Party Launches Ads Against Tom Feeney on News Sites on Anniversary of FBI Investigation Revelations

Ad Buy Ups the Ante for Rep. #3 to Come Clean

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: April 23, 2008

TALLAHASSEE - Today is the first anniversary of the public relationship between the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the man it affectionately refers to as "Representative #3," aka Florida's most corrupt member of congress, Tom Feeney (R-24^th).

On April 23, 2007, news broke that the FBI was investigating Feeney for his connections to convicted super-lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

To commemorate the occasion, the Florida Democratic Party has made an online advertising buy on several news websites in the corrupt Congressman's district, Washington and Tallahassee.

"For a full year now, Tom Feeney has refused to come clean with Floridians about his unsavory relationship with a convicted felon, Jack Abramoff. The fact is that Feeney went on a lavish golfing trip to Europe paid for by this super-lobbyist instead of doing his job for the people of Florida," Florida Democratic Party spokesman Mark Bubriski said. "The odds that 2008 ends up being Tom Feeney's last year in Congress, whether because of electoral defeat or legal recourse, increase with every passing day."

Click here to download the ad graphic. Beginning today, the ad will appear in rotation for up to a week on the websites of Roll Call and Florida Today newspapers. It will also appear on the popular Tallahassee-based news aggregator FortReport.com and on BrevardCountyMoms.com, a news, entertainment and information site for Space Coast mothers.

The Party attempted to purchase space on the website for the Daytona Beach News-Journal, but attorneys for the paper rejected the ad without explanation, despite the indisputable fact that Tom Feeney is the most corrupt member of Congress from Florida. Feeney is the only Florida member to make the "Most Corrupt" list issued by the nonpartisan group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington three years in a row.

Feeney has yet to answer any of the Party's seven deadly questions. Instead, he has lashed out in attacks on Democrats. Mounting legal bills and a tough re-election bid are major distractions, fundraising reports show Democratic challenger Rep. Suzanne Kosmas crushed him for the second quarter in a row by more than $100,000. Even worse for Feeney: Kosmas pulled ahead in cash-on-hand by more than $30,000. And that's not the only heat Feeney is feeling.

The Orlando Sentinel criticized his recent use of taxpayer money on mailings and phone calls for his own political gain, another slap in the face of Feeney's constituents. The latest voter registration totals in Feeney's district suggest they might be taking notice.

From January 2006 to April 2008, Democratic rolls in Florida's 24^th Congressional District swelled by 11,435 voters - almost double the 5,873-voter growth for the GOP. Republicans have actually lost ground among active voters: Democrats have cut the Republican lead to only 27,417, compared with 32,655 in 2006. Independents also make up a large portion of the district. [Florida's Secretary of State, Division of Elections]

However, registration numbers don't tell the whole story. This year Democrat Tony Sasso of Cocoa Beach won a hotly contested special election in a previously Republican State House district that overlaps considerably with CD 24. Pundits and Republicans-alike maintained Sasso had little chance, but despite incredibly spending by Republicans, Sasso won the February election.

Recap: Seven Deadly Questions for "Representative #3"

#1: What Was the Real Cost of Your 2003 Abramoff Trip?

Feeney reported the cost of his 2003 private trip to Scotland with lobbyist Jack Abramoff at only $5,643 to the House ethics committee.

However, court documents showed that the expenses for the eight people on the trip exceeded $160,000. If that number were divided between the eight travelers, the cost would have amounted to at least $20,000 per person. ["Scotland trip for 8, including Feeney, cost $160,000", Orlando Sentinel, April 25, 2007]

After almost a year, Feeney has still not answered how he came up with the $5,643 figure he listed on his ethics disclosure forms. He has also not produced any receipts or documentation to show that his costs should be lower than other attendees of the trip.

#2: Why did you receive the same Abramoff email as a former aide who pleaded guilty to conspiracy?

An e-mail obtained by the St. Petersburg Times on April 25, 2007 showed that Abramoff's office sent specific instructions on how to report the trip expenses to a handful of people, including Feeney's congressional assistant.

The e-mail, written by Abramoff's assistant in September 2003, a month after the trip, was sent to Feeney's executive assistant Eliza Baker. Others on the e-mail list included Mark Zachares, a former House aide who pleaded guilty to conspiracy for his relationship with Abramoff.

According to court documents, Zachares said he knew the expense details for the Scotland trip were lies coordinated by Abramoff. (E-mail details false trip data , St. Petersburg Times, 4/26/07)

#3: How could you not wonder who was footing the bill for a "fact-finding trip" turned golf outing in Scotland?

In a 2005 Orlando Sentinel article, Feeney said he was misled about who paid for the Scotland visit. In January of 2007, he used stronger language and claimed he was "duped and lied to" about what he thought was a fact-finding trip with Abramoff, who has pleaded guilty to corruption charges. [Document: Scotland trip for 8, including Feeney cost $160,000, Orlando Sentinel, 4/26/07]

"Any assertion that this office knew Abramoff paid for the Scotland trip is a g--d----- lie," Feeney's former Chief of Staff Jason Roe wrote in an email of interest to the FBI. [FBI asks Tom Feeney about trip with Abramoff, St. Petersburg Times, 4/23/07]

But in truth, documents obtained by the Orlando Sentinel from the Senate Indian Affairs Committee show that Abramoff's personal charity, Capital Athletic Foundation, paid $150,226.32 for a "Scotland fundraiser" in 2003. [Feeney trip tied to Abramoff 'slush fund', Orlando Sentinel, 4/27/07]

The charity is in reality a slush fund created to pay for extravagant golf junkets to Scotland that Abramoff took with then-House Minority Whip Tom DeLay in 2000, then-Rep. Bob Ney in 2002, and Rep. Tom Feeney in 2003. Feeney and DeLay had a close relationship in Congress prior to the latter's fall from grace.

