When a group of people in Northern Virginia staged a day of education and protest last week over high oil prices, the Fairfax Connnection asked Tom Davis (R-11th) for his opinion on the matter ("Davis Criticized for Ties to Big Oil: Fueling a Protest")."I've never taken a nickel from oil companies," said Davis, as he attacked protest sponsor MoveOn.org as "widely discredited."
The Connection reporter dug no deeper. However, the only truth to Davis's claim seems to be that a solitary nickel would not buy Exxon much from one of their favorite Congressman. They have donated much more than that.
According to the Federal Election Commission, Davis collected $18,500 from Exxon Mobil's PAC alone.
It shows not only another example of Davis voting the GOP party line almost 90% of the time. It shows how oil interests bought his vote on the Energy Policy Act of 2005 written by the oil companies that gave them $14.5 billion in tax breaks, and why Davis voted to weaken Ethics Reform in Congress.
You have a choice in November. Andy Hurst is running on a platform of Ethics Reform. The "lobbyists" Congress should be paying attention to is you.
In addition to being awarded Weenie of the Week on NLS, the Connection did run a letter to the editor July 19th on Tom Davis's false statement.
According to OpenSecrets.org, he's collected $12,500 from oil and gas PACs for 2006; that's out of about half a million in PAC money so far. That's almost as much as he got from the oil PACs for the whole cycle in 2003-2004, when he cashed in the "pay to play" political chits for three-quarters of a million in PAC money. In 2002, before the "soft money" ban, he shook them down for even more, $31,000 (out of almost $637k in PAC donations). There are also reports of oil money from 1997-2000 totaling over $50k. The breakdown in provided below.
EXXON MOBIL CORPORATION-MOBIL PAC 09/12/1997 $1000.00 98032743790
EXXON MOBIL CORPORATION-MOBIL PAC 03/24/1998 $500.00 98033052425
EXXON MOBIL CORPORATION-MOBIL PAC 06/04/1998 $1500.00 98033391927
EXXON MOBIL CORPORATION-MOBIL PAC 11/02/1998 $3500.00 98034034727
EXXON MOBIL CORPORATION-MOBIL PAC 03/15/1999 $1000.00 99034980450
EXXON MOBIL CORPORATION-MOBIL PAC 06/28/1999 $2000.00 99034670645
EXXONMOBIL PAC 03/09/2000 $500.00 20035411004
EXXONMOBIL PAC 06/14/2000 $1000.00 20035851243
EXXONMOBIL PAC 10/17/2000 $1000.00 20036480940
EXXONMOBIL PAC 06/18/2001 $1000.00 21990202619
EXXONMOBIL PAC 10/31/2001 $1000.00 21990586667
EXXONMOBIL PAC 07/25/2003 $1000.00 23991798196
EXXONMOBIL PAC 03/15/2004 $1000.00 24991092871
EXXONMOBIL PAC 03/16/2005 $2500.00 25990533720
2005-2006 PAC Contributions: $543,303 at Open Secrets 2006
Based on data released by the FEC on Monday, May 16, 2005
Oil & Gas $12,500
Electric Utilities $6,0002003-2004 PAC Contributions: $749,851 at Open Secrets 2004
Oil & Gas $13,000
Mining $2,000
Electric Utilities $8,0002001-2002 PAC Contributions: $636,886 at Open Secrets 2002
Energy/Nat Resource $31,000
Oil & Gas $11,500
Mining $1,000
Misc Energy $2,000
Electric Utilities $15,500
Environmental Svcs
/Equipment $1,0001999-2000 PAC Contributions: $689,841 at Open Secrets 2000
Energy/Nat Resource $24,250
Oil & Gas $11,500
Misc Energy $1,500
Electric Utilities $11,2501997-1998 PAC Contributions: $444,240 at Open Secrets 1998
Energy/Nat Resource $28,000
Oil & Gas $15,500
Misc Energy $500
Electric Utilities $10,500
Waste Management $1,500
1. VOLUNTEER. Knock on a few doors or make a couple of calls.
2. CONTRIBUTE. Look, even volunteers have associated costs for campaigns, water, lit, printing walk packets, clipboards, and so on. (Andy just switched over to Act Blue, take this as a sign that he is responding to netroots support)
If you have a few seconds and a Kos or MyDD account, please go over there and comment and recommend, and let's see if we can make this a national story.
