Now here's a big surprise -- when Pete Olson went looking for consultants to perform services for his political campaign, he went to folks who worked for or with Tom DeLay. And why should that be a surprise? After all, DeLay was the congressman here for a couple of decades.

And let's look at the details.

FEC records show Olson spent $50,448 on consultants between April 1 and June 30, some of whom also have faces familiar to District 22 political observers:

- Olson's campaign spent about $15,600 with Dana Benoit of Richmond, for fundraiser consulting services. Benoit served as DeLay's finance director for several years.

- Olson's campaign spent just over $9,000 with Walden & Associates of Houston, also for fundraising consulting. According to Source Watch, the firm is owned by Sue Walden, whom the New York Times described as a "close ally of Tom DeLay" who also served as an adviser to the late Ken Lay, former Enron chief executive.

- Olson's campaign also spent about $9,650 during the quarter with Marathon Strategic Communications, for media and "grassroots" consulting. The firm's address is listed at 3771 Vinecrest Drive in Dallas. Real estate records list the owner of the property at that address as Christopher Homan. Chris Homan was DeLay's former campaign manager.

FEC records show Olson's campaign also owes Marathon another $12,000 for consulting services.

Of course, not one of the individuals involved is accused of any wrong doing -- other than having previously worked on DeLay's campaigns, a capital offense in the eyes of liberal Democrats. That gives them a greater familiarity with the district in which Olson is running, which makes them valuable resources for Olson to draw upon. That makes their involvement with Pete Olson doubly scandalous -- if you are a partisan Democrat who wants to see incumbent Democrat Nick Lampson hang on to the congressional seat in the cherry-red CD22.

Posted by: Greg at 12:53 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 333 words, total size 2 kb.