-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.
Original Publication Date: 2/4/02
End<{{{
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