Dustin and Dan

For those of you who may have had doubts about who is really behind the undemocratic effort of keepinig Howie Hawkin's out of the NY-25 Congressional race.

A photo is worth a thousand words.

And yes it was difficult keeping Dustin in the photo.

Where'd Maffei's Commercials Go???

In mid July Maffei stooge Dan Krupnick said that Maffei would start his t.v. commercial campaign early and they would stay on the air until the election was over because they had the money for it. (See below link to story.)

http://www.nationaljournal.com/hotline/hr_20080723_7463.php?related=true&story1=hr_20080824_6989&story2=hr_20080723_7463&story3=hr_20080814_9804

Well, true to Krupnick's word, Maffei did go on the air starting 7/22/08. In fact, Maffei spent about $300,000 on his initial t.v. commercial buy. A fairly hefty buy.

But a few weeks ago, against the stated intentions of Maffei and Krupnick, the commercials stopped. Why???

Sources close to both Maffei and Sweetland campaigns said that following several weeks of commercials it is customary for campaigns to poll and see if the numbers have changed and if necessary alter strategy, etc. In this case, both Sweetland and Maffei did poll and unfortunately for Dan Maffei, his numbers remain the same (The race is a statistical dead heat with about 3% difference, Maffei advantage.)

Imagine that, after 3 years of campaigning, $2 million dollars in the 2006 cycle, and spending $300,000 already in July, people still don't know who you are and your numbers are stagnant. Not good news for Maffei. There is no reason, aside from Maffei being a horrible candidate, that this race should be that close. Maffei has the clear money advantage and he has been campaigning for 3 years.

Sounds like a real problem for Maffei and with John McCain on the top of the Republican ticket and Obama not Hillary on the Democratic side, the problems seem to be mounting.

Could this turn into another 'Valesky Situation" where Jeff Brown had all the support and money in the world and couldn't turn it into a win. I guess it still goes to show you that while money is the mothers milk of politics, it isn't everything.

Maffei's Rangel: A Monument to Charlie

Any bets on how fast Maffei will now try to distance himself from his former boss, mentor and current chief fundraiser Rep. Charlie Rangel?

Maffei's biggest problem is the fact that all his money came to him through the direction of Rep. Rangel and questions will be raised whether that is tainted money.

Rangel's Pet Cause Bears His Own NameFirms With Business Before Panel Solicited
By Christopher LeeWashington Post Staff WriterTuesday,

July 15, 2008;

House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles B. Rangel is soliciting donations from corporations with business interests before his panel, hoping to raise $30 million for a new academic center that will house his papers when he retires.

The New York Democrat has penned letters on congressional stationery and has sought meetings to ask for corporate and foundation contributions for the Charles B. Rangel Center for Public Service at the City College of New York, a project that caused controversy last year when he won a $1.9 million congressional earmark to help start it. Republican critics dubbed the project Rangel's "Monument to Me."

The congressman has corralled more federal money as well, securing two Department of Housing and Urban Development grants totaling $690,500 to help renovate the college-owned Harlem brownstone that will house the center, according to HUD and school officials.

"It is a personal dream of mine to see this Center at City College, which resides in my congressional district and where so many talented young men and women from the community have gotten an excellent education," Rangel wrote in a March 7, 2007, letter to real estate mogul Donald Trump, one of the business leaders the congressman has solicited.

Ethics experts and government watchdogs say it is troubling that one of the nation's most powerful lawmakers would seek money from businesses that have interests before the committee he leads. Rangel's panel has broad jurisdiction over tax policy, trade, Social Security and Medicare.

More generally, many say it is a bad idea to name a facility after an incumbent politician who might be tempted to channel public money to it rather than to more worthy causes.

"I think that he has crossed the line," said F. Christopher Arterton, dean of George Washington University's Graduate School of Political Management. "Charlie Rangel is a prominent public servant and may deserve a center at City College. . . . But I think one has to be careful about how one raises the money for that. The danger is that it begins to blur the lines between whether a quid pro quo is implied by this or not."

Steve Ellis, vice president of the nonpartisan Taxpayers for Common Sense, said: "People in positions of power have to be very conscious of the coercive effect of their requests."

Rangel said in a telephone interview that he would seek money for the project even if it did not bear his name, because he believes in its mission of promoting racial diversity in public

administration leadership. He said congressional business never comes up with potential donors.
"In the 38 years that I've been down here, I don't think there has ever been any challenge, real or unreal, to my integrity as it relates to fundraising," he said. He added: "If it was an ethical problem, I wouldn't do it."

