Political donations from ex-senator’s coffers questioned

WASHINGTON -- Candidates and political groups linked to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid have received more than $40,000 since 2002 from unspent campaign funds of former Sen. Robert Torricelli of New Jersey, according to the New York Times.

Torricelli, a Democrat, abruptly bowed out of his 2002 re-election campaign several weeks after the Senate Ethics Committee issued a letter "severely admonishing" him for accepting gifts from a donor.

But after leaving the Senate, Torricelli still had $2.9 million in campaign money. He became a lobbyist, and began contributing his unused donations to politicians and groups who might help his new clients, the newspaper reported Friday.

There was no evidence Torricelli violated federal rules, which prohibit former members of Congress from converting leftover campaign money for personal uses.

But campaign finance advocates said it appeared Torricelli found a loophole to use his donors' money to boost his business, Rosemont Associates.

"I think it's reasonable for donors to expect their money to be used for the purposes they intended instead of winding up in a bank for a year and then making its way across the country," said Massie Ritsch, a spokesman for the Center for Responsive Politics.

Torricelli's contributions have included:

• $25,000 in 2003 to Silver State Victory 2004, the Democratic committee guiding the party's campaigns in Nevada.

• $10,000 in October 2004 to the Nevada State Democratic Party.

• $4,000 in February 2003 to Reid's 2004 re-election campaign.

• $250 in October 2004 to Reid's son, Josh, who unsuccessfully campaigned for a city council seat in Cottonwood Heights, Utah.

Reid spokesman Jon Summers on Friday downplayed the contributions, noting that Torricelli gave "hundreds of thousands of dollars to candidates and organizations across the country."

The New York Times reported Torricelli spent almost $900,000 on political candidates and political parties, and gifts to nonprofits and charities.

Reid has said he considered Torricelli a friend, and in 2001 he donated $500 to the New Jersey senator's legal defense fund.

As chairman of the Senate Ethics Committee in 2002, Reid initially declined to step aside when the committee began considering misconduct allegations against Torricelli. But he subsequently recused himself from the case.

On Feb. 2, 2005, the paper reported, Torricelli arranged a meeting between Reid and a representative of Taiwan, which was a Torricelli client. The meeting included a discussion of Taiwan's opposition to a new Chinese law authorizing force if Taiwan declared independence.

Over the next two years, Torricelli contacted Reid or his staff two dozen times about Taiwan, which was paying Torricelli $15,000 a month.

On April 17, 2006, Reid wrote a letter to President Bush urging him to use an upcoming meeting with Chinese President Hu Jintao to emphasize the importance of "avoiding further provocations with Taiwan."

Summers said Torricelli's contributions did not influence Reid.

He said Torricelli's contributions occurred several months before he asked Reid to meet with the Taiwanese official.

As for the contributions to Nevada Democratic groups, Summers noted Nevada was "a major battleground state" in 2004.

"This is an agenda-driven attempt to create a situation which simply didn't occur," Summers said.

Calls to Torricelli and Sean Jackson, a partner in Torricelli's lobbying firm in Lambertville, N.J. were not returned.

Jackson told the New York Times the suggestion that Torricelli donations were tied to his business was "ridiculous." The former senator gave to people he knew and to those who shared his political beliefs, Jackson said.