Good Job Andrea and Pitin for getting the word out.
He also tries to act like he's a friend to the Federal Workers of the 11th District, then why did he oppose the new Goverment Dental and Vision plan for Government workers. Of course he'll bend the truth about that too.
I am very confident that Andy Hurst won't be playing all these games with the English language--that's not his style. He's a straight talker and to the people of the 11th District he will be like a breath of fresh air.
For 2004, Davis took money from oil companies in addition to ExxonMobil. The links show the detail, but for the last election (when he ran against an opponent who did not try very hard to raise money and Davis only used it as Tom DeLay did, as a "hammer" to make other Republicans vote the GOP Party line) he raised $13,000 from Big Oil and Gas:
Oil & Gas $13,000American Gas Assn $1,000
ChevronTexaco $1,000
Exxon Mobil $2,000
Halliburton Co $4,000
Occidental Petroleum $2,000
Shell Oil $1,000
Washington Gas $2,000
Davis signed the Contract with America:
As part of the Contract with America, within 100 days we pledge to bring to the House Floor the following bills]:
...
The Citizen Legislature Act:A first-ever vote on term limits to replace career politicians with citizen legislators.
Source: Contract with America 93-CWA11 on Sep 27, 1994
Energy/Nat Resource $18,500
Oil & Gas $12,500
American Gas Assn $2,000
Chevron Corp $1,000
Exxon Mobil $2,500
Halliburton Co $3,000
Occidental Petroleum $1,000
Washington Gas Light Co $2,000
Williams Companies $1,000
So crack open that wallet and contribute to Andy.
And he took the money from Exxon--sorry it's out of the bag now, and it's only going to get worse for him. Davis is part of the K street money makers all GOP and they're some crooked SOB's. The Chinks in his golden armor are coming out.......
Au revoir, et bon voyage!
You know Davis didn't stay in office this long without doing shady bullshit. Believe me there's a lot more than Davis' admission to saying he believes in term limits and then changing his mind. Oh he's going to come out and say how much money he's brought to the roads around this area--and his favorite tag line, "If it wasn't for me there would be no new The Wilson Bridge". I think the voters of Fairfax want change and when they see how far to the right Tom Davis really is (Terry Schiavo for all you social politicians)they'll think twice. Davis is part of the problem why Congress approval rating is almost in the single digits with Americans--He's no different than Bush.
Do not underestimate Andy Hurst and the political climate he is taping into--Voters want change. They're tired of the Iraq war that the Bush(Davis supported) so stupidly got us into. Hurst didn't get as far in his career twiddling his thumbs, he's a shaker and a mover. He has a lot to offer the people of the 11th District: Honesty, passion, and he'll do the right thing, even if it may not be the most popular. Davis'experience doesn't mean jack when he misleads the voters of the 11th District, especially the Federal Workers..stay tuned...
As for helping his constituents, the CIA is in his District. He doesn’t seem interested in helping Plame or her husband, who had warned the information on WMDs in Iraq was false.
As for the bridge and NoVa transportation, considering that Davis is the one who brought uncontrolled development into the area to benefit his donors, the fact that after years of gridlock he’s finally using taxpayer dollars to fund the roads that the developers should have funded, is no consolation. Those developers are big Davis contributors, too. They include Robert Pence, the wealthy Republican developer who gave Davis thousands of dollars and a trip to Italy on private jets, and wealthy Republican developer Ted Lerner, the guy who bought the Washington Nationals after Davis prevented the sale to Democrat George Soros.