Rangel's efforts have helped raise about $12 million of the $30 million goal, college officials said.
On the same day that the congressman wrote to Trump, he sent a nearly identical letter to Maurice R. "Hank" Greenberg, a former longtime head of AIG, an insurance and financial services giant. Greenberg is now chief executive of C.V. Starr & Co., a global investment and insurance firm that has close ties to AIG.

On June 4, 2007, Greenberg met with Rangel, City College of New York President Gregory H. Williams and Rachelle Butler, the college's vice president for development, according to Butler. Her office eventually won a $5 million donation from the C.V. Starr Foundation, the largest single gift to date. Greenberg is the foundation's chairman.

Rangel's office also recommended that officials at the college approach AIG. The congressman attended a meeting at the company's New York headquarters on April 21, 2008. A potential gift "is in discussion," Butler said. An AIG spokesman declined to comment .
Rangel said his relationship with Greenberg is based on their military service in the Korean War, for which each received a Bronze Star. Greenberg has even arranged for Rangel fundraisers in his corporate boardroom, he said.

"I can't think of one piece of legislation that impacts them, and there has never been a time that they've raised any legislation to me," Rangel said, referring to AIG.

But AIG, for instance, has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars lobbying Congress to permanently extend a tax break that allows U.S. financial services firms to defer U.S. taxes on income from certain transactions of their overseas subsidiaries, disclosure reports show. The tax break, which is set to expire this year, costs the Treasury nearly $4 billion annually, according to the Joint Committee on Taxation.

Another donor, Nabors Industries, a Bermuda-based oil and gas drilling contractor, has lobbied against proposals to crack down on U.S.-based companies that incorporate or reorganize offshore to reduce their U.S. tax liability. Nabors chief executive Eugene M. Isenberg, in his first donation to the college, said that he pledged $500,000 and that the company matched it after meeting in 2006 with CCNY officials and Rangel.

"I don't need any special favors that I'm aware of," Isenberg said in a telephone interview.
The Rangel Center is the brainchild of Rangel and Williams, CCNY officials said. It will offer scholarships, sponsor research and house the college's new master-of-public-administration degree program.

An archive of Rangel's papers and memorabilia will record "the life of one of America's most important public servants" and "will rank with the Clinton and Carter Libraries" in importance, according to CCNY promotional materials.

Brett Silverstein, dean of social sciences at CCNY, said it is not unusual to name such centers for living people, citing as an example the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy at Rice University in Texas, named after the former secretary of state.

"I can't speak about egos. It's not my job to do that. It's my job to say this is a very worthy thing," Silverstein said.

Rangel brooks no criticism when it comes to the center. Last year, two-term Rep. John Campbell (R-Calif.) objected to "sending taxpayer funds in the creation of things named after ourselves while we're still here."

Rangel retorted: "I would have a problem if you did it, because I don't think that you've been around long enough . . . to inspire a building like this in a school."

From the center's earliest stages, Rangel has used his influence to help. In 2005, he wrote an appeal on congressional stationery to about 100 foundations, saying the project "will allow me to locate the inspirational aspects of my legacy in my home Harlem community."

Soon, the Ford Foundation committed $1 million and also held a gathering with other foundations on Jan. 29, 2007. Rangel "spoke very passionately and eloquently about the need for more public servants from minority groups," Butler said.

CCNY took in $500,000 from the Verizon Foundation, $130,000 from the New York Community Trust and $50,000 from the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Butler said. It secured donations from the Ann S. Kheel Charitable Trust ($440,000) and the Rhodebeck Charitable Trust ($25,000).

The Kheel donation was by far the largest in the trust's short history. Rangel is its board chairman. New York labor arbitrator Theodore W. Kheel established the trust in 2004 to honor his late wife, creating a $1 million fund to promote causes that serve disadvantaged New York neighborhoods.

Rangel said Kheel, a longtime friend, and his daughter "recommended it" and "I just went along with them."

In Washington, Rangel helped land two HUD Economic Development Initiative grants, which are supposed to finance housing and public facilities rehabilitation and construction for the benefit of low- to moderate-income people. CCNY will use the money for "planning, design, construction, renovation and build out" of the center, according to HUD.

Rangel said that he did not recall seeking the HUD grants but that he would not hesitate to pursue more public money.

Trump, who has also been a Rangel campaign supporter, has not donated to the project, though Rangel visited him along with Williams on May 1, 2007.

