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Timing of gifts stirs 'earmark' debate
Donations made after funding added to bill
By Ken Dilanian
USA Today
October 17, 2007
WASHINGTON -- Days after a Senate committee approved $1 million for a Woodstock concert museum, the project's Republican billionaire backer and his family contributed $29,200 to help the Democrats who requested the money, Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Charles Schumer.
It's neither illegal nor unusual for contributors to benefit from congressionally directed spending known as earmarks. But the timing of the June donations is grist for critics who see a link between legislative pet projects and campaign money.
"If you don't help their campaign, they're not going to be as friendly with the earmarks next time," said Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., who will seek to amend a spending bill this week to redirect the Woodstock money to educate homeless children.
The New York senators put their names jointly on all their earmark requests, but Clinton spokesman Philippe Reines said that this one came through Schumer's office. Of the donations, he said, "One thing had nothing to do with the other."
Schumer spokesman Brian Fallon said the senator backed the project because it was "long sought after" by state and local leaders, not because of contributions.
The man behind the project is Alan Gerry, a former cable television mogul and registered Republican. State government pitched in $15 million for the $100 million project, most of which was funded by Gerry himself through a foundation.
Making political contributions is "something we think a good citizen should do," Gerry said, adding that he believes the earmark is unrelated to the donations.
On the federal level, Gerry, his wife and three children have given $507,800 since 1998, including $272,050 to Democrats and $212,750 to Republicans, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Gerry's wife, Sandra, is a registered Democrat.
Most of the Democratic recipients helped the Woodstock venture. Since 2005, the Gerrys have donated $150,000 to the Schumer-led Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and $18,600 to Clinton.
Rep. Maurice Hinchey, D-N.Y., who earmarked $200,000 for the project in 2003, has received $19,500 since 1998. Hinchey spokesman Jeff Lieberson said the project would offer a "huge economic boost."
Gerry bought the site in Bethel, N.Y., a decade ago to make it a tourist center. A performing arts center opened last year. The two-story museum, under construction, will place Woodstock in the context of the 1960s counterculture movement.
The million-dollar earmark was included in a Senate education spending bill that came out of committee on June 21. On June 26, the Gerrys and two of their children who sit on the foundation's board made $20,000 in contributions to the Schumer-led Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. On June 30, the couple made $9,200 in contributions to Clinton's presidential campaign -- the maximum allowed by law.
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