, she inserted the earmark.

At the time, Landrieu was the ranking Democrat and chairwoman of an appropriations subcommittee for the District of Columbia.

Landrieu Assists Fundraiser

U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., steered $2 million in federal funding to a campaign contributor for a reading program in District of Columbia schools.

The Washington Post reported last week that in 2001, Landrieu directed the money for the Voyager Expanded Learning literacy program for kindergartners and first-graders. A former school official told the newspaper the district had picked a different reading curriculum.

Voyager's political action committee, executives, employees, their relatives and lobbyists have contributed $80,000 to Landrieu, according to campaign finance reports cited by the paper.

Landrieu, who sits on the Senate Appropriations Committee, served as the ranking Democrat on the District of Columbia subcommittee at the time. In a statement to the paper, Landrieu said the contributions and funding were unrelated.

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A Reading Program's Powerful Patron

When Congress decided to appropriate $2 million in fall 2001 to help D.C. kindergartners and first-graders learn to read, city school officials were told that the money could be spent only on the Voyager Expanded Learning literacy program, a new product with virtually no track record. They had just picked a different reading curriculum, and "we didn't want to be guinea pigs," recalled Mary Gill, then the system's chief academic officer.

School leaders did not know that the $2 million was an earmark that had been guided into law by Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) just after she had received more than $30,000 in campaign contributions at a fundraiser held by Voyager's founder and chairman.

Landrieu's earmark illustrates the unusual role that Congress has played in shaping the District's troubled school system. No other school budget is subject to approval by Capitol Hill. None is so susceptible to the whims and policy prescriptions of federal lawmakers. And the parents, teachers and administrators of D.C. schools are the only ones in the country who lack a voting representative in Congress.

The Voyager story also highlights the haphazard way that curricula end up in the District's classrooms. For many years, educators have said that the patchwork of instructional material is one reason the city's students hover near the bottom of rankings in national test scores.

Landrieu, as the ranking Democrat and chairwoman of the Senate's D.C. appropriations subcommittee until early this year, was a pivotal figure in school spending and policy issues. With the Voyager earmark, she intruded on a curriculum decision normally made by teachers, principals, administrators and educational advisers.

"It is unclear to me why Congress thinks they're qualified to do that," said Michael Casserly, executive director of the Council of the Great City Schools, a nonprofit group based in the District. He said he thought the earmark was "a bad idea" because it added to the "overall fractured nature of the system."

D.C. schools have long been subjected to experimental curricula, piling "one program on top of another for so many years that one cannot tell what the system is trying to do academically or why," said a report commissioned by Casserly's group four years ago.

Landrieu declined requests for an interview, but in a statement to The Washington Post this month, she said she has "long championed new approaches to improving children's education, leading the push for smarter public-private partnerships and for innovative programs like Voyager."

Landrieu has received about $80,000 from Voyager employees and lobbyists, Federal Election Commission records show. "It is not uncommon for Members of Congress to receive contributions from individuals who support their policy goals," she said in the statement to The Post, echoing a similar response she gave Education Week last year for a story on Voyager's political connections.

Voyager employed lobbyists and made political contacts to obtain at least 14 earmarks over five years, worth more than $8 million, according to a review of congressional records. Some went to other parts of the country, but most -- $5.23 million -- went to D.C. schools. ...

Earmarks for curricula are rare, said Keith Ashdown, who tracks such appropriations at the nonpartisan Taxpayers for Common Sense, a budget watchdog group. Federal law prohibits the Department of Education from dictating curricula, requiring such decisions to be made locally. No such law restricts Congress.

On Sept. 24, 2001, the House Appropriations Committee included $1 million for Voyager in the District's spending bill. A clause required the city to match it with another $1 million. But Livingston did not produce a similar earmark out of the Senate, Best said. So Voyager hired another lobbying firm, O'Connor & Hannon, which arranged a meeting for Best with Landrieu, the ranking Democrat on the D.C. appropriations subcommittee.

Landrieu was "supportive of the idea" of federally funded pilot programs for Voyager, Best said. "The data we had was persuasive."

The Fundraiser

Shortly after the meeting in Landrieu's office, Best said he was called by someone in her office to ask whether he would throw a campaign fundraiser. On Oct. 19, 2001, at Best's residence in the Claridge, a high-rise condominium complex overlooking the Dallas skyline, Landrieu gave a short talk on the importance of reading, Best said.

