Feds Exploring Congressman Visclosky’s Ties to Controversial Lobby Shop

The New York Times had a story over the weekend reporting that the feds are exploring links between Congressman Pete Visclosky of Indiana and the PMA lobby shop:

Mr. Visclosky, 59, was one of the lawmakers with the closest ties to PMA until its recent collapse. He relied heavily on the firm for campaign fund-raising, earmarked millions of dollars each year to its clients and maintained a close bond with a former aide who worked as a PMA lobbyist…

One Visclosky project has attracted special attention from critics as an example of the cozy ties among the lawmaker, the firm and its clients: the Purdue Technology Center of Northwest Indiana. Mr. Visclosky created the nonprofit center with more than $7 million in earmarks beginning in 2002, saying it would encourage entrepreneurship in his economically depressed district. But its federally subsidized facilities were quickly filled by branch offices of established government contractors who are clients of the PMA Group.

For the record, I would note here that the Visclosky-PMA ties and the story of the Purdue Technology Center were first reported here, three years ago. That story ran about eighteen months before a similar piece by Roll Call, which the Times credited for having originally reported on the Technology Center and PMA’s ties to Visclosky.

Read more: (Ken Silverstein, “Feds Exploring Congressman Visclosky’s Ties to Controversial Lobby Shop,” Harper’s, 4/06/09)