-Caveat Lector- From http://www.nydailynews.com/2002-02- 04/News_and_Views/Beyond_the_City/a-140264.asp
}}}>Begin Chuck Had Gone To Bat for Backer By KENNETH R. BAZINET Daily News Washington Bureau WASHINGTON wo months after Kenneth Lay, then the boss of Enron, held a Texas fund-raiser for Chuck Schumer, the senator-elect asked for a review of federal power contracts that eat into utility company profits. Sen. Chuck Schumer announces commission to bring Super Bowl to New York at Chelsea Piers yesterday. A Schumer spokesman denied any quid pro quo, but Enron officials praised the senator's action in 1998 and said his letter asking for the review was a signal he was keeping a campaign promise to push for energy deregulation. Lay gave Schumer campaign cash during his 1998 Senate race against Alfonse D'Amato, and held a breakfast fund-raiser for the Brooklyn Democrat on Oct. 14, 1998, the Daily News has learned. Shortly after winning the Senate race, Schumer, then a congressman, asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for a conference to review high-cost mandatory power purchase contracts. A Schumer spokesman denied he asked for the review because of the campaign contributions. Returned Cash "Sen. Schumer supported bringing competition into the power markets to bring down electricity rates long before he ever heard of Enron," spokesman Bradley Tusk said. "But when Enron was wrong, Sen. Schumer didn't hesitate to oppose them, including leading the fight against Enron's major legislative initiative to deregulate electronic trading. He will continue to oppose them whenever t hey are wrong." Schumer recently donated the $68,857 in campaign contributions he received in the past decade from Enron and its ousted auditor, Arthur Andersen, to a fund assisting unemployed Enron workers. Schumer is one of the most prominent Democrats to be tangled in the Enron probe. Most of the Enron investigations have focused on the company's ties to the Bush administration and Lay's friendship with the President. Funds Favored GOP Lay's endorsement of Schumer raised eyebrows among energy industry officials because of Enron's history of writing checks to Republicans over Democrats by a 3-to-1 ratio in the past decade. Enron also gave D'Amato $13,000 in campaign contributions between 1996 and 1998. Despite Schumer's relationship with Lay and the accounting industry, campaign finance reform allies have praised him for working tirelessly behind the scenes to pass a soft-money ban in the Senate. "He's given money back and we haven't asked that Schumer recuse himself," one campaign reform advocate said. Key Role in Probe Schumer sits on two Senate committees — Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, as well as Energy and Natural Resources — that will play a key role in the investigations of Enron and Arthur Andersen. Watchdog groups, Senate sources and letters obtained by The News indicate Schumer has worked on initiatives backed by both companies. In 2000, Schumer co-sponsored energy deregulation legislation with Sen. Phil Gramm (R-Tex.), whose wife, Wendy Gramm, is on the Enron board. Schumer also signed a letter in July 2000 to then-Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Arthur Levitt calling upon the SEC to drop plans to change a rule that had been under consideration. The rule would have banned accounting firms such as Arthur Andersen from performing both consulting and auditing duties for the same client. Gramm also signed that letter. Supporters of that SEC rule change say it could have helped prevent the Enron collapse from falling as far as it had. Schumer has taken $386,000 from the accounting industry since 1995, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. 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