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Which politician received the most (public) donations from alleged Duke Cunningham co-conspirator Brent Wilkes and associates? If you thought Duke Cunningham, the San Diego Union Tribune says, think again. It was John Doolittle (R-CA), who got $118,000 from Wilkes and associates. Doolittle's wife Julie started a fundraising firm in 2001 that got a 15% commission on the campaign donations she brought in. The SDUT calculates the Doolittles took home $14,000 from Wilkes et co.
Who were the clients of Julie Doolittle's fundraising firm, Sierra Dominion? Beyond her husband's campaign, it's a familiar list from recent corruption cases:
And how did Doolittle get set up with Wilkes? Through Ed Buckham, DeLay's former chief of staff and until recently the head of the Alexander Strategy Group.A search by The San Diego Union-Tribune yielded only three other clients of Julie Doolittle's firm:
One was Greenberg Traurig, the lobbying firm that employed Jack Abramoff, who has pleaded guilty to conspiracy, mail fraud and tax-evasion charges. The second was Abramoff's Washington restaurant, Signatures. The third was the Korea-U.S. Exchange Council, founded by Ed Buckham, one-time chief of staff for former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay. [...]
Prosecutors in the Abramoff investigation have subpoenaed Julie Doolittle for information regarding her work for Abramoff's firm, which included planning fundraising events for his charity, the Capital Athletics Foundation. Records released by the Senate show that Abramoff used the foundation – whose official purpose was to raise money for underprivileged children – to bankroll some of his lobbying efforts.
Julie Doolittle launched Sierra Dominion Financial Solutions in March 2001, two months after her husband was named to the Appropriations Committee. The business, which is based at the couple's home in Oakton, Va., has no phone listing or Web site. The firm has no known employees other than Julie Doolittle. The congressman's office would not specify what previous fundraising experience she had. [...] Federal and state campaign records show that Julie Doolittle has received nearly $180,000 in commissions from her husband's political fundraising since late 2001.
Update: This article also hints at an answer to something I've been wondering about. Why did Bob Ney, an Ohio Republican, enter praise of Wilkes' San Diego-based Tribute to Heroes Foundation into the Congressional Record on October 1, 2002?
The answer is Wilkes' idea for a company, Mail-Safe. SDUT:
And where was Mail-Safe going to be based? How about Ohio. And who chairs the House Administration committee? Bob Ney. Posted by Laura at March 19, 2006 10:18 AM...Wilkes was trying to get funding for two new businesses. One was tied to the 2002 [sic] anthrax scare, when tainted letters were sent to Capitol Hill. Wilkes' idea was to have all Capitol Hill mail rerouted to a site in the Midwest, where ADCS employees wearing protective suits would scan it into computers and then e-mail it back to Washington.
He called his proposed solution MailSafe – similar to the names of several anti-anthrax companies launched at that time – and began vying for federal contracts, even though the company had little to its name other than a rudimentary Web site.
The House Administration Committee, on which Doolittle sat, oversees the congressional mail system. Doolittle told his colleagues about MailSafe and introduced them to Wilkes, but the project never got off the ground.