Posted on 07/27/2010 1:10:21 PM PDT by Born Conservative
Lou Barletta has called on U.S. Rep. Paul Kanjorski to return campaign donations from embattled U.S. Rep. Charles Rangel of New York.
Barletta, the Republican mayor of Hazleton, is challenging the 13-term Democrat in the race for the 11th Congressional District seat.
Rangel, 80, a 40-year House veteran and dean of the New York congressional delegation, may face serious charges from a House ethics panel. The House Ethics Committee announced Thursday that Rangel broke unspecified congressional rules.
The Associated Press reported that the secretive ethics panel did not disclose the specific violations Rangel may have committed. The AP report said sanctions can range from a damaging committee report to censure or even expulsion by the House.
On Monday, Barletta said Kanjorski should return the thousands of dollars in campaign contributions he’s taken from Rangel. Barletta said federal reports show Kanjorski received $21,000 in campaign contributions from Rangel over the years.
Earlier this year, a spokesman said Kanjorski was keeping Rangel’s campaign cash. On Monday, Kanjorski’s campaign spokesman Ed Mitchell said Rangel didn’t give Kanjorski any money for the current 2010 election cycle.
“Why would you give him money back from the previous cycles?” Mitchell asked. “He wasn’t charged with anything then.”
Mitchell said if Barletta wants Kanjorski to be held “to a higher standard,” he should then return $10,000 contributed to his mayoral campaign by officials of a Kingston-based firm that used dredge material from the Delaware River to fill in former mine land where Hazleton plans an amphitheater.
“I believe the firm’s principals also donated to his last congressional campaign,” Mitchell said. “The firm, Fort Mifflin Reclamation Associates Inc., was raided by federal agents in April. Barletta likes to play hypocrite in these situations.”
Shawn Kelly, spokesman for the Barletta campaign, said Kanjorski never takes responsibility for his own actions and blames everyone else. “Kanjorski has taken money from some of those same officials.”
“Congress should be focused on helping to create jobs and fixing our economy,” Kelly said. “Instead, we’re once again talking about a scandal involving Kanjorski. There’s only one real way to fix Washington, and that’s to get rid of the career politicians like Charlie Rangel and Kanjorski and elect leaders like Lou Barletta.”
According to an Associated Press report, Rangel has long acknowledged that his ethics troubles had no upside for Democrats in difficult re-election bids. Some lawmakers have announced they will donate past campaign contributions from Rangel to charity. U.S. Rep. Christopher Carney, D-Dimock Township, said in March he was donating $21,000 from Rangel to charity.
Mike Barley, spokesman for the Pennsylvania Republican Party, suggested Kanjorski take the lead of Ohio Democrat Congresswoman Betty Sutton and call on Rangel to resign.
Ping
Tax-cheat Charlie wasn't a crook back then. Beauty.
Kanjorski is just as much a crook as Rangel. And like Rangel, the stupid voters of that district will always reelect a democrat like Kanjorski.
The region is one of the most depressed in America, and has been for almost 60 years since the mines closed. The biggest employer is the race track/casino. There are no other decent jobs. The highest paid segment of the population there is schoolteachers.
The second highest paid group there? - retired schoolteachers! That’s how bad it is.
Drive through every town and city and it’s the same - empty lots where buildings were torn down, decaying neighborhoods. The biggest export - their college kids - who all have to leave town to get decent jobs. Even the Mafia, once a considerable presence when they laundered their money through dress factories, have left town.
And yet for 60 years these people continue to vote democrat. You want to feel sorry for people in distress, but these people almost deserve it with their loyalty to the democrat criminal elements.
Kanjorski will win, and he and his relatives will get richer.
Hey, Barletta. Can Rangel prove where he spent $2 million he received from Congressional allocations (tax dollars), plus another $700,000 from the Dept of HUD (tax dollars), that went to the tax-exempt Charles B. Rangel Center for Public Service?
THE RANGEL SWINDLE
(1) Took a “homestead” tax deduction meant for year-round DC residents - though he legally resides in New York;
(2) Rangel paid no taxes on his luxe property in the Caribbean;
(3) Has four rent-stabilized Harlem apartments (one is a campaign office);
(4) Improperly stored his car in a House parking garage;
(5) The NY Times reported oil-drilling businessman Eugene Isenberg made a $1 million pledge toward building The Rangel School for Public Service at City College of New York. Rangel later preserved a controversial offshore tax loophole that saved millions for Isenberg’s company. The Isenberg-Nabors deal is, potentially, far more serious: It reeks of a quid pro quo between Rangel’s official duties and fund-raising for his personal project. The Times reported that Rangel held meetings the same day, at the same hotel, with Isenberg to discuss the CCNY project and then with Nabors’ chief lobbyist on the tax loophole;
(6) Took free trips sponsored by corporate lobbyists;
(7) Used Congressional stationery to raise money for the tax-exempt Charles B. Rangel Center for Public Service.
ping
“Kanjorski is just as much a crook as Rangel. And like Rangel, the stupid voters of that district will always reelect a democrat like Kanjorski.”
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.