Campaign Money Watch

Radio Ad: “What Happened”

Background Information to Document Facts in the Ad

Female Announcer:  Do two wrongs ever make a right?  We all teach our children that they don’t. And we pray that they listen and learn.  But sometimes they don’t.  And when they grow up, here’s what can happen.

Male Announcer: You get offered an all expense paid luxury trip…

“What he didn’t say was that the trip was partly arranged by the firm of now-jailed lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who represented textile factory owners fighting congressional efforts to reform labor and immigration laws on the islands and who was being handsomely paid to keep the islands' cherished exemptions. Schaffer and his wife stayed for free at a palm-studded beach resort and, besides factories, also toured historical sites and met with clients of Preston-Gates, Abramoff's firm, according to a copy of the trip's agenda archived in Schaffer's congressional papers.” [Source: Michael Riley, “Abramoff Ties Cloud '99 Fact-Finding Trip,” The Denver Post, April 10, 2008.]

Male Announcer: …paid for by someone you shouldn’t give the time of day. And you take it.

Female Announcer:  That’s what Bob Schaffer did. Letting a front group for convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff…

“Schaffer's $13,000 trip was paid for by the Orange County, Calif.-based Traditional Values Coalition, which Schaffer described as a religious group ‘concerned with human rights.’… Later investigations have shown that in many instances, TVC — which claims to represent 43,000 churches — acted virtually as a political arm of Abramoff's lobbying operation.” [Source: Michael Riley, “Abramoff Ties Cloud '99 Fact-Finding Trip,” The Denver Post, April 10, 2008]

Male Announcer: …pay for his trip to the Northern Marianas Island was wrong.

“At the time, Schaffer's staff also flagged the role of Abramoff's firm in the Marianas trip. In an August 1999 memo, Schaffer was told that travel arrangements to the Mariana Islands had been made by Preston-Gates. Handwritten notes on the agenda point out that a lunch meeting was with several current or former clients of the firm, including the Saipan Garment Manufacturers Association and the Western Pacific Economic Council.” [Source: Michael Riley, “Abramoff Ties Cloud '99 Fact-Finding Trip,” The Denver Post, April 10, 2008.]

Male Announcer: You claim the trip is work…that you are doing an investigation.

“Just before boarding a plane to the Mariana Islands in 1999, then-Congressman Bob Schaffer announced he was embarking on a fact-finding mission to get to the bottom of repeated allegations of labor abuse in the American protectorate.” [Source: Michael Riley, “Abramoff Ties Cloud '99 Fact-Finding Trip,” The Denver Post, April 10, 2008.]

 

Male Announcer: But your investigation doesn’t find a thing.

“He left believing that allegations of widespread abuse were largely unfounded — blaming them on Big Labor's efforts to shut down a booming textile industry allowed to use the ‘Made in USA’ label but dependent on tens of thousands of imported workers.” [Source: Michael Riley, “Abramoff Ties Cloud '99 Fact-Finding Trip,” The Denver Post, April 10, 2008.]

Female Announcer:  Was he wrong?  The U.S Department of Interior investigated too and found sweatshops where women workers were forced to have abortions.

“Abortion appears to be a common practice as a means of birth control…The interviewed women recounted the pressures that management places upon them to have the procedure performed. In many instances, management has told them that they are unwilling to shoulder the costs of prenatal care, delivery, and lost productivity related to pregnancy and childbirth…One employee was terminated following her refusal to have the procedure…She was told that she could have her old job back after she had an abortion.” [Source: Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) Labor and Human Rights Abuse Status Report, United States Department of Interior Office of Insular Affairs, January 29, 1998 to February 14, 1998.]

Male Announcer: But Bob Schaffer says “I did not observe a forced abortions.”

“‘In five days, I did not observe a forced abortion or meet anybody who had any knowledge of them,’ he said, adding that no subsequent examples were ever brought to him.” [Source: Tim Hoover, “Two Anti-Abortion Groups Blast Schaffer,” The Denver Post, April 21, 2008.]

Female Announcer: Did he look the other way?

 

Male Announcer:      And then you take thousands of dollars in political contributions from the business owners who run the sweatshops. 

Campaign finance figures are based on Campaign Money Watch analysis of data obtained from the Center for Responsive Politics, a non-partisan organization that tracks and codes campaign finance data by industry and tracks lobbying. Campaign finance data include individual contributions ($200+) and from Political Action Committees (PACs) to campaign committees and leadership PACs. Data for the 2008 cycle were downloaded in March 2008. The Center for Responsive Politics’ website is http://www.opensecrets.org.

Female Announcer:  And that’s wrong too. How many wrongs does Bob Schaffer think it takes to make a right? Sign our petition at Schaffer facts dot com. Tell Bob Schaffer to clean up politics now.

 

Male Announcer:      Paid for by Campaign Money Watch.