The campaign contributions from Voyager employees and their relatives were enough to put the company on Landrieu's all-time Top 20 list of donors for people affiliated with an organization or company, a review of federal election records showed. Voyager employees, families and political action committees have given more to Landrieu than companies such as BellSouth and Tenet Healthcare.

The donors included Randy Best and his wife, Nancy, in addition to least six other Voyager executives and Voyager's Senate lobbyist, Roy C. Coffee Jr., who said he remembered making a $500 donation but declined to discuss it. Most had never before given to a Democrat running for Congress.

Most of the donors declined to discuss the donations or the fundraiser. Jeri Nowakowski, the Voyager executive vice president for product development who led the team that developed the company's reading programs, and her husband donated $4,000. Nowakowski said Landrieu was one of the few Democrats to whom she had given campaign money because "I've just known that she has been a supporter of education."

Campaign finance records indicate that Landrieu received contributions of about $30,000 on or about Nov. 2. Four days later, she went to the Senate floor and offered an amendment to the House bill with the $1 million Voyager earmark. Landrieu jettisoned the matching money requirement and doubled the federal portion to $2 million.

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Landrieu's Pay-To-Play?

Democrat Senator pushes program after receiving hefty campaign contributions from businessman

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Democrat Senator Mary Landrieu is avoiding some uncomfortable questions today. Did Mary Landrieu push a reading program as a federally-funded earmark because she received campaign contributions from a company whose employees and their families rank among the "top 20 list of donors" to Landrieu?

Today's Washington Post reports that in 2001, Mary Landrieu received tens of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from the founder and chairman of Voyager -- an "expanded learning literacy program" and immediately thereafter procured a $2 million federal earmark for the Washington, D.C., school system to utilize the program. (Washington Post, 12/20/07)

According to the Post, Voyager's founder and chairman Randy Best had been looking for a way to get his program into the marketplace and eventually had a meeting at Landrieu's office. "Shortly after the meeting in Landrieu's office, Best said he was called by someone in her office to ask whether he would throw a campaign fundraiser." (Washington Post, 12/20/07)

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Landrieu Continues Breaking Campaign Promises

Democrat Senator claims to work across the aisle; raises nose at opportunity

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Democrat Senator Mary Landrieu is under pressure from every angle and is running scared. So instead of listening to her constituents, she's siding with her liberal Democrat Washington insider leadership. The most recent example -- Landrieu's vote against allowing Mississippi judge Leslie Southwick an opportunity for an up-or-down vote on the floor of the Senate.

During her campaign for Senate in 2002, Landrieu "said she would continue to cross party lines on issues that concern Louisiana." (The Daily Advertiser, 12/6/02)

Before Southwick's nomination came to the floor of the Senate, Landrieu had promised Republican Senator Trent Lott she'd vote in the affirmative for Southwick. But because Mary Landrieu has become so partisan and so liberal, she wouldn't even vote to allow an up-or-down vote on a federal circuit court judge -- breaking her promise to voters that she'd "cross party lines on issues that concern Louisiana." (The Daily Advertiser, 12/6/02)

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Mary Landrieu Votes Against Border Security

Democrat Senator Doesn't Believe Border Security Is Vital To Homeland Security

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Last night, Democrat Senator Mary Landrieu effectively told voters she doesn't think that our nation's border security is vital to our homeland security. Mary Landrieu voted to leave our borders unsecured by voting AGAINST an amendment that would have required the Department of Homeland Security to detain foreigners who overstay their visas, among other items.

The amendment, offered during debate on the Homeland Security Appropriations bill, would also have allowed state and local law enforcement officers to enforce immigration laws, a vital tool in the border security arsenal. (Roll Call Vote #277, HR 2638, 7/25/07)

"Instead of realizing that border security and homeland security are tied together to ensure the safety of our country, Mary Landrieu chose a dangerous position," NRSC Communications Director Rebecca Fisher said. "Louisiana voters should ask Mary Landrieu why she is taking an extreme position when it comes to the safety and security of our country."

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Landrieu Votes Against Tax Relief

Senator opposes vote to extend successful tax relief

"By choosing to vote against extending the successful tax relief, which has led to record revenues at the U.S. Treasury and benefited 1,363,000 Louisianans, Mary Landrieu has effectively told voters she doesn't believe they should keep more of their hard earned money," NRSC Communications Director Rebecca Fisher said. "Mary Landrieu can be sure she'll hear from her constituents again on this issue."

Mary Landrieu voted AGAINST a motion to instruct conferees to include tax relief extensions in next year's federal budget. (CQ Vote #161, 5/9/07)

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