Burnt Orange Report

Texas Dem Congressional Delegation Calls for Cancellation of State Lobbying Contract

By Damon McCullar

Surprise, surprise, there seems to be a connection between the K Street Project and the Governor's mansion. The K Street Project is/was a DeLay/Abramoff scheme to get the lobbying companies that populates Washington's K street to only do business with Congressional Republicans.

In today's Statesman, the Texas Democratic Congressional delegation called on Gov. Perry to cancel a contract with Todd Boulanger and his firm. It has come to light that the state has awarded a $330,000 contract to represent the states interest on legislation. Todd Boulanger is a close contact of Jack Abramoff, who has plead guilty to charges that he defrauded clients.

The Dems argue that Todd Boulanger and Co worked exclusively for Republicans and that the company duplicates the job that what the state's seven-person state-federal relations staff in Washington is already paid to do through state taxpayer dollars. They conclude that these contracts are waste of taxpayer money.

According to Congressman Doggett (D-Austin) Texas is the only state that hires outside lobbying firms and that the money is just kickbacks to DeLay/Abramoff machine.

The Bryan-College Station Eagle is carrying an AP report that indicats that the contract to Cassidy & Associates (Todd Boulanger's lobbying firm) might have been a no-bid contract (why does the government love these so much?).

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Bob Gammage added to the chorus of criticism Wednesday, saying the Office of State-Federal Relations operated fine for years using its state employees without putting private lobby firms on retainer.

"I don't think we need to line the pockets of our cronies," said Gammage, who's been accusing Perry of being part of a "corrupt political machine" stretching from Texas to Washington.

Democrat Chris Bell, also a candidate for governor, had a similar view, saying that when it comes to ethics Perry "just doesn't get it."

"Apparently Rick Perry has a much higher tolerance for corruption than everyone else in the country," Bell said.

It's still too early to tell what the fallout from the scandal will be but it seems that this cancer in Washington has deep roots. We are probably at the tip of the iceberg in this scandal.