According to Bloomberg, federal investigators have begun an investigation into Bill Richardson’s connections to a consultancy already linked to a pay-for-play scandal in Alabama. Richardson, selected by Barack Obama for Secretary of Commerce, may have directed state funds to CDR in exchange for political work at the 2004 Democratic convention and in voter-registration efforts in support of Richardson’s re-election as governor (via Jim Geraghty):
A federal grand jury is investigating how a company that advised Jefferson County, Alabama, on bond deals that threaten to cause the biggest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history, did similar work in New Mexico after making contributions to Governor Bill Richardson’s political action committees.
The grand jury in Albuquerque is looking into Beverly Hills, California-based CDR Financial Products Inc., which received almost $1.5 million in fees from the New Mexico Finance Authority in 2004 after donating $100,000 to Richardson’s efforts to register Hispanic and American Indian voters and pay for expenses at the Democratic National Convention in 2004, people familiar with the matter said.
Obama hardly needs another scandal associated with his close advisers. He’s already got his chief of staff backpedaling and stonewalling over the Blagojevich pay-for-play scandal, and now one of his Cabinet secretaries has links to another corruption probe. Most presidents go through two entire terms without having this many links to political payoffs, and Obama hasn’t even taken the oath of office yet.
Michelle Malkin blogging on this here.
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January 4, 2009 at 2:00 pm
[...] is that Obama’s team hasn’t done a better job of vetting his cabinet picks. Richardson is currently embroiled in a pay to play scandal. Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel is neck deep in the [...]