Monday, August 05, 2002
The Friendly Skies
Nineteen months after the recount of the 2000 Presidential Election, The Bush campaign recount committee has released its financial records.
According to a story in Friday's Bloomberg, the campaign used the corporate jets of -- among others -- four companies that are now either bankrupt, under investigation by the SEC, or both: Enron, Halliburton, Reliant Energy, and Phar-Mor Inc.
It has not been easy getting the Bush recount committee to release its financials, though the information is required by law. They have contested the law since the end of the recount, and were given an extension while they fought to keep their records secret. Finally, on July 15, they complied.
The Gore recount committee, which used no corporate jets and was outspent 4-1 by the Bush committee, filed their financials in accordance with the original IRS rule.
Excerpts from the Bloomberg story:
According to a story in Friday's Bloomberg, the campaign used the corporate jets of -- among others -- four companies that are now either bankrupt, under investigation by the SEC, or both: Enron, Halliburton, Reliant Energy, and Phar-Mor Inc.
It has not been easy getting the Bush recount committee to release its financials, though the information is required by law. They have contested the law since the end of the recount, and were given an extension while they fought to keep their records secret. Finally, on July 15, they complied.
The Gore recount committee, which used no corporate jets and was outspent 4-1 by the Bush committee, filed their financials in accordance with the original IRS rule.
Excerpts from the Bloomberg story:
- Washington, Aug. 2 (Bloomberg) -- George W. Bush's election 2000 recount committee used corporate jets owned by 10 companies, including three now under federal investigation, to ferry lawyers and campaign workers to Florida and elsewhere, according to Internal Revenue Service records and a committee lawyer.
Enron Corp., Halliburton Co. and Reliant Energy Inc. -- three companies whose finances are being examined by U.S. regulators -- were among the corporations reimbursed for the use of their corporate jets by the Bush committee during the 36-day recount that gave Republican Bush Florida's 25 electoral votes and the presidency.
The recount committee records, released 19 months after the recount battle, come as the Bush administration is fending off Democratic charges that Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney have put the interests of their corporate supporters ahead of the public.
The Bush filings were made under an extended deadline granted by the IRS. Democrat Gore's recount committee's contributions and expenditures were reported in line with the IRS's original deadlines. Gore's filings don't show use of corporate jets.
The Bush campaign initially said federal law didn't require disclosures by recount committees and released the names of contributors, not expenditures. While still denying any legal obligation, Bush campaign officials filed to the IRS hundreds of pages on expenditures July 15. The IRS posted the filing on its Web site last weekend.
Enron filed for bankruptcy protection last year amid disclosures that the Houston-based energy trader hid $1 billion in losses and was under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission. Enron's then-Chairman Kenneth Lay was a leading contributor to Bush's political career. Lay and his wife donated $10,000 to the recount fund.
Halliburton, the second-largest oilfield services firm, is under SEC investigation for allegedly accelerating booking of revenue from construction work, an accounting change started in 1998 when Cheney was chairman and CEO.
Reliant Resources Inc., a Houston-based energy trader that is 83 percent owned by Reliant Energy, is under investigation by the SEC and Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for "round-trip" trades that inflated revenue and contributed to a restatement of last year's earnings.
