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NY-20: Sweeney Lawyers Up Against MoveOn
Rep. John Sweeney has enlisted a big-shot lawyer to battle on his behalf against MoveOn, which is dumping huge amounts of cash into a TV ad campaign targeting the endangered GOP incumbent. Capitol Confidential reports that the lawyer, E. Stewart Jones, has sent a scathing missive to local stations demanding that they pull the ad, which he slams as "irresponsible and reckless."
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OK, what's their claim? The ads seem pretty straightforward to me. Not particularly edgy. On what are they basing their demand to pull the ad?
August 25, 2006 4:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
Shouldn't Move-on Lawyer respond in kind threatening and equally scathing missive letter warniong them not to give in to Sweeny's legal blackmail!
Ed Beckmann Disabled Viet Vet
August 25, 2006 5:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm working on putting together a post about Sweeney and his relationship with the Readnet Foundation for the Sunlight Foundation's earmark project.
There is a proposed $1.4 million in earmarks for the Readnet Foundation in the draft of the HHS appropriations bill of which $1 million is to go for an "online literacy program" in Hudson NY which is Sweeney's district.
The Readnet Foundation was founded by Robin D. Hubbard who lives on the Upper East Side of NYC. Robin Hubbard and her husband, William, are big Democrats.
They were named co-chairmen of Kerry's campaign because they put together a bundle of more than $50k in donations for him.
When Hubbard first donated to Sweeney in 2003, the Readnet Foundation got a $275k federal grant.
They donated to Sweeney in May 2006 and now there's a million bucks on the line for Readnet and Robin Hubbard.
Readnet also spent $150k on DC lobbyists.
There's more to the story and I'll let you know when I have it together. I think Sweeney will come out looking very greedy.
August 26, 2006 8:53 AM | Reply | Permalink
I posted the Sweeney/Readnet story at Room 8, an affiliate of the Sunlight Foundation.
"Q. When is an Upper East Side Democrat not a Democrat?
A. When she contributes to the campaign of Rep John E. Sweeney ? (R-CD 20) in exchange for a $1,000,000 earmark for her Readnet Foundation in the pending HHS appropriations bill.
Meet Robin D. Hubbard, president and founder of the Readnet Foundation. Ms. Hubbard is also the founder and a trustee of the failed Readnet Bronx Charter School at the Metropolitan College of New York and president of Smart Learning Systems, LLC (formerly Readnet Systems, LLC)..."
I wasn't born in a turnip patch and I don't think for one minute that Robin Hubbard got a $1 million earmark in exchange for only a measly $4,200 in campaign contributions to Sweeney. I'm sure part of the $1 million will go to a job(s) or consulting gig(s) for someone connected to Sweeney.
I think there is more going on politically with Robin D. and William N. Hubbard than just earmarks for the Readnet Foundation. R. D. Hubbard, Inc. is registered in NYS to Robin Hubbard in c/o of Joseph F. Kelly Jr., Capital Health Partners, LLP, Washington DC. Kelly, a lawyer, is also an officer of the Readnet Foundation.
William N. Hubbard is the president of the Center Development Corporation and has been involved in low-cost housing projects for at least a couple of decades. Information about Center Development is not readily available but I don't have the time to dig for it at the moment.
I just read at SourceWatch that Sweeney was one of the thugs, along with John Bolton, who pounded on the doors and windows of the Miami Election Board during the 2000 Florida vote recount. When I watched the Republican goon squad in action on television, I was shocked. I thought they behaved in the same way I imagine Nazi bullies did in the early '30s.
Who the f**k is John E. Sweeney to interfere in a federal election?
Now I am determined to look under every rock for dirt on John E. Sweeney. The Readnet Foundation earmark is a warmup!
August 26, 2006 9:32 AM | Reply | Permalink
In rooting around for more on the Readnet/Sweeney earmark for the Mid Hudson Library system, I wandered across this Media Transparency Link showing two grants to the Readnet Foundation totalling $100,000 from the conservative Smith Richardson Foundation. One wonders what about Readnet is interesting to the group.
August 27, 2006 12:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm wondering about the choice of lawyer. E. Stewart Jones is, so far as I know, primarily a high profile criminal defense attorney.
August 27, 2006 4:49 PM | Reply | Permalink
RW, One reason for the Smith Richardson Foundation grants might be because Robin D. Hubbard, founder of the Readnet Foundation, was planning to start a charter school which she did and it failed miserably. I found a lot of charter school websites that linked to the Readnet Bronx Charter School.
Did you see the photo of Robin Hubbard with Rep. John E. Sweeney and Under Secretary of Education Eugene Hickock in an April 2003 press release from the Center for Educaton Reform about National Charter School Week?
This Readnet business stinks to high heaven, imo. First off, it appears that Readnet Systems, LLC (now Smart Learning Systems, LLC) was started in the '90s as a commerical operation to sell the Readnet literacy program.
Columbia University's education department did the initial research on the Readnet program's effectiveness, according to information on the Readnet site in the internet archives. As I posted in Room Eight in a followup comment , it appears that Robin Hubbard's father-in-law, William N. Hubbard, was a trustee of Columbia U. from 1981 to 1989 after retiring from Upjohn where he was president.
BTW, AlltheWeb.com had some info about Readnet and the Hubbards that did not show up on Google. E.g., Joyce S. Johnson, 2005 Democratic candidate for NYC City Council primary, 8th district, is the former director of operations for the Reanet Bronx Charter School. I would have thought that Johnson would have gone out of her way to hide that fact, given that the Readnet school was an abject disaster and $3 million was not properly accounted for.
I'm wondering if John E. Sweeney got hooked up with the Hubbards when William N. Hubbard's (Robin's husband and son of the Columbia trustee) company, Center Development Corp, got involved with developing the former NYS facility, the Letchworth Village Developmental Disabilities Center, in Haverstraw in Rockland County.
Isn't Haverstraw in Sweeney's district?
I searched on the Mid-Hudson Library System's website for a reference to the Readnet program but no luck. Maybe some other division of local government was using the Readnet system and not the library. If so, who spent the 2004 $275k grant?
I wonder which division of government in Hudson is going to reach out to "at-risk" youths in Hudson with the online Readnet literacy program. Maybe someone in Hudson could ask Rep. John E. Sweeney.
August 28, 2006 11:43 AM | Reply | Permalink
RW, I checked the Citizens Against Government Waste pork database for the Readnet Foundation and found $3 million appropriated in a transportion bill for the foundation in 2006. The earmark was requested by the Chief Financial Officer of the District of Columbia
I posted about it and past earmarks for the foundation at Room Eight.
This Readnet story is not a pretty one.
August 29, 2006 2:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
"Isn't Haverstraw in Sweeney's district?"
No, not close. Maps:
LQ
September 3, 2006 7:44 PM | Reply | Permalink