Torricelli's help for Kerry draws rival's
fire Dean asks voters to reject the 'corrupt political culture'
Thursday, February 12, 2004
BY DAVID KINNEY
Star-Ledger Staff
A year after an ethics scandal ended
his political career, former U.S. Sen.
Robert Torricelli's fund-raising
for Democratic front-runner John Kerry has
become an issue in the presidential campaign.
Assailing Kerry during a campaign
stop in Milwaukee yesterday, rival
candidate Howard Dean seized on
reports that Torricelli helped underwrite
a group that ran anti-Dean ads.
The former Vermont
governor called
Torricelli "ethically
challenged," and
said: "What we now
see is that John
Kerry is part of the
corrupt political
culture in
Washington. That's
exactly what I'm
asking Wisconsin
voters to stand up
against."
Torricelli, who has
claimed credit for
raising more than $100,000 for Kerry,
donated $50,000 last year to an
independent group that ran controversial
anti-Dean television ads in three
early voting states -- Iowa, New Hampshire and South
Carolina.
One commercial showed terrorist
leader Osama bin Laden and raised
doubts about Dean's national security
credentials. Other ads focused on
Dean's record on NAFTA, past comments
about Medicare and his
position on gun rights.
Kerry spokesman David Wade dismissed
Dean's comments yesterday.
"Another day, another Dean act of desperation," he said.
Two key Kerry campaign supporters
in New Jersey who asked not to be
identified said Sen. Jon Corzine (D-N.J.)
and other Kerry backers have
approached Torricelli and pressed
him to lower his profile in the campaign.
Kerry campaign officials have stressed
that Torricelli has no official post in
the campaign, but at the same time said
they welcomed his help.
Torricelli declined to comment about Dean's remarks.
The former senator contributed to Kerry,
a senator from Massachusetts,
and Rep. Richard Gephardt (D-Mo.),
who has since dropped out of the
race.
Torricelli quit his re-election run
in 2002 after the Senate ethics committee
"severely admonished" him for accepting
gifts from a wealthy campaign
contributor. He now works as
a government consultant, develops real
estate and oversees a major
environmental cleanup in Hudson County.
He has found himself enmeshed
in controversy again for his contribution
to an independent group called Americans for Jobs.
David Jones, a former fund-raiser for Gephardt
who also worked on Vice President Al Gore's
2000 presidential campaign, said he helped set up the
group to "highlight critical issues."
The group raised $663,000 last year,
most of it from Gephardt backers,
and spent $500,000 on the ads in Iowa,
New Hampshire and South Carolina.
Jones has repeatedly said the group
is independent, but until this week
had refused to identify who funded the ads.
When the TV ads ran last year,
the Dean campaign suggested Gephardt
was secretly orchestrating the group.
Yesterday, Dean said Torricelli's
donation showed Kerry and "Washington
insiders" also played a role.
Contributions to the group came from
some of the Democratic Party's
most reliable donors, and although most
of them supported Gephardt,
some had ties to other candidates -- including Dean.
Labor unions, which had lined up
behind Gephardt, gave $150,000.
Former Slim-Fast Foods Chairman S.
Daniel Abraham gave $100,000. He
had earlier given Dean $2,000.
Bernard Schwartz, the Loral Space and
Communications CEO who marked his 71st
birthday at the White House
with the Clintons, chipped in $15,000.
Alan Patricof, fund-raiser for
ex-presidential candidate Gen. Wesley Clark, donated $1,000.
Yankees Entertainment & Sports Network,
whose CEO Leo Hindery Jr.
donated to Gephardt, gave $100,000 to the group.
Neither Hindery, one of Gephardt's national
finance chairmen, nor a YES spokesman returned
calls for comment yesterday.
Jones yesterday cast Torricelli
as simply another person who wrote a
check.
"Sen. Torricelli gave to this committee
because I personally solicited him,
and we have a long relationship," Jones said.
"He had no input at all on
the content of the ads. That was totally up to me."
It was just one of many contributions,
totaling more than $300,000, that
Torricelli made last year from funds
left in his re-election campaign
committee, which has more than $2.3
million in the bank.
Staff writer John Hassell and the Associated Press contributed to this
report.
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