Indian Gaming Money, Don Young PAC, the U.S Coast Guard and the Boston Ferry

Long-time connection between Alliance lobbyist Guy Martin and the Alaskan Congressman Don Young who is trying to kill Cape Wind

Special to capecodtoday by Timothy Gillespie

Gene Hartigan shown above with Karl Rove at The White House. His gaming-ship partner is Hingham-based Guy Conrad, for seven years a highly-paid lobbyist for the tiny Nipmuc Nation in their attempt to build a large casino on the Mass-Conn border. The Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound's spokesperson, Ernie Corrigan, was also the Nipmuc spokesperson last year.

The effort to sabotage the Cape Wind farm proposed for Nantucket Sound took on sinister direction when an Alaskan congressman named Don Young inserted an amendment in the Coast Guard re-authorization bill last month which would kill the project.

Mr. Young did this in the dead of night after all discussion of the bill was complete. Since the bill's primary purpose is authorizing the funding of the U.S. Coast Guard, voting it down would be impossible. So why would an elected member of congress from a state over three thousand miles away do such a thing?

The answer to Young's opposition to the Cape Wind project is found in his thirty-year relationship with Guy Martin, a well-connected lobbyist with Perkins Coie DC's Environment Group, who has been pushing hard for the Cape Wind opposition group Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound down in Washington.

The US Senate Office of Public Records (see report here ), which keeps tabs on how much money is spent on lobbyists,  shows the Alliance has paid $440,000 to Perkins Coie since 2002.  Mr. Young is now linked to another sinister shenanigan in a little seaport in Nova Scotia.

Politics makes strange bedfellows

Who says that politics and big business don't make for strange bedfellows? Certainly not anyone who looked at the proposed Boston-to-Nova Scotia gambling ferry scheme.

Gene Hartigan and Guy Conrad, two Massachusetts political lobbyists working hand-in-hand with Shelburne Nova Scotia Mayor P.G. Comeau to bring a gambling and ferry ship operation to this small town, have important friends in high places, including Alaska Congressman Don Young, who is chair of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, which just happens to oversee the budget of the U.S. Coast Guard.

Hartigan listed as one of Young's biggest "soft money" contributors

In reports filed with U.S. authorities, Hartigan is listed as one of the largest contributors to Young's Alaska-based "soft-money" Midnight Sun Political Action Committee (PAC). Young, through the PAC has also benefited from the largess of at least six Indian tribes and other clients of lobbyist Jack Abramoff, to the  extent of at least $20,000.  Abramoff was recently indicted and pled guilty in one of the largest lobbying scandals in U.S. history.

Hartigan's gaming ship partner is Hingham-based Guy Conrad, for seven years a highly-paid lobbyist for the tiny Nipmuc Nation in their attempt to build a large casino on the MA-CT border. Conrad arranged $6.4 million in funding to the Nipmucs from Lakes Entertainment of Minnesota, Indian casino specialists.

The Sacramento Bee
on Don Young's
Midnight Sun PAC:

Known as a leadership PAC, Midnight Sun is controlled by Young, and its treasurer is a registered lobbyist with a client list that includes transportation interests.

In southeast Arkansas, more than a dozen men and women connected to road paving and auto sales in and near Pine Bluff gave about $28,000 last March to Midnight Sun, on top of about $20,000 to Young's re-election committee. When the highway bill passed a few months later, it had more than $200 million for their region over the next five years, including a $72 million interstate construction project extending to Pine Bluff.

Young's office and several Arkansas donors declined to comment for this story. One donor, Clydine Davis, said of Young in a telephone interview: "We just all banded together to support him as he supports Arkansas."
Source 

Abramoff--Young link:
Jack Abramoff never gave Young money directly, but his clients donated $20,000 to Young's Mightnight Sun PAC.

Abramoff's millions, arranged loan to Nipmucs

Lakes seems to specializes in arranging Indian casinos in areas with strong community resistance and their Indian casino clients have benefited from Abramoff's contributions of millions of tribal monies to politicians and parties. Indian gaming contributions to politicians grew by 1,300% from 1992 to 1996.

Conrad also arranged a "loan" from the Sault St. Marie Chippewa tribe to the Nipmucs to allow them to pay fees  reported to be $14,000 per month to lobbyists Conrad and a now-disbarred Boston lawyer Edward E O'Sullivan. The Chippewa are also contributors to Don Young's Midnight Sun PAC.  

The Nipmuc-Cape Cod connevtion

The money behind the lobbying move to stop Cape Wind came from the Alliance to protect Nantucket Sound whose spokesperson, Ernie Corrigan, was named PR flack for the Nipmuc Indians in 2004.

In addition to the Lakes Entertainment / Abramoff connection, CEO Lyle Berman was a former business partner of Bureau of Indian Affairs director, David Anderson, who oversaw the departmental process of granting tribes federal recognition.

No Coast Guard approval here, either

Despite announcements of sailing dates for 2005 and May, 2006, Hartigan and Conrad's Shores Atlantic LLC have yet to obtain a ship or any Coast Guard approval for the service. They have not said where the investment money for the project - estimated to be in the millions - is coming from.

Shelburne NS Mayor Comeau has been an unquestioning backer of this speculative project for years, despite Hartigan having  failed in several previous attempts. Recently, Comeau engineered a secret Town Council vote to give the pair an extension on their berthing rights.

Rep. Don Young is currently attempting to introduce legislation which would scuttle the  renewable energy Cape Wind project in Nantucket Sound, see story here.

Timothy Gillespie is the Editor of the Shelburne Nova Scotia News and can be reached by email at info@shelburnenovascotia.com.