"Charlie Rangel is the most honorable, honest politician in Washington and, frankly, anything he's concerned with is 100 percent straight up," Trump said in a telephone interview.
Victor Fleischer, a tax law expert at the University of Illinois College of Law, said Trump could benefit from Rangel's local connections in New York City and his role in setting tax policy for overseas investment interests.

Butler, the college's chief fundraiser, said there was no pressure on businesses to give. "We got turned down many more times than we got accepted," she said.

"As far as Congressman Rangel goes, starting with his war record and through 40 years of public service, he's a man of great integrity and he's proved over and over again his dedication to the public good," she said, adding: "He's a giant today."

Research editor Alice Crites and staff researcher Madonna Lebling contributed to this report.

Maffei Mentor-Fundraiser In Legal / Ethical Trouble

Looks like another Maffei Associate has ethical and legal trouble. Constituents of NY-25 should be especially concerned about this because Rep. Charles Rangel is not only an Associate of Maffei's but he is his former boss, mentor and currently his chief fundraiser.

The below article says it all. Maffei's judgment is not right for NY-25. Ethical problems are a recurring theme for Maffei and that is troubling.

By the way, the official count of "Maffei's Immoral Friends" is now 6. Molesters David Holihan and Ed Putnam, ex-Gov. Elliot "Client #9" Spitzer, Inappropriate Rep. Emanuel, unethical Rep. Artur Davis and now Rep. Charlie "I love a Sweetheart Deal" Rangel.



July 10, 2008
Categories: Bad behavior

NYT: Rangel gets sweetheart deal on four Harlem apartments

Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-N.Y.), chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, has a sweetheart deal on four luxury apartments in Harlem, according to The New York Times. The revelation could raise ethics problems for the veteran Democratic lawmaker.

"The records showed that the congressman paid $1,329 monthly for his two-bedroom apartment, which is about half the $2,600 market-rate rent the development now charges new tenants. For the adjacent one-bedroom, he also paid $1,329. The one-bedrooms are now rented for $1,865 and up," the newspaper reported."He paid $606 a month for the adjacent studio apartment, while market rents for studios there are now $1,300. He pays $630 for the 10th-floor office, and federal election records show that he splits the cost between his congressional reelection fund, which has raised more than $3.6 million this election cycle, and his National Leadership PAC, a committee he controls, which raised more than $1.6 million."

Rangel clearly wasn't happy answering questions about the apartments from the Times.

"Mr. Rangel, 78, declined to answer questions during a telephone interview, saying that his housing was a private matter that did not affect his representation of his constituents.

“'Why should I help you embarrass me?'” he said, before abruptly hanging up, the Times reported.

Members of Congress, like other top federal officials, are prohibited from receiving any gift or gratuity, including below-market rent on an apartment.

Maffei Denial of Poll Complaint NOT Believable

Dan Maffei,

I know you've checked out the response on Syracuse.com to your underhanded actions of complaining about your fellow democrat's polling results.

No one believes it wasn't you. If you are not capable of truthfully coming forth and admitting your campaign and associates were the ones behind the complaint, how can anyone believe you would do an honorable and truthful job as a Congressman. Thanks for showing your true colors.

This blunder is going to come back to haunt you.

Phil

SU political scientist stops polling work

Updated: 06/18/2008 05:49 PM
By: Bill Carey
SYRACUSE, N.Y. – “Well, I can’t do it here anymore,” said Jeff Stonecash, Syracuse University Political Scientist.

After two decades, Jeff Stonecash is ending his polling work. He was told to halt any on-campus efforts after complaints, centered on a poll out in April. That survey showed republican Dale Sweetland and democrat Dan Maffei virtually even in the race for Congress, with a large undecided block. Maffei had claimed an edge headed into his second congressional bid.
“You find that if a person is a first run, builds up a little name ID, it evaporates pretty fast,” Stonecash said. “You don't come back with a lot of name ID if you were an unknown and he was.”
At the time, Maffei campaign manager Mike Whyland, who also headed the campaign in 2006, blasted the survey. He noted the same pollster had shown congressman James Walsh with a 13 point lead two years ago, just before he narrowly won re-election by a few percentage points.

SU political scientist stops polling work
Under orders from the University administration, a well known SU pollster has put a halt to his work providing political polling for republicans, democrats and media outlets. Our Bill Carey says Jeff Stonecash ran afoul of a congressional candidate's campaign.

“When we asked people the question, ‘who are you going to vote for?’ That's what we got. But when we looked at the undecided, which no one asked about, what's their composition? I was pretty certain and, I'm not making this up, but I said to Jim I think you probably will win with about 52 or 53 percent of the vote,” Stonecash said.

