Like Tom DeLay, Roy Blunt Raises Huge Amounts of Money from Special Interests
Roy Blunt has raised $9.3 million over the course of his congressional career for his campaign fund, 96% of that from business interests. That doesn’t include the money he’s collected for Rely On Your Beliefs, his leadership PAC, which puts his totals at far more than $10 million, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

Like Tom DeLay, Roy Blunt has Close Ties to K Street
As part of Tom DeLay’s Street Project, DeLay relied on Blunt to get the lobbyist community to push the GOP agenda, particularly to help win votes on massive tax cuts and the pharmaceutical industry-backed Medicare prescription drug law. Blunt was DeLay’s ambassador to the community, according to Gregg Hartley, Blunt’s former chief of staff and now vice chairman of Cassidy & Associations, a major Washington-based lobbying firm. “We formalized the process of reaching out to them,'' Hartley told Bloomberg news. ``You could talk to Tom or Tom's people, or Roy or Roy's people. It was all the same.'' 1

Capitol Hill lobbyists have made personal contributions of at least $429,000 to Blunt’s political committees since 1999.2

In 2002, Blunt tried to insert language into a bill that would have helped Philip Morris, now Altria Group Inc., by making it harder to sell cigarettes over the Internet. At the time, Blunt’s son worked as a lobbyist for Phillip Morris in Missouri. Blunt later married an Altria lobbyist.

Roy Blunt is Cozy with Tom DeLay
Blunt’s political action committee (PAC) has employed Jim Ellis, who was indicted along with DeLay as part of the TRMPAC criminal case in Texas. Ellis not only managed Blunt’s PAC, but also his leadership PAC, Rely on Your Beliefs, as well as DeLay’s leadership PAC, ARMPAC.

In 1999 and 2000, when Ellis ran both DeLay's ARMPAC and Blunt's ROYB Fund, ARMPAC made contributions to Blunt's committee totaling $150,000. See below for more information on this.

Blunt has contributed $20,000 to the Tom DeLay Legal Defense Fund and $10,000 to the Delay Foundation. He has voted with Tom DeLay 96% of the time.

Like Tom DeLay, Roy Blunt Has Engaged in a Similar Kind of Money Laundering that Landed Tom DeLay in Court
As mentioned above, in the spring of 2000, DeLay’s ARMPAC sent $150,000 to Blunt’s leadership committee. The $150,000 reportedly came from excess funds DeLay raised from corporate sources for parties at the Republican Party national convention. Blunt's committee donated $100,000 to the Missouri Republican Party, which in turn spent money in support of his son Matt's campaign, along with campaigns of other candidates. In short, corporate money given legally to Tom DeLay's leadership fund for one purpose was funneled to Roy Blunt and then the state GOP for another. Blunt also gave $10,000 to DeLay’s charity and made payments to Alexander Strategy Group, a lobbying firm set up by DeLay staffers and the employer of DeLay’s wife. Tom DeLay is now under indictment in Texas for the same type of money laundering transactions.

Like Tom DeLay, Roy Blunt has Connections to Jack Abramoff
In 2003, Blunt wrote a letter to Interior Secretary Gale Norton opposing a casino for an Indian tribe that would have competed with one of Abramoff's clients. The same year, Blunt signed a similar letter along with DeLay, House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-IL) and Chief Deputy Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA).3

During Ellis' tenure with Rely on Your Beliefs, Blunt accepted a series of contributions from clients of embattled uber-lobbyist and DeLay crony, Jack Abramoff. Blunt accepted contributions from Concorde Garment Manufacturing, a company that ran sweatshops on the Marianas Islands. In March of 2000, eight major U.S. retailers settled a class action lawsuit for $6.5 million for working conditions in Marianas Island manufacturing facilities, including those of Concorde Manufacturing. Abramoff lobbied on behalf of various Marianas Island interests.4 The Justice Department is currently investigation Abramoff’s activities in the Northern Marianas Islands.

Blunt ate free at Abramoff’s now-defunct restaurant, Signatures.5

Like Tom DeLay, Blunt Loves to Fly on the Special Interest Dime
Blunt has taken at least 99 subsidized flights on corporate jets. Some 140 trips were taken by Blunt or congressional candidates for whom he paid airfare. While Blunt’s political action committees reimbursed the jets’ owners $193,744 for these trips, the cost of first-class airfare, the actual cost is more like $925,000 to $2 million, according to Public Citizen. These same companies often contributed far more to Blunt’s campaigns then he reimbursed them for the trips, which made the trips essentially free.6

For more information, please also see:

Rep. Roy Blunt: Ties to Special Interests Leave Him Unfit to Lead, Public Citizen, January 2006: http://www.citizen.org/pressroom/release.cfm?ID=2111

“CREW Releases Ethics Complaint Against Acting Majority Leader Roy Blunt,” Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, January 2006: http://www.citizensforethics.org/press/newsrelease.php?view=103

ENDNOTES
1) Laura Litvan & Jonathan D. Salant, “Blunt, Boehner Share Broad Network of Lobbyist Ties With DeLay,” Bloomberg News, January 10.

2) Public Citizen, “Rep. Roy Blunt: Ties to Special Interests Leave Him Unfit to Lead,” January 2006.

3) Laura Litvan & Jonathan D. Salant, “Blunt, Boehner Share Broad Network of Lobbyist Ties With DeLay,” Bloomberg News, January 10.

4) New York Times, 8 Retailers Settle Suit, March 29, 2000

5) Public Citizen, “Rep. Roy Blunt: Ties to Special Interests Leave Him Unfit to Lead,”January 2006.

6) Public Citizen, “Rep. Roy Blunt: Ties to Special Interests Leave Him Unfit to Lead,” January 2006.