Priced at $5000 Despite $2100 Campaign Fundraising Limit!
Tom DeLay's #1 Friend in Congress Knows How to Offer Supporters Their Money's Worth!
By Brad Friedman on 4/5/2006, 7:14pm PT  

Posting this in full here because Roll Call is subscription only, and I had trouble reading the text due to a funky background at Sunlight Foundation where Paul Blumenthal ran this piece today.

In case you don't finish reading the whole thing, a plug is included right here for Clint Curtis who is running against Tom Feeney (R-FL) for his seat 24th District seat in the U.S. Congress. When you read the story, you'll see why it's important to help Clint Curtis raise money for his run! His website is www.ClintCurtis.com and donations can be made right here.

Feeney learned his lessons well from his #1 supporter (and vice versa) in the U.S. House, the disgraced and indicted Tom Delay.

Curtis is the software programmer who has alleged that Feeney asked him to create electronic vote-rigging software back in 2000. His extraordinary story, including details of the polygraph test that Curtis passed, and video-tape of his sworn testimony before members of Congress is summarized here.

And now, back to Feeney and the big bucks...

Tom Feeney Sells Access for an Entire Season:

Ever wanted to buy a season ticket pass to a sitting congressman. According to Roll Call, Rep. Tom Feeney is offering all-access for only five grand:

Last week, the campaign of Rep. Tom Feeney (R-Fla.) invited lobbyists to a Spring Break Bash at the American Legion Hall on Capitol Hill. The price of admission: $49 a person or $500 per political action committee. But for those wishing to dispense with all that messy check-writing for the entire year, how about buying a "season ticket pass" for a cool $5,000?

The invite says: "Get a Season Ticket Pass: $5,000 per calendar year gives you complimentary invitations to all Feeney for Congress events in that year."
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About that $5,000 for a "calendar year," though, keep in mind that individual contributors can give candidates only $2,100 per election for each two-year election cycle (that is, a total of $4,200 for the primary and general election). PACs are permitted to give a total of $10,000 per election cycle.

Individuals can give $5,000 a year to leadership PACs. Feeney has one called Federalist PAC, but the invitation specifically asks donors to write checks to "Feeney for Congress."

But Roe said the $5,000 refers to PACs. He added that the April 6 Spring Break Bash --- which will feature music from the band Blame It On Jane, whose lead singer is pharmaceutical lobbyist Jane Adams --- is a "laid-back" event the campaign does every year to highlight "the fact that Feeney has one of the nation's premiere spring break destinations in his district, Daytona Beach."

The article leaves it a bit unclear as to whether Feeney is violating campaign laws by instructing season ticket holders to make out $5,000 checks to his campaign committee rather than his PAC. It seems to me that this would be a violation. One thing that is clear: I would be happy to die and never have to hear a band fronted by a pharmaceutical industry lobbyist.

(Thanks to emailer Sharon A. for the heads up!)

For more info on The BRAD BLOG's continuing investigative series on
The Clint Curtis/Tom Feeney/Yang Enterprises Vote-Rigging Scandal series, please see:
- A Quick Summary of the story so far.
- An Index of all the Key Articles & Evidence in the series so far.
- Curtis is now running for U.S. Congress against Feeney.
To support or for more info, see: www.ClintCurtis.com
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Article Categories: Tom Feeney, Clint Curtis