One of the roles of document searchers is to uncover networks of influence. You want to know who knows who, and when, and to whom money is given (when much is expected). Not every lead is important, but, but information turned up on one search can sometimes lead to another.
And sometimes pulling on one thread, can make a whole scheme unravel. Consider this a placemarker.
On October 3, Nancy Pelosi came into town to highlight a fundraiser thrown for Russ Carnahan. Earlier reports discussed the dismissive compliments she gave him during her speech, but a little known section of the aftermath was also captured, when Pelosi introduces a few others people in the crowd.
The first name is Keith Ellison, a Minnesota congressman who is introduced as being in town for "some meetings." The second name is Nick Lampson, the former Congressman from Texas. On their own, this wouldn't seem to be anything, but the two names stuck in my head, and let me show you why.
Edward W. Rodzwicz is/was the national president of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen. Just recently, he was caught in a bribery sting after asking for $20,000 from a St Louis lawyer. After reading the story, I of course went to find out just who was receiving campaign money from this union, and its seems Missouri Democrats are the big winners.
Russ Carnahan and Emmanuel Cleaver got checks for $2500 in March 2008.
Claire McCaskill got $2500 for her 2012 campaign on June 4th, 2008.
Good for them. I hope they didn't ask for those funds in "an envelope." There is certainly nothing wrong about getting campaign donations, and Russ does sit on the Transportation Committee. But there's something else in the report, that made me want to go a little deeper.
In May 2008, the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen gave $2500 to Keith Ellison and in June 2008 they gave $2500 to Nick Lampson. By itself, this doesn't mean anything, but I was surprised to see the two men together at Carnahan's fundraiser. Lampson lost his race, and is no longer a congressman. What is he up to these days? What meetings would bring Ellison, Lampson, Pelosi, and Carnahan together?
As I said earlier, this is no sign of malfeasance, but it would be interesting to see what ol' Nick Lampson is up to these days, and what meetings in St Louis were going on outside of the fundraiser. No clues could be found from Ellison's tweets, and of course no mention is made anywhere of the swanky fundraiser. We do now know that Ellison liked Michael Moore's Capitalism so much he saw it twice, but nothing is said about why he was in St Louis. Now we've left a trail for someone else to pick up if we hear more.
But the day is not a loss. Our research did pull up this tidbit.
Russ Carnahan's ranking at GovTrack confirms what we already know. He's a follower.
"Leader-Follower Score"
Carnahan is a follower. Carnahan tends to cosponsors the bills of other Members of Congress who do not cosponsor Carnahan’s own bills. For more, see congressional statistics.
Keep digging.
This could not be just a coincidence.
Posted by: D. Holder | 10/26/2009 at 02:47 PM