In 2007, Mike Whyland was campaign manager for democrat Bill Magnarelli in his effort to become Onondaga County Executive. At the time, he was complaining about another Stonecash poll, this one conducted for the Syracuse Post Standard. It showed republican Joanie Mahoney leading the race by 21 points. Whyland said the race was a dead heat, that Mahoney would not win by 21 points. And he was right. She won by 22.

Stonecash says he has never cooked results for a client.

“Anyone who would hire somebody who would feed them what they want is pretty stupid,” Stonecash said. “You're just wasting your money.”

Syracuse University won't say who complained, putting an end to the polling work. Mike Whyland from the Maffei campaign says simply, it was a matter for the University to resolve. Stonecash has few doubts about who complained.

“The Maffei campaign did,” said Stonecash.

But they deny it was them.

The Stonecash polling work had never cost the University any money. Stonecash directly paid student volunteers to aid in the work and reimbursed the university for any costs, such as computer and telephone usage.

Maffei Complains that fellow Democrat is a Partisan Pollster

Many of my readers have emailed me to alert me to today's Post-Standard article where Campaign Maffei complained that fellow Democratic and pollster Jeff Stonecash is partisan. This is code for Dan not liking the fact that he and Dale Sweetland poll the same, even after 3 solid years of campaigning. Hilarious. It's even more funny that Maffei can't challenge the validity of the poll because he know's Stonecash's result are right.

Read Mark Weiner's article below for yourself.

In an effort to give my readers the acknowledgment they deserve, I have taken the liberty of including the one email that sums up the sentiments of my readers regarding Dan Maffei and this latest of tantrums. Here it is:

"Let me get this straight. Democrat Jeff Stonecash does polling for candidates of any political party, businesses, even the newspaper for a quarter of a centrury, under various Deans and other Administrators, without a problem. Then some whiney Washington-liberal rides into town, loses a race for Congress, then runs nonstop for 3 years, resumes his whining and all of a sudden SU has a problem with Stonecash? Where was the outrage when the Whiney Washington-liberals campaign was being run out of the Maxwell School Offices during the 2006 campaign? Did the Whiney Washington-liberal reimburse SU for those costs? Mybe the Whiney Washington-liberal should try convincing us that he really is going to marry that girl and she is not just a campaign prop to make us think he is heterosexual."


SU PULLS PLUG ON POLLSTER

Syracuse, NY -- After 24 years of polling for political candidates, Syracuse University professor Jeff Stonecash has been asked by university officials to shut down his operation amid complaints from a Democratic congressional candidate.

SU officials said Stonecash, a political scientist at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, voluntarily stopped polling for candidates pending a meeting today with university officials.

Stonecash's most recent candidate poll, made public April 30, was for Republican congressional candidate Dale Sweetland.

The campaign of Sweetland's opponent, Democrat Dan Maffei, acknowledged Wednesday that it had complained about Stonecash's use of SU facilities and student labor.

"We've had a lot of conversations with a lot of people about Jeff Stonecash, especially after that last poll came out," said Mike Whyland, a spokesman for the Maffei campaign.

The Maffei campaign did not file a formal complaint with SU, Whyland said, but it raised concerns about "using university resources for private gain" and using the "good name of the university to promote a partisan operation."

Stonecash said he has never discriminated when accepting clients for his student-based polling operation. Over the years, Republicans and Democrats across New York have made him their pollster. Retiring Rep. James Walsh, R-Onondaga, hired Stonecash throughout his 20-year career in Congress.

Whyland also noted that Sweetland paid $3,500 for his recent poll, which he said would cost $11,000 or more at market rates.

Stonecash, an enrolled Democrat in Onondaga County, said he did not offer discounts to Sweetland.

When told of the Maffei campaign's concerns, Stonecash said, "I would have done the same thing for them, but they never asked. I'm not a partisan pollster."

Stonecash said he plans to discuss what constitutes partisan polling in today's meeting with Maxwell School Dean Mitchel Wallerstein.

Stonecash has taught at SU for 31 years, polling for the past 24 years. In addition to conducting polls for candidates across the state, he has polled for nonprofit groups, school districts and private businesses, including The Post-Standard. He also has run national opinion polls for the Maxwell School.

Stonecash said he has always paid SU students to conduct the polls -- $12.50 per hour this year -- and reimbursed SU for its supplies and telephones.

