Update: Via TPM Muckraker, The Hill reported today that McCain's staff was questioned in connection with the Rick Renzi land swap investigation. I highlighted the section in this diary about Wes Gullett's lobbying on behalf of a shady-looking land swap in 2005.
How close is campaign advisor and lobbyist, Wes Gullett, to McCain?
When drug-addicted Cindy McCain impulsively brought two sick infants home from Bangladesh in 1991, Gullett, then McCain's administrative assistant, came to McCain's rescue by adopting one of the babies. In 1993, McCain arranged for Gullett to become AZ Governor Fife Symington's chief of staff. In 2000, Gullett was McCain's deputy campaign manager. In 2005, Gullett told the New Yorker that he and McCain did 14-hour stints at the craps table.
As a lobbyist, Gullett's most important asset is his special access to Senator McCain but Gullett doesn't want anyone but his clients to know it. After reviewing filings in the Senate lobbyist database, I suspect Gullett intentionally obfuscated the extent to which he lobbied his pal, Senator McCain.
In a possible case of backdoor campaign financing, Gullett and and other 2000 McCain campaign advisors lobbied on behalf of defense contractor, Lockheed Martin, from 1/99 to 12/00, according to Arizona state lobbying records. Gullett was not registered as a federal lobbyist for Lockheed Martin.
At the time, Gullett was a partner with HighGround, an Arizona consulting firm, although HighGround itself was never listed in Arizona state records.
Gullett's online bio is little vague about when he left HighGround. He gives the impression that he left HighGround before joining the McCain 2000 campaign but yet he lobbied for Lockheed Martin until at least 12/00. Gullett does not disclose what he did between 2000 and 2002.
Since 2002, Gullett has been a partner with Hamilton, Gullett, Davis & Roman, an Arizona consulting firm. I reviewed HGD&R lobbyist reports filed with the Senate and at least two client registrations appear to have been filed after the issues were addressed by Congress and several financial reports were never filed.
In October 2003, HGD&R (and Gullett), registered its first federal client, the Yavapai Ranch. Gullett and Kurt R. Davis are listed as the lobbyists. The ranch was recently in the news because it was part of a controvesial land swap between the federal government and a McCain supporter.
The initial HGD&R Yavapai Ranch registration is dated 9/23/03 and states that the lobbying issue was "land exchange". HGD&R never filed subsequent financial reports for the Yavapai Ranch or even a termination report.
McCain introduced the Yavapai Ranch land swap legislation in April 2003 and it passed in Novemer 2003. It seems unlikely that HGD&R was first hired at the end of September 2003.
The Washington Post story about the deal noted that Gullett was hired by the ranch as a lobbyist and that the Gulletts were $100k McCain bundlers but the Post never mentioned Gullett's missing paperwork.
Why is Gullett concealing his true relationship with the Yavapai Ranch?
HGD&R did not register another client with the Senate until December 2005 when it filed four initial registrations dated 11/29/05: Guidiville Band of Pomo Indians (Indian gaming), the Industrial Development Authority (BLM land exchange), Northern Arizona University (research funding)and the Translational Genomics Research Institute (health funding, all dated 11/29/05.
The timing suggests that HGD&R was already lobbying for these clients and for some reason, HGD&R decided to register them. Did the reason have anything to with Senator McCain's plan to run for president?
Walter Gray, Tribal Administrator of the Guidiville Band of Pomo Indians, had already testified before McCain's Senate Committee on Indian Affairs on 7/29/05. The way lobbying works in Washington DC, the Pomo Indians would have paid for access to the committe before the committee hearing.
The Pomo Indians are based in northern California so there is no apparent reason for the Pomo Indians to hire HGD&R other than to obtain access to the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs Chairman John McCain. McCain's investigation of Jack Abramoff and Indian gaming began in 2004. Surely McCain would not have wanted it known that he was personally linked to a lobbyist promoting Indian gaming.
This is the questionable land swap I referred to above.
The Industrial Development Authority is the Industrial Development Authority of the Town of Florence, a non-profit registered on 2/28/03 by Peter Villaverde. Florence is in Pinal County, southeast of Phoenix. Yavapai County is northwest of Phoenix so the Florence IDA probably is not associated with the Yavapai Ranch land swap.
(The Industrial Development Authority of the Town of Florence is a different entity than the Industrial Development Authority of Pinal County.)
Representative Rick Renzi (R-AZ)was recently indicted in connection with a 2005 land swap in Florence but I can't determine if this is the land swap Gullett lobbied for.
Arizona state records indicate that Jordan Rose lobbied on behalf of the Florence IDA from 10/03 to 12/04. Rose also lobbied on behalf of Langley Properties and Westpac.
The Florence IDA's financial statements filed with the AZ Secretary of State show that the Florence IDA was a small operation. Someone donated property with an approximate value of $300k at the Florence IDA's inception in 2003.
At 1/31/05, the Florence IDA reported $20k in petty cash which was all of its cash on hand.
Between 1/05 and 1/06, the property appears to have been sold because by 1/06, the IDA's only asset was $282k in cash.
By 2007, the Florence IDA's cash balance was $167k. (Note: The 2006 ending cash balance does not agree with the 2007 opening cash balance.)
To summarize, Wes Gullett purportedly was hired as a federal lobbyist in late 2005 by the Industrial Development Authority to promote a land swap and was paid less than $20k. In the same year, the Florence IDA spent $20k of petty cash and sold its only property.
Who donated the land, who bought it, who gets the proceeds and what land swap was involved?
(Thanks to wanderindiana for pointing me in the right direction.)
The Translational Genomics Research Institute paid $153k to HGD&R in 2003, according to the Institute's 2003 990. Numbers are not available for 2004 and 2006 but in 2005, the Institute reported paying $123k to HGD&R.
HGD&R only registered as Arizona state lobbyists for the Institute in 2006.
From the Institute's 990s (Earmark information is from Citizens Against Government Waste):
2003:
Government funding - $11.3 million
2004:
Government funding - $5.5 million
HHS earmark - $1.4 million
2005:
Government funding - $6.9 million
HHS earmark - $1.2 million
2006:
Government funding - $12.4 million
DoD earmark - $500k
Beginning in 2006, HGD&R has dutifully reported being paid $40k every six months by the Institute. But HGD&R was being paid a lot of money before it ever registered as a lobbyist for the Institute. For what?
Given Wes Gullett's "sloppy" paperwork, maybe someone should ask him if he forgot to register any other clients linked to his good friend, Senator McCain.
(Crossposted at TPM Cafe)