Pressure to return Ianieri funds

Timothy McNulty | July 8, 2009

The Hill has a story on the pressure facing Jack Murtha, Joe Sestak and others to return campaign contributions from a defense contractor charged by the feds in a kickback scheme (P-G story here). Sestak has already returned the funds:

Kickback charges against a defense contractor are putting the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee under pressure to return $17,000 in campaign donations.

At press time, the DCCC had not said whether it would return funds donated over the last three election cycles by Richard Ianieri,  former president and CEO of Coherent Systems International Corp., who faces the kickback charges. He also gave $13,500 to Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.).

Other Coherent Systems employees gave an additional $21,300 to Murtha. The DCCC and Murtha's office did not respond to questions about whether they would return the money or donate it to charity in the wake of the charges filed against Ianieri.

In the last three election cycles, Ianieri cut checks to several other Democrats, including $5,300 to Rep. Patrick Murphy (Pa.), $2,000 to Rep. Chet Edwards (Texas), $1,500 to Rep. Neil Abercrombie (Hawaii), $1,000 to Rep. Joe Sestak (Pa.) and $1,400 to Sen. Bob Casey Jr. (Pa.).

Edwards, who has repeatedly won close elections in a red district, and Sestak, who is expected to challenge Sen. Arlen Specter (D-Pa.) in the Democratic primary, have said they will return the campaign donations to Ianieri or give a check to charity. Murphy also also said he gave the money to charity Tuesday after hearing about the charges against Ianieri. Sestak's office said he had already returned the money, while Edwards said he gave $2,000 to charity Tuesday after the campaign learned of the kickback charges.

"In light of the news of the indictment, [Sestak] decided to return the lone contribution he received from Mr. Ianieri in 2006," Sestak spokesman Jonathon Dworkin said in a statement.

Ianieri also doled out a total of $2,300 to GOP Rep. Bill Shuster (Pa.). A Shuster spokesman said his boss could not be reached for comment by press time.

The DCCC is in a particularly difficult position. When Republicans were under pressure for taking political donations from lobbyist Jack Abramoff, several Democratic candidates in tough races called on their GOP opponents, especially those with close ties to Abramoff, to give back or donate to charity any contributions from him or his clients.

The Abramoff scandal contributed to the GOP's problems in 2006, and House Democrats capitalized by winning back a House majority.

(h/t to GrassrootsPa)