Mayor Lou Barletta Accepts More Dirty Money
What do you do if you’re a Congressional candidate and honest, law abiding citizens won’t give you any money to help fund your campaign? Take it from dirty, sleazy criminals and former criminals! That’s exactly what Lou Barletta is doing. In addition to accepting $2,000 from two men who were involved in a cocaine distribution ring, Mayor Barletta has also accepted campaign donations from Senator Ted Stevens (R – Alaska).
Senator Stevens, for those that don’t know, was recently indicted by a Federal Grand Jury for accepting gifts and kickbacks from lobbyists. Stevens is the first US Senator to be indicted, for anything, since 1993. Senator Stevens is accused of accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in gifts from oil lobbyists. He is also under investigation for sponsoring fishing legislation that may have been used to help his son, who is also a lobbyist.
“From May 1999 to August 2007, prosecutors said, the 84-year-old senator concealed “his continuing receipt of hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of things of value from a private corporation.”
The indictment unsealed Tuesday says the items included: home improvements to his vacation home in Alaska, including a new first floor, garage, wraparound deck, plumbing, electrical wiring; as well as a Viking gas grill, furniture and tools. He also was accused of failing to report swapping an old Ford for a new Land Rover to be driven by one of his children.
Prosecutors said Stevens received more than $250,000 in gifts and services from VECO Corp., a powerful oil services contractor, and its executives.”
Mayor Lou Barletta has accepted $1000 from the Northern Lights Political Action Committee (PAC), a PAC that is run by Senator Ted Stevens. Naturally, Representative Paul Kanjorski, Barletta’s opponent, has called on Barletta to give the money back. And, predictably, the Barletta camp has so far refused. Just like they’ve refused to give back the $2,000 that they’ve accepted from the DiAngelo brothers, who were both involved, extensively, with the Empire Drug Ring.
And why won’t Mayor Barletta give this dirty money back? Well, I think it comes down to two reasons. First, Lou Barletta is perfectly comfortable with accepting money from criminals. Otherwise, you know, he would give the money back. But he hasn’t. Second, Mayor Barletta can’t afford to give the money back. His campaign is hurting for money and he needs every single penny he can get his hands on. Desperate people will do desperate things, I suppose.
All of this leads to one conclusion: Lou Barletta has no business being elected to the United States Congress. He has shown a total disregard for anything resembling ethical behavior and his campaign is already tainted with dirty money from people who have been indicted, and in some cases, convicted of major criminal offenses. With all of his ties to criminals, Lou Barletta should not be elected to the United States Congress.
-Dan Cheek
www.StopLouBarletta.com
StopLouBarletta@gmail.com
July 2nd, 2009 at 8:31 am
[...] starters, Lou Barletta has accepted campaign money from both convicted drug dealers and dirty politicians. Worse, in the case of the drug dealers (who happen to now be local businessmen in Barletta’s [...]