Follow the
Money
In politics there is an
old saying, “follow the money”. What this means is that when you are
trying to
discover how politically influential your opponent is
with elected officials you one must first discover who
your
opponent is donating to and how much, hence “follow the
money”.
Weaver’s Cove Energy has now teamed up with Hess LNG and
their legal representation is being
supplied by the law firm of
Baker Botts, a huge law firm that is very involved in the energy field.
They have
offices located in Houston, Dallas, Austin, New York,
London, Washington D.C., Azerbaijan, Moscow, and
Saudi Arabia.
Baker Botts was also the law firm that oversaw Bush’s legal efforts in the
Florida election
controversy. In addition the Baker Botts law
firm contributed $113,621 in 1999 – 2000 to then presidential
candidate George Bush. Baker Botts is also defending the Saudi
Arabian government from lawsuits filed
by the families of 9/11
victims. Other clients include Halliburton, the company that Vice
President Dick
Cheney was involved in, the infamous ENRON
Corporation, and Reliant Energy which has James Baker
as a board
director. Mr. Baker is a senior partner of Baker Botts and a consultant
for ENRON.
This section will explore the money and the political
power that Weaver’s Cove and Hess LNG has been
able to build up
against the citizens of Fall River, Somerset, Swansea, and other
communities in
Southeastern New England. As you can see from the
above information there are certainly strong political
connections between these corporations. The following are donations
made by attorneys that work for
Baker Botts to the two
presidential candidates and the Democratic and Republican parties.
John Kerry For President -
$38,350.00*
George
W. Bush For President -
$66,272.00*
Democratic
Committees
$1,204.00*
Republican
Committees
$2,875.00*
In
addition many other candidates have received donations from this powerful
law firm:
John Edwards For President, Senator Hillary Clinton,
James Oscar Davis for Congress, Joseph Maxwell
Cleland for U.S.
Senate now Bush appointee, Kenneth Bentsen for U.S. Senate, Congressman
Chris Van
Hollen, Rick Lazio, Wesley Clark for President, Howard
Dean for President, Senator Charles Schumer,
Congressman Patrick
Kennedy, John Sununu, Congress John Dingell, etc. etc.*
Hess
LNG is an offspring of Amerada Hess, one of the biggest oil companies in
the world. Amerada Hess
has a different strategy when it comes to
donations. While some employees have given to the Presidential
Campaigns it appears that they tend to give to the political parties
directly. Find below the donations
made by Amerada Hess employees
to either presidential candidate or some form of Republican
Committee or Democratic Committee.
John Kerry For President
$500.00*
George
Bush For President
$4,000.00*
Democratic
Committees
$50,400.00*
Republican
Committees
$101,170.00*
As
one can plainly see employees of Amerada Hess do have some political
pull.
In addition other candidates have done well when it comes to
Amerada Hess:
Senator Frank Lautenberg, Senator Charles Schumer,
James Florio for Senate, Rick Lazio for Senate,
Senator Max
Baucus, Congressman John Lafalce, Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez, Senator
Thomas
Daschle, Senator Patrick Leahy, etc. etc. *
As you
can see these 2 companies have a good deal of influence when it comes to
the politicians in
Washington D.C.
What about Jay Cashman,
the owner of the land that Weaver’s Cove wants to turn into a LNG
terminal?
Since Mr. Cashman’s business is based in Massachusetts
let’s look at his and his wife’s, Christy Scott
Cashman,
donations on the state level.
Jay Cashman donations to
Massachusetts State Politicians
$17,000*
Christy
Cashman donations to Massachusetts State Politicians
$6,000*
Mr. Cashman and
his wife have been very active on the federal level when it comes to
donating.
Jay Cashman Federal Contributions:
$120,000*
Christy
Cashman Federal Contributions
$17,000*
Some
of the state officials that have received contributions from the Cashman’s
are: Attorney General
Thomas Reilly, Lt. Governor Kerry Murphy
Heally, Representative Stephen Tobin, State Treasurer Tim
Cahill,
State Senator Michael Morrissey, Candidate for Governor Shannon O’Brien,
Senate President
Robert Travaglini, Rep. Joseph R. Driscoll,
Senate Ways and Means Chairwoman T. Murray, House Ways
and Means
Chairman John Rogers, Governor Mitt Romney, etc. etc. etc. *
On the
federal level here are some of the politicians that the Cashman’s have
donated to:
Congressman Don Young of Alaska, Congressman Robert
Menendez of N.J., Senator John Kerry of MA,
Congressman James
Maloney of Conn., President George W. Bush, Senator Bob Graham of Florida,
Congressman David Bonior of Mich., Senator Edward Kennedy, most
of the Massachusetts House
delegation, etc. etc. *
The
Cashman’s have donated to Democratic and Republican party
committees:
Republican
$14,000*
Democratic
$16,000*
(The money
donated by the Cashman’s in this study does not account for employees that
work for Mr.
Cashman who also donate to many
politicians.)
* Sources for the above information come from the
Federal Campaign Finance Office and the
Massachusetts Secretary
of State Campaign Finance Office.
The Oil and Gas industry is
extremely active when it comes to monetary support of our elected
officials.
Members of the U.S. Senate Energy Committee have
received more than $3.1 million from the electric and
natural gas
industries since 1995. Senator Don Nickles received $340,000, Senator Jeff
Bingaman
$290,000, Senator Conrad Burns $285,000 etc.
etc.
In closing, it is very clear that the companies working to
locate an LNG terminal in Fall River have a great
deal of
political clout. Are our elected officials swayed by the millions that go
into their campaign coffers?
For more information take a look at
the “FERC Chairman” site on this web
page.