He said SU officials never raised concerns about the university's involvement in the polling operation.

Kevin Quinn, SU's vice president of public affairs, said the university acted after receiving an informal complaint from an individual he declined to identify.

"In the past, professor Stonecash has done political polling for candidates on both sides of the aisle," Quinn said. "Questions were recently raised to the Maxwell School about that polling, and after discussions with all parties, including professor Stonecash, it was agreed it would be best to discontinue the practice."

Stonecash said he teaches a class in campaign analysis, which includes lessons about polling. He said he tries to avoid hiring his own students for the polling, steering clear of potential conflicts.
"I think it's a very legitimate issue to ask whether a professor can do polling for candidates using university resources," Stonecash said, declining to elaborate.

After meeting with the dean today, Stonecash said, he might decide to move the candidate polling out of the Maxwell School.

Whyland said that would be fine with the Maffei campaign.
"I'm not saying that he shouldn't be doing polling," Whyland said. "The question is: Is it the role of the university to be doing partisan political polling?"

Whyland last fall questioned The Post-Standard's selection of Stonecash to conduct a poll about the race for Onondaga County executive. That poll showed the Republican, Joanie Mahoney, leading Democrat William Magnarelli, by 21 percentage points. At the time, Whyland was a spokesman for Magnarelli's campaign.

Whyland charged that Stonecash was a partisan Republican and that his poll was undoubtedly a partisan product. Mahoney won the election by 22 percentage points.

In a Nov. 1 article about Whyland's charges, The Post-Standard noted that financial disclosure forms filed with the state Board of Elections showed that Stonecash's clients since 2005 included Democrats Roann Destito, an assemblywoman from Rome; Scott McNamara, the Oneida County district attorney; Joan Teuchert Shkane, who ran in 2006 for Oneida County Family Court judge; Jim Conroy, running for Albany mayor; Rich McNally, running for Albany County district attorney; and Oneida County Legislator Michael Hennessy.

Washington bureau reporter Mark Weiner can be reached at mark.weiner@newhouse.com or 202-383-7818.

Another Maffei Confidant Has Ethical Troubles

My my, we have to add Rep. Artur Davis to the "Immoral Friends of Dan Maffei" list.

Not only did Davis come to NY to campaign for Maffei but he has given Maffei $4000.

Our formal head count for Maffei's "Immoral Friends" is now five - Molesters David Holihan and Ed Putnam, ex-Gov. Elliot "Client #9" Spitzer, Inappropriate Rep. Emanuel, and now unethical Rep. Artur Davis.

Nice judgement Maffei. Just what we need in NY-25 right? WRONG!!!!


Colleges paid Davis aide’s salary

By Susan Crabtree
Posted: 06/10/08 07:32 PM [ET]

A former staffer for Rep. Artur Davis (D-Ala.) was on the payroll of two community colleges in his district, one of which benefited from earmarks Davis requested.

When Gina Bailey McKell went to work for Davis’s district office in 2003, Shelton State Community College paid her $76,883 salary. That arrangement continued for roughly a year before another school in Davis’s district, Alabama Southern Community College, picked up the tab. Bailey McKell stayed on that payroll until she left Davis’s office in 2006.

During Bailey McKell’s House tenure, Davis secured $510,000 in earmarks for Shelton State Community College, and $600,000 for Jefferson State Community College, another former employer of Bailey McKell.

In 2003, Davis won $100,000 for electronic and technical training at the college. The next year, while Bailey McKell was on his staff, he received $410,000 for Shelton State’s West Alabama Center for Workforce Development.

Davis, a top supporter of Sen. Barack Obama’s (D-Ill.) presidential campaign, did not ask the ethics committee about the propriety of the arrangement and told The Hill he saw nothing wrong with it. He noted that he requested $1.2 million in funding for Shelton State weeks before Bailey McKell came to work for him in May 2003.

“There was nothing mysterious or unusual about Gina’s placement in the office,” Davis insisted in an interview last week. “[The community colleges] were her ultimate employers, but I tried to treat her as a full-fledged member of the staff. She worked the normal week and then some.”
But ethics watchdogs argue that Davis’s use of a loaned staffer from two junior colleges is unusual and raises questions about whether he should have accepted such a generous gift from a state entity. They also wondered why both schools decided to underwrite her work for Davis.
“At the very least, this arrangement raises appearance problems,” said Meredith McGehee, the executive director of the Campaign Legal Center, “and the earmarks make them more serious.”
Bailey McKell had a similar arrangement when she worked for former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman (D); Jefferson State Community College paid her salary for more than two years.
After Siegelman lost his election and before she went to work for Davis, Bailey McKell’s salary transferred to Shelton State Community College and she remained in the governor’s office for a few months during GOP Gov. Bob Riley’s transition into office.

