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While Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) is taking a much more tight-lipped, cautious approach to the ethics case against him, this cycle he has become the House Democrats’ top fundraiser, a distinction that helps him curry favor with colleagues who could weigh in on any ethics committee action against him.
Earlier this month, Rangel hired Leslie Kiernan, a partner at Zuckerman Spaeder, to handle the ongoing ethics committee investigation into several allegations, including charges that he failed to properly disclose his assets on tax forms and congressional financial disclosure forms.
Kiernan has spent 20 years representing corporations, trade associations, governmental entities and current and former public officials who have faced ethics scrutiny. She takes a much more restrained approach to handling the media than does Lanny Davis, a former official in the Clinton administration who has been advising Rangel on media and legal strategy related to the ethics allegations since they first surfaced in the summer.
Davis, who contributes to The Hill’s Pundits Blog, will continue to advise Rangel as needed, but Kiernan will handle all interaction with the media and the ethics panel. The new tight-lipped strategy was on full display earlier this month when Rangel announced that he had hired the accounting firm of Watkins, Meegan, Drury and Co. to investigate his financial records and prepare a report for the House ethics committee.
In announcing the firm’s hiring, Rangel asked the media to respect his silence on the matter until the ethics committee concludes its work.
“Out of respect for the ethics committee process, the Congressman or his representatives will have no further statements regarding these issues until the ethics committee has completed its work,” the statement read. “He hopes the press will also respect the process.”
Rangel’s new cone of silence stands in stark contrast to the lengthy, freewheeling press conferences he held in the late summer and early fall. Those pressers were an attempt at damage control, but they seemed to add fuel to the fire as Rangel’s colorful and defensive responses spawned even more coverage.
At one point, when he was asked if he would continue to rake in cash for his colleagues’ reelections considering the high-profile ethics charges against him, Rangel didn’t skip a beat in his response.
“You bet your sweet life,” he remarked.
The powerful chairman of the Ways and Means Committee has long been a top contributor to his party’s reelection efforts, but this cycle he kicked it up a notch, becoming the most prolific fundraiser in the House. He has raised roughly $7.8 million through his campaign committee, leadership political action committee (PAC) and his joint fundraising committee, the Rangel Victory Fund.
Despite Republican calls for Democratic candidates to return Rangel contributions, he remained a major draw at fundraisers for his colleagues, doling out donations to 100 of them, according to the latest Federal Election Commission filing.
In June and July of this year alone, Rangel helped host six D.C. fundraisers for several candidates and colleagues.
On Aug. 6, he held a birthday bash for himself at New York’s posh Tavern on the Green restaurant in Central Park. But he spent the party collecting checks for 10 Democratic candidates for Congress.
Instead of fundraising on behalf of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee or his leadership PAC, which is limited to cutting checks of $5,000 to each candidate for Congress, Rangel used the Rangel Victory Fund, a committee that agreed to fundraise jointly with a handpicked group of 10 candidates.
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