CO-7 Scandal: O'Donnell (R) Took CBS-Paid Panama Junket

Here is yet another way media companies buy political favors.

Friday's Denver Post reports Republican Rick O'Donnell (CO-7) took an expenses-paid vacation with his girlfriend to Panama courtesy of CBS Corp. (via Denver affiliate KCNC).  It was allegedly CBS's way of saying thanks to O'Donnell for buying ad time on KCNC to promote the Colorado Commission on Higher Education he headed for Gov. Bill Owens.

The Post (itself an asset of Dean Singleton's MediaNewsGroup, which also has significant business on Capitol Hill) treats the story with "this-is-nothing-out-of-the-ordinary" language.  Here's the lede:

http://www.denverpost.com/...

Republican congressional candidate Rick O'Donnell, who has blasted politicians who accept perks, took an expenses-paid trip to Panama with his girlfriend arranged by a TV station doing business with a state agency he headed.

O'Donnell took the trip three weeks before he resigned as the head of the Colorado Commission on Higher Education to campaign for Congress full time.

KCNC-Channel 4 gave him the trip, paid for by the CBS network, after the commission purchased television ads encouraging Latinos to attend college, O'Donnell said. Such perks - called incentive trips in the industry - are commonly used for heavy advertisers.

The construction "full time" (likely inserted by squeamish, GOP-leading editors) doesn't cut the mustard here.  O'Donnell was an announced candidate for Colorado's 7th district well before stepping down from his commission post.  This also means he accepted and took his CBS gift trip to Panama well after he commenced his congressional run.

In fact, almost a year before.  Here's notice of his April 2005 announcment:

April 16, 2005
 Rocky Mountain News
1ST GOP HOPEFUL EYES 7TH;
HIGHER-ED PANEL CHIEF SAYS BEAUPREZ TO RUN FOR GOVERNOR
 Jim Tankersley, M.E. Sprengelmeyer

Republican Rick O'Donnell has joined a growing list of candidates in the 7th Congressional District, telling would-be donors that incumbent U.S. Rep. Bob Beauprez will give up his seat to run for governor.

[snip]

O'Donnell, a Lakewood resident, said Friday he had planned to look for a private-sector job when Gov. Bill Owens' term expires in less than two years - but the chance to run in the district where he was born proved too tempting.

O'Donnell said he'll focus his campaign platform on national security, changing the federal tax code and stopping "activist judges and frivolous lawsuit abuse."

He also wants to reform federal entitlement programs, such as Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. Asked if he supported President Bush's Social Security reform plan, O'Donnell said Bush "doesn't have one" other than to say "private accounts might be a good idea."

As early as August 2005, O'Donnell received a VIP fundraising visit from Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert (you remember him?):

The Denver Post
August 15, 2005
HALEY'S COMMENT Political winds shifting for Tancredo; Hastert stumping the 7th
Dan Haley

House Speaker Dennis Hastert is throwing his support behind Rick O'Donnell in Colorado's 7th Congressional District, and he'll be here Aug. 25 for a fundraiser at the Brown Palace. Republicans are hoping the big-name endorsements for O'Donnell (the conservative Club for Growth backed him last week) will help keep Jefferson County Treasurer Mark Paschall out of the race.

By December 31, 2005, O'Donnell had raised well over half a million dollars, according to his own filings with the Federal Election Commission:

February 1, 2006
Rocky Mountain News
Congressional candidates report funds
Bill Scanlon And Chris Barge

The closest of Colorado's seven congressional races, at least in terms of fundraising, remains the 7th District.

Republican Rick O'Donnell, who is unopposed this primary season, has more money than either of his Democratic opponents.

O'Donnell had raised $652,000 as of Dec. 31, and had not spent $517,068 of that, according to quarterly reports due Tuesday to the Federal Elections Commission.

Not until late January does candidate O'Donnell announce he is stepping down from the commission in March 2006, six months after his fundraising visit from Speaker Haster at the Brown Palace.

January 26, 2006
Denver Post
Higher-education commissioner resigning to run for U.S. House
Jennifer Brown

Rick O'Donnell's top goal as higher education commissioner was to elevate concern about the so-called Colorado paradox - the fact that the state has a high number of imported college graduates, but does a poor job graduating its own residents.

O'Donnell, who announced Wednesday he will resign March 10 to pursue a 7th District congressional bid, believes he made that the foremost higher-education issue in the state.

[snip]

O'Donnell was appointed higher education commissioner by Gov. Bill Owens in March 2004. He is staying on the job a few more weeks to oversee a review of Colorado's financial aid program

It was presumably after finishing that review that he took his CBS-paid trip to the tropics.

The final question I'd have is when did these ads air, i.e. when did O'Donnell get his deliverables?  It appears from a May 18, 2005 article in the Post that there were two ad buys, one in May and a second in August 2005 -- both AFTER O'Donnell's declaration of candidacy and commencement of reportable fundraising activities.

May 18, 2005
Denver Post
State giveth, but only if you ask
Jim Spencer

I'm registered with the Colorado College Opportunity Fund.

Are you?

If you go to a public college or university or plan to attend one next school year, that could be a $2,400 question.

In their wisdom, your legislators decided to give state residents individual college stipends worth $80 a credit-hour when they attend state schools. The bright lights of the General Assembly determined that this was better than adequately funding those institutions directly.

The College Opportunity Fund is supposed to encourage under-represented minorities to go to college. But the stipends go to any state resident at any state school.

[snip]

The state is in the midst of a five-week advertising campaign to get students to register for stipends. There will be another ad campaign in August, along with visits to high school college nights in the fall, Tulp said.

This arrangement looks damn bad for CBS Corp., who now seems to have sponsored a Panamanian trip for both a declared Congressional candidate and his girlfriend.  As such, I think this story is as much a media story as a political story.  O'Donnell was certainly a known political quantity to KCNC brass, and CBS suits by extension.  After all, he ran for the same congressional seat in 2002 (losing to Beauprez in the Republican primary).

This story grinds at an area that needs major sunlight and regulation, the political ad buy.  Ad buying is a rats nest of favors and perks.  Most media companies never disclose their rate sheets or line-item ad revenues.  This may be fine for selling soap, but it is an utterly corruptable practice in the political sphere.  Why don't we hear more about it?  Because, of course, we most often get our news from publicly held corporations who stand to lose real money from the streamlining and sunlighting of political-sphere ad buying.

In how many federal, state and local races are favors like "incentive trips" being proferred by media companies as "swag" for buying their air time?  (Oh, forgive me, maybe I should say PUBLIC AIR time....)  I'm more than satisfied this isn't a one-off.  Call me cynical.

As for O'Donnell, if DeLay can lose his seat in part for taking a free trip to Scotland, O'Donnell and his girlfriend might want to consider taking up that private sector work after all.

And CBS?  IANAL, but I sure would enjoy the discovery process of a District 7 voter lawsuit.