Subject: [big campaign] RELEASE: Courage Campaign Calls on Issa to Reimburse Taxpayers for "Personal" Earmarks
From: "Aniello Alioto, ProgressNow" <[email-masked]>
To: americanvalues <[email-masked]>, [email-masked]
Date: Fri, 1 Apr 2011 15:25:56 -0400
List-Id: <bigcampaign.googlegroups.com>

*FYI - this just went out...  *

****

*FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:*  April 1, 2011

*CONTACT:*  Todd Stenhouse, Courage Campaign, 916-397-1131,
[email-masked]

*COURAGE CAMPAIGN CALLS ON ISSA TO REIMBURSE TAXPAYERS $815,000 FOR
“PERSONAL EARMARKS”*

*Think Progress Investigation Shows Oversight Chairman Secured nearly $1
million in Earmarks That Benefit His Personal Real Estate Holdings*

*Los Angeles:   *After a Think Progress investigation revealed that House
Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa secured nearly $1 million in
federal earmarks for improvements to a Vista, CA neighborhood where he has
substantial real estate holdings, the 750,000 member Courage Campaign has
called for Issa to reimburse taxpayers the $815,000 in federal money from
which his personal business interests stand to benefit.

According to the Center for Responsive Politics, Darrell Issa is the
wealthiest <http://www.opensecrets.org/pfds/index.php> man in the U.S. House
of Representatives, with a net worth estimated as high as $450 million.

*“At a time when middle class families  struggle to make ends meet, and our
government plans draconian cuts to programs that help the most vulnerable,
it is outrageous for the wealthiest man in the U.S. House to  line his
pockets at taxpayer expense,” said Courage Campaign Chairman and Founder
Rick Jacobs.  “Darrell Issa should lead the effort to reduce waste, fraud
and abuse by reimbursing taxpayers for the $815,000 in federal earmarks that
enrich his family business.”*

In 2008, according to Think
Progress<http://thinkprogress.org/2011/03/30/issa-earmark-property/>,
Viper LLC—a real estate holding company operated by Issa’s family in which
Issa owns a $25 million stake—purchased a commercial property at 2067 West
Vista Way in Vista, California.  The property is located less than two miles
from two of Viper LLC’s other multi-million dollar commercial properties.
 Months after the purchase, Issa requested millions of dollars in earmarks
to support highway improvements, construction of bus stops, parking lots,
sewer and utility systems in the surrounding neighborhood.  All told, Issa
secured more than $815,000 in taxpayer financed earmarks that could
substantially increase the value of Viper LLC’s investment.

Issa’s personal interest in his own earmarks contradicts his 2007
letter<http://www.issa.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=311&Itemid=28&tmpl=component>to
House colleagues, in which he said, “Constituents want to know that
the
project requests we make benefit our communities, our country, and don’t
line our own pockets.”

Though he has recently referred to the practice as “tantamount to a bribe,”
Issa has requested hundreds of millions of dollars in earmarks since he took
office in 2001, including millions of dollars benefiting two of his top
campaign contributors<http://issaexposed.couragecampaign.org/index.php/page/49>
.

Beyond his contradictory record on earmarks, Issa has been dogged by a
number of other controversies since assuming the Chairmanship of the House
Government Oversight Committee—including past arrests on car theft and
weapons charges, ethical misconduct on his Congressional staff, refusing to
disclose <http://issaexposed.couragecampaign.org/index.php/page/117> his
meetings with lobbyists, and extensive
ties<http://www.watchdoginstitute.org/2011/02/28/industry-insiders-score-jobs-on-issas-team/>between
his committee staff right wing special interests, including
billionaire financiers David and Charles Koch.

Earlier this month, Roll Call
<http://www.rollcall.com/news/-203757-1.html>reported that Issa
regularly mixes his business and political work—going so
far as to link the websites of his corporate entities and his political
campaigns, and spending government resources to fly a Congressional staffer
to a trade show at which Issa was tending to his private business
interests<http://www.rollcall.com/news/-203853-1.html>
.

The mounting controversies involving Issa have led fellow Republicans to
begin openly questioning his leadership.  A former GOP Oversight staffer
recently told Talking Points
memo<http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/03/kurt-bardellas-predecessor-looking-to-help-darrell-issa-recover.php>,
“…there are people wondering what's going on over there. That's not healthy
-- when you don't have the confidence of the members of your conference, it
gets dicey."

*“A pattern is emerging of Darrell Issa enriching himself by taking things
that don’t belong to him, granting special access to well-connected
interests, and holding himself to a lower standard of transparency and
ethics than everyone else,” Jacobs added.  “It’s clear that the more people
learn about Darrell Issa, the more he appears unworthy of the taxpayers
trust, unfit for the responsibilities of his such an important leadership
post, and a political liability for his colleagues in the GOP.”*

*The Courage Campaign* is a California based, multi-issue online organizing
network that empowers more than 750,000 grassroots and netroots supporters
to work for progressive change across the country.  Courage holds
politicians accountable, works for reform, and trains and organizes
activists to change their communities.  Learn more at
www.couragecampaign.org.

*Issa Watch* is the Courage Campaign's national accountability project
designed to hold Chairman Issa accountable for his record, rhetoric and
performance as House Oversight Committee Chairman.  For more information,
visit *www.issawatch.com.*

-- 
Aniello Alioto
National Political Director
[email-masked]
o: 202.756.4109
c: 502.664.2420

AZ: Arizona Progress
CA: Courage Campaign
CO: ProgressNow Colorado
FL: Progress Florida
MI: Progress Michigan
MN: Alliance for a Better Minnesota (ABM)
NE: Bold Nebraska
NH: Granite State Progress
NM: Progress New Mexico
NV: ProgressNow Nevada
OH: ProgressOhio
PA: Keystone Progress
TX: Progress Texas
WA: Fuse Washington
WI: One Wisconsin Now (OWN)

Twitter: @ProgressNow
Facebook: ProgressNow

www.ProgressNow.org

-- 
You received this message because you are subscribed to the "big campaign" group.

To post to this group, send to [email-masked]

To unsubscribe, send email to [email-masked]

E-mail [email-masked] with questions or concerns
 
This is a list of individuals. It is not affiliated with any group or organization.