A new report released today by the House Oversight Committee reveals that the White House orchestrated a huge, taxpayer-funded campaign to ensure Republican candidates were elected into office during the mid-term elections in November, 2006.
In an apparent violation of the 1907 Hatch Act - which strictly prohibits the use of public offices to influence the outcome of elections - the efforts were coordinated by the White House Office of Political Affairs, which used political muscle in an attempt to retain Republican control of Congress.
The report details the travel of thirty-two officials from 12 cabinet agencies and three independent offices to 35 states to make appearances with 99 Republicans running for election in 2006. At least 185 of the 303 events that took place outside of Washington, D.C. were paid for with taxpayer dollars. In fact, emails were obtained by the Oversight Committee detailing conversations between cabinet officials about billing the taxpayer instead of the Republican party to save the party money.
The White House Office of Political Affairs e-mailed the Department of Veterans Affairs to ask whether there was an "official component" to the Secretary's trip to Washington State in July to appear with Doug Roulstone, a non-incumbent Republican House candidate at a campaign event, explaining: "Needless to say, trying to save the campaign as much $$ as possible."
President Bush's first director of the political affairs office, Ken Mehlman, admitted to the House Oversight Committee that a "big part" of his job was to "help elect allies of the President."
Mehlman went on to inform the Committee that when he ran the political affairs office, he worked with Republican party committees to identify "vulnerable Republican members" as well as "battleground races, and States and places where they agreed the most help was needed."
In yet another defiance of the Hatch Act, the Office of Political Affairs provided at least 22 briefings to agency officials at either agency headquarters or in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building to coach them how to help Republican candidates win their elections. These briefings occurred against the advice of the White House Counsel, which suggested such briefings should occur after hours instead of during work hours.
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