Repeat After Me . . .
And I Know You Can . . .
By Pejman Yousefzadeh Posted in Democrats | Featured Stories — Comments (1) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
"Culture of corruption" (read on):
It's hard to buy undeveloped land in booming northern Arizona for $166 an acre. But now-Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid effectively did just that when a longtime friend decided to sell property owned by the employee pension fund that he controlled.
In 2002, Reid (D-Nev.) paid $10,000 to a pension fund controlled by Clair Haycock, a Las Vegas lubricants distributor and his friend for 50 years. The payment gave the senator full control of a 160-acre parcel in Bullhead City that Reid and the pension fund had jointly owned. Reid's price for the equivalent of 60 acres of undeveloped desert was less than one-tenth of the value the assessor placed on it at the time.
Six months after the deal closed, Reid introduced legislation to address the plight of lubricants dealers who had their supplies disrupted by the decisions of big oil companies. It was an issue the Haycock family had brought to Reid's attention in 1994, according to a source familiar with the events.
If Reid were to sell the property for any of the various estimates of its value, his gain on the $10,000 investment could range from $50,000 to $290,000.
It is a potential violation of congressional ethics standards for a member to accept anything of value -- including a real estate discount -- from a person with interests before Congress.
[. . .]
Records and interviews show that beginning in the mid-1990s, Reid tried several times to push legislation that would have protected lubricants distributors from abrupt cancellations by their suppliers. Though unsuccessful, the legislation sent a clear message to the oil firms that there was congressional interest in the matter, according to Sarah Dodge, then-legislative director for an industry group that worked on the bill.
By the time of the land sale, the Haycocks say, they had lost interest in the issue and were not aware that the legislation had been introduced.
Because an employee pension fund had owned the land Reid purchased, labor law experts contacted by The Times said, a below-market sale would raise additional questions. Pension fund trustees like Clair Haycock have a duty in most cases to sell assets for their market value, the experts said.
"I think this would have been considered a potentially serious issue" at the time, said Ian D. Lanoff, who led the Labor Department's pension division during the Carter administration and was provided basic details of the case -- though not the identity of the lawmaker -- by The Times.
"Theoretically it's a serious issue for the trustee who sold the property, though practically it may not be" because the pension plan is now closed and its obligations were met, Lanoff said.
It was, of course, my understanding that such underhanded shenanigans were supposed to be a thing of the past with the establishment of le nouveau regime parlimentaire. Apparently not. In any event, good on the L.A. Times for reporting this most disturbing story, and here's hoping that there will be sufficient media follow up.
To encourage the media, I propose the following two-step thought experiment:
- Pretend Harry Reid is a Republican.
- Act accordingly. Or naturally, for that matter.
The bridge that Reid earmarked money for just miles from his property that would increase its value.