Jerry Lewis – Lowery lobbying firm controversy
In addition, two key individuals on Lewis' staff (Letitia White and Jeff Shockey) went to work for Copeland Lowery, earning millions of dollars for themselves; Richard White, Letitia's husband, has seen a steep increase in his income since he switched to being a lobbyist for defense firms; Lewis' stepdaughter has benefited from his ties to the lobbyists; and Jeff Shockey, upon returning to work of Lewis in 2005, was paid two million dollars by Copeland Lowery as "severance", based upon projected revenues of the lobbying firm for the eleven months following his departure.
[8] On June 28, 2006, an official of ESRI said that the company had also received a federal subpoena as part the ongoing investigation into the ties between Lewis and Copeland Lowery.
For example, on November 8, 2005, Lewis' office sent out a press release by email announcing that the congressman had secured $10.75 million in federal funding for a number of recipients, including at least five that are clients of Copeland Lowery.
Lewis has aided more than 250 Inland projects with allocations ranging from $81,000 to help move the Big Bear Zoo to nearly $100 million to ESRI, a Redlands mapping company working on reconstruction plans in Iraq.
Lewis is credited with bringing tens of millions of federal dollars for cancer research in Loma Linda and helping reverse factors that led to unprecedented fire danger in the San Bernardino National Forest.
[21] In an August 2006 interview, Wilkes said he considered dropping the firm, but that Lowery threatened to block future projects if their relationship ended.
Wilkes said Lowery had warned several times that doing so could prompt Lewis to cut off earmarks, saying, "You don't want me telling those guys on the committee that you are moving on without me."
He met with executives and got a briefing on the company, which was formed a few years earlier and sought government contracts to convert paper records to electronic format, including a project in the Panama Canal Zone.
[30] On April 15, 1999, three months after Lewis was named chairman of the House defense appropriations subcommittee, he received $17,000 in campaign contributions from Wilkes and his associates.
[34] Around that time, when a VA accounting officer complained about questions from a congressman on ADCS's behalf, a Wilkes aide, Mike Williams, wrote back that Lewis was "a close personal friend of Brent's."
[47][48] The following are some of those organizations and some of the earmarked government funding they received: Lewis spokesman Jim Specht said the congressman has never recommended to anybody that they need a lobbyist to speak with him.
In total, Lowery's lobbying firm and its clients contributed $480,000 to Lewis' political action committee in the 2000-2005 period, 37 percent of the $1.3 million raised by PAC during those six years.
[46] Lowery, his partners, and their spouses have contributed $135,000 to Lewis' campaigns and political action committee over the past decade, routinely giving the maximum allowed by law.
[66] Lewis called his selection be Chairman "the highlight of my career in public affairs", and said: We have a historic opportunity and a unique responsibility to reform the appropriations process and change the culture of the committee.
I intend to lead a committee that is dedicated to fiscal restraint and committed to being an integral part of our Republican leadership's effort to rein in spending and balance the federal budget.
[67]On September 5, 2006, the Associated Press reported that federal investigators were looking into a donation of 41 acres (170,000 m2) of land to the city of Redlands by Jack Dangermond, the president and founder of ESRI, and his wife, Laura.
In 2002, the year after the donation, the defense appropriations subcommittee, which Lewis chaired, provided a $15 million earmark for the National Imagery and Mapping Agency to acquire software from ESRI.
[73] Patrick Dorton, a spokesman for Copeland, Lowery, declined comment on the Small Biz Tech PAC and characterized the townhouse purchase as a private matter.
[74] Willis-Leon's lawyer said that his client has a background in event planning and met Alcalde, as well as leaders of the Small Biz Tech PAC, through contacts that included Letitia White.
The lawyer said that Willis-Leon had also worked part-time for General Atomics as well as for groups representing alternative fuel users and charter schools, before she met Alcalde.
[3] As of mid-2006, prior to its disbanding, the firm had five partners (James Copeland, Lowery, Lynn Jacquez, White, and Jean Denton) and 14 other employees.
[79] At Copeland Lowery, White quickly acquired a client roster of two dozen defense firms for which she sought earmarks and other special treatment.
[41] At the request of Copley News Service, budget watchdog Keith Ashdown examined appropriations bills to see how White's clients had fared.
[40] During 1999–2004, while working at Copeland Lowery, Jeff Shockey helped win at least $150 million in earmarks and government funding for clients of the firm, according to Taxpayers for Common Sense.
"[82] His attorneys said that the partisan fight that effectively shut down the ethics panel for eighteen months may have played role in explaining why they never received a follow-up letter from the committee giving its approval of the arrangement.
[16] In 2002 and 2004, Alexandra Shockey, who had left Lewis' employ to raise a family, reported her occupation as "homemaker" when she made contributions to the campaigns of Representative Mary Bono and President George W.
Hillscape filed amended disclosure reports in February 2006, less than two months after the first Lewis-Lowery story appeared in newspapers, that showed the company was paid $80,000 by Copeland Lowery from January 1 to June 30, 2005, plus another $40,000 by a second client, itself a California-based lobbying firm.
"This letter also asks the Committee to confirm that steps Mr. Shockey has taken to avoid any appearance of conflict of interest with his wife's government relations consulting business are sufficient to satisfy applicable House rules".
[82] Attorney William Oldaker - also an earmark specialist who has served as treasurer for several political action committees[16] - said that the couple sought his legal advice in 2005 about their working arrangement and he assured them they were complying with House ethics rules "in letter and spirit.
The reason, they said, was that ethical and legal questions surrounding Lowery and the firm threatened to destroy their professional reputations and ruin their commercial prospects.