While in Siegelman’s office, Bailey McKell, a cousin of a close aide to the former governor, made no bones about her advocacy for the community college signing her paycheck. According to a report in The Birmingham News, McKell’s 2001 employee evaluation at Jefferson State suggests that college officials expected her to use her position on Siegelman’s staff to steer dollars to the college.

“We have successfully applied and received funding and it is my goal to recruit any opportunity for programs and funding for Jefferson State,” the News reported that she wrote on an evaluation form.

Federal prosecutors have been investigating Alabama’s two-year college system for more than a year, and several people, including a former state lawmaker, have pleaded guilty to various charges, including nepotism in the awarding of contracts and jobs, and benefits contractors gave to the former chancellor of the community college system and his family.

Alabama media reports about the investigation have scrutinized Bailey McKell’s arrangement with Siegelman and Davis. She is the daughter of Jake Bailey, the former president of Wallace State Community College in Hanceville, Ala.

Davis said the earmarks had nothing to do with Bailey McKell’s role in his office and that the projects amounted to a fraction of the entire $80 million the Alabama delegation won for state universities and colleges between 2004 and 2006. Colleges in Davis’s district received a total of $3.5 million during the time frame in question, Davis asserts.

He also said Bailey McKell’s prior work for Siegelman has not influenced his opinion that the ex-governor’s 2006 conviction on federal funds bribery, conspiracy, honest services mail fraud and obstruction of justice was politically motivated and pursued by a partisan Justice Department.
The House Judiciary Committee, of which Davis is a member, is investigating the conviction as part of its ongoing probe into the firing of nine U.S. attorneys.

“That’s the point that some partisan Republicans in Alabama would like to make,” Davis said. “I decided last summer that the [Justice Department] didn’t have a strong record of responsibility, that three U.S. attorneys were pressured to bring certain kinds of cases based on partisanship.”
District staff members, including Bailey McKell, have nothing to do with appropriations requests, Davis said. Staffers who make those decisions are in Washington, D.C., and community colleges’ representatives regularly fly in to meet with their lobbyists and press their case on Capitol Hill, he said.

Davis explained that McKell served as a grant expert who created a listing of federal grant opportunities that was sent out via e-mail to a list of constituents. She also was involved in fundraising on his reelection campaign.

Bailey McKell received $24,000 from Davis’s campaign, and was reimbursed $2,300 for mileage from his congressional office allowance.

Shelton State Community College President Mark Heinrich said the Bailey McKell arrangement occurred before his time at the college and he could not say why the college paid her full salary to work for Siegelman and Davis.

Calls to the president of Alabama Southern Community College were not returned.
Members of Congress often have fellows working in their offices whose salaries are paid for by various federal government departments or agencies, such as the Department of Defense, the State Department and NASA.

According to the Members’ Handbook published by the House Administration Committee, a fellow must be working on “a temporary basis as part of an established mid-career education program while continuing to receive the usual compensation from his or her sponsoring employer.”

The watchdogs, however, say they have never heard of a local community college sharing or loaning its employee to a member of Congress.

The handbook specifically notes that the use of fellows is subject to House ethics committee regulations, and that members should contact the panel with any questions.

“The issue is whether the volunteer or the shared employee rules as outlined in the manual are being complied with,” said Stan Brand, a Democratic ethics expert. “Whether an outside group is allowed to subsidize a House employee … If it’s not apparent from the way it’s structured under the rules, then one would assume you would ask the [ethics] committee.”

Davis said he never consulted the ethics committee to get its approval because his staff studied the ethics rules themselves and found what they believed was wide latitude in regards to accepting in-kind services from state government entities.

His aides pointed to a gifts provision in the ethics manual that states that members may accept “anything that is paid for by the Federal Government, by a State or local government, or secured by the Government under a Government contract …”

“This is a broad provision, which extends to tangible items of all kinds, as well as meals, services, and travel provided, however, that the gift is paid for by a government agency or entity,” the manual reads.

“That gave me comfort that it was perfectly permissible,” Davis said. “And she had a similar arrangement for the last two governors of Alabama.”

The Campaign Legal Center’s McGehee disagrees. She said full-time staffers cannot be equated to “services” and the fellowship programs she’s aware of only loaned federal government employees to Congress.