Award or fundraising racket?
Critics charge the Ronald Reagan Republican Gold Medal Awards are given for money, not merit.
The Telegraph reported earlier this week on an Amherst business consultant who was among the 2004 recipients of the award, given by the National Republican Congressional Committee.
“I made a very small donation to them, and next thing I know, I was being nominated for businessman of the year,” Ira Stern, head of International Business Consulting Group of Amherst, told The Telegraph.
The Telegraph found the award both ironic and newsworthy, in light of Stern’s 1996 conviction on five felony theft charges. Stern served 2½ years in prison after he admitted to bilking more than $600,000 in a businesses loan scam by taking fees on loans he never delivered.
A NRCC spokesman said the committee would not have so honored Stern had it known of his prior convictions.
As it happens, ABC News investigative reporter Brian Ross produced a piece on the awards earlier this month, focusing on those given to doctors. The report can be found online at abcnews.go.com/WNT/Investigation/, by clicking on the link for the story, “Are Honors for Physicians the New Political Diploma Mill?”
In a nutshell, Ross’ report suggests the awards are a fundraising ploy, with no discernable link to achievement beyond the recipient’s ability to write checks to the NRCC.
Fred Wertheimer, head of Democracy 21, a nonprofit election and campaign reform group based in Washington, said the awards are “not, in any way that we can see, based on merit.”
Honoring felons, he said, “is the kind of stuff that happens when you’re not using any selection process.”
nashuatelegraph.com |