#4: What was your golf score when you played St. Andrews with Jack Abramoff... and did he let you win?

Many consider St. Andrews, Scotland the worldwide home of golf. Host to the Open Championship, the oldest of golf's four major championships, St. Andrews has a range of courses that cater to a range of neophytes and the world's greatest players.

Credit convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff for making sure his guests played at the very best. Feeney's sordid trip included rounds at the legendary Royal & Ancient Golf Club, a golf institution that celebrated its 250th anniversary in 2004.

#5: Did you take your clubs on the private jet?

A question that may seem out of touch to some - certainly Floridians held hostage by the Republican Recession - is critically serious to those elite jetsetters who toil with their long and short game.

Likewise, the answer to this question could shed more light on the believability of Feeney's excuses. Feeney has said that he was misled about who paid for the Scotland visit. But there's documented evidence that he was informed something shady was going on.

In January of last year, the Orlando Sentinel reported Feeney's claim that he was "'duped and lied to' about what he thought was a fact-finding trip with Abramoff." [Feeney trip tied to Abramoff 'slush fund,' Orlando Sentinel, 1/4/07]

Abramoff later pleaded guilty to corruption charges. Another member of the trip, former congressional staffer Mark Zachares, also pleaded guilty to conspiring to bribe public officials. Zachares' agreement details how he "lied on disclosure forms by saying the National Center for Public Policy Research sponsored the 'fact-finding' trip for $5,643." [Scotland trip for 8, including Feeney, cost $160,000, Orlando Sentinel, 4/26/07]

In reality, Zachares coordinated the trip's dishonest price tag with Abramoff so that the other members of the junket, including Feeney, would report it identically. An Abramoff slush fund paid for the trip, not the policy center.

Court documents also report the price of the trip exceeded $160,000. But Feeney's disclosure forms are consistent with the claim that got Zachares into trouble: $5,643 for a private jet excursion to golf in Scotland.

Simply, whether or not he took his personal golf equipment on the trip would help determine that Feeney knew full well that the illicit trip was nothing more than a lobbyist-paid vacation.

#6: Did Tyng-Lin Yang contribute to your legal defense fund so that he could get a NASA contract?

Facing mounting legal bills after his dalliance with convicted super-lobbyist Jack Abramoff, Tom Feeney created a legal defense fund in June 2007. Call the move a tip from disgraced former Republican majority leader Tom DeLay.

Feeney, who repeatedly attacks the integrity of anyone who questions his dealings with Abramoff, said he started his own fund to, in his words, "demonstrate conclusively that I always have acted with honesty and integrity." [Orlando Sentinel, 8/17/07]

Unexpected costs resulting in financial hardships can certainly turn the screws on anyone; just ask Floridians today who are feeling the brunt of the Republican recession and housing crisis. But the high-dollar amounts linked to Feeney's legal cover show just how desperate he is to keep the FBI off the trail.

Feeney has spent at least $61,509 from campaign accounts on legal bills since early 2005. He raised $33,500 for the legal defense fund in the first weeks after it opened in June 2007. [Florida Today, 6/26/07; Orlando Sentinel, 8/17/07].

One Feeney faithful is Tyng-Lin Yang, who gave $5,000 to the legal defense fund. Yang and his wife have donated more than $18,000 to Feeney's campaigns in the past seven years.

Feeney and Yang's relationship goes back a long way. Feeney once worked as a lobbyist for Yang Enterprises and was accused, while he served as Florida House speaker, of using his position to intervene in a contract dispute with the state.

Yang's business interests are ambitious; one company he owns hopes to win NASA operations contracts. Tom Feeney is currently the highest-ranking Republican on the House Science Committee's Space and Aeronautical Subcommittee.

#7: Why did you send a letter to the Department of Energy on behalf of an Abramoff client?

In 2003, Feeney was among a small group of lawmakers who signed his name to a letter to the Department of Energy. The St. Petersburg Times revealed that Feeney's letter opposing changes to a federal program was sent "the same week that Atofina Chemicals sent a similar letter to the department criticizing the proposed change in the federal Energy Star program." [St. Petersburg Times, 4/29/07]

Atofina Chemicals had retained Abramoff and his firm for $660,000 over two years to lobby on issues, including the Energy Star program. Congress had little say over the proposed changes to the program, yet Feeney and nine other GOP lawmakers wrote to the Department of Energy and gave their unsolicited opinion.

In 2006, Feeney's former chief of staff, Jason Roe, unloaded on the Times, saying, "Tom has never written a letter for Abramoff. Abramoff has never been in our office. Abramoff has never asked anything of us. There is no accusation of quid pro quo. No quid pro quo exists." [St. Petersburg Times, 4/29/07]

Feeney backed up his faithful lieutenant, telling The Hill newspaper in 2007 that as far as his coziness with Abramoff: "There's no relationship." [The Hill, 4/24/07]

Read more about the infamy of Tom Feeney at: http://www.feeneysfullofit.com