As
this diary already details, Barry Jackson, was instrumental in organizing the campaign against the Florida recount, which of course led to the infamous "mini-riots" on November 22, 2000 at the Clark Center. My local congressman,
Representative John Sweeney (NY-20), is also well known for his cries of
"Shut it down!" when the Miami-Dade Canvassing Board was attempting to manually recount undervotes during the Florida debacle in 2000. I have always wondered, though, how a little-known congressman from Upstate New York got involved in the shutting down of the Florida recount for Bush, and I think that I found some answers.
The connections can be traced back to the Card Family from New Hampshire, whose most famous son is the current
White House Chief of Staff, Andrew Card. As some may already know, Andrew Card's brother, Bradford Card, worked for a time as the
Chief of Staff for Representative John Sweeney, and perhaps some may have expressed surprise, that a
former New Hampshire state prosecutor and policeman was able to rise through the ranks of convoluted political spheres to land in an Upstate New York congressional district. His was such a long journey that included stops in both government and private industry and most notably a stint with
3M Company as the
Government Relations Manager for the Traffic Controls Material Division in the Northeast. After this position with 3M Company, Brad Card was hired by Mr. Sweeney, but why?
For that answer, you must go back to the late nineties and study the New York State Republican Party. When Bill Powers was still the NYS GOP Chairman, John Sweeney was the executive director and Jeffrey Buley was the counsel to the NYS GOP Party. In addition to this position, Mr. Buley also ran a lobbyist firm, with Albert Pirro. This name should be familiar, as he was convicted of tax evasion and is the husband of Westchester County District Attorney, Jeanne Pirro, who recently dropped out of the race for US Senate against Hillary Clinton. Mr. Buley's lobbying firm had various clients, one being General Motors, where Andrew Card "directed intergovernmental relations" prior to joining the Bush 2000 campaign. With both Cards working for private companies in government affairs, one can see a pattern emerging.
In addition to General Motors, Buley Public Affairs also represented 3M Company, and according to this New York State lobbying report, Buley Public Affairs failed to file a timely 2003 statement of registration for its dealing with 3M Company. This is, of course, after Brad Card's tenure with the company, but it proves that there was the connection between the Cards and Sweeney. After working for Sweeney and running his policies on the powerful House Appropriations Committee, Brad Card returned to the lobbying industry to work for Ditko World Wide as a Managing Principal, which unsurprising has been lobbying for Iraq reconstruction contracts for Sun Chemical, according the Hill. It is also telling that among the New York Republicans, who accompanied Mr. Sweeney to Florida in 2000, you could find Mr. Buley.
The other connection, albeit tenuous, that I find interesting is the actual lobbying firms that have been representing the various electronic voting systems being touted before the New York State legislature. According to Common Cause, Buley Public Affairs has been working with two companies, Election Systems & Software and Sequoia, Powers & Company, LLC (run by former New York State GOP Chair Bill Powers) has been representing Accupoll, and Greenberg Traurig, LLP has been working with Diebold. Greenberg Traurig, of course, was very helpful to the Republicans in Miami-Dade and also employed Jack Abramoff, as can be seen all over the blogs.
So going back to the point of this story, why did Mr. Sweeney cause a mini-riot under the alleged direction of Barry Jackson, who has had dealings with Abramoff? Because he is an ambitious man who is willing to work with Bush insiders for personal gain like most other slimy Republicans, and who is currently trying to distance himself from Bush and his supporters, as he is facing his first strong challenger since taking office in Democrat Kirsten Gillibrand.