With the exception of the U.S. Attorney Todd Graves, who Governor Matt Blunt wanted on the payroll for obvious reasons, the vast majority of those who received fee offices from the Governor were folks who were either contributors to his campaign, or people who promised to be in the future.
That's why one of the most frequently asked questions in Springfield, Mo political circles is: What did Tom Carter do for the Blunt's to deserve three extremely lucrative fee offices? (See DOR press releases here [1] and here [2].) You see, for many years, Tom Carter has been receiving money from the Blunt political operation, rather than contributing to it.
It turns out the answer to that well circulated question may be quite simple. He's keeping quiet.
In the Summer of 2000. Roy Blunt's career was a juggernaut. He had recently ascended another rung on the leadership ladder. His mentor, Tom DeLay, had cut him in on all the action.
Along with Carter and Gregg Hartley, Blunt's Chief of Staff at the time, his political operations were also in the hands of Tom DeLay's political agent, Jim Ellis [3]. He had another of DeLay's political arms, the Alexander Strategy Group, run by Ed Buckham, on retainer. And Abigail Perlman, his future wife, [4] was Finance Director at the National Republican Campaign Committee. Blunt had the "right" people in all the right positions.
Though he hadn't been filing the required campaign finance reports, Blunt had established the Rely On Your Beliefs Fund in 1999 and through the efforts of Tom DeLay, Jack Abramoff, and a handful of other patrons, the money was flowing to Blunt, and in turn he was passing it out to his friends, including his son's campaign, Jim Talent's campaign, and the Missouri Republican Party.
Blunt and DeLay had big plans for the Republican National Convention in the summer of 2000. They planned elaborate parties, a massive concert with Blues Traveller, luxury rail cars for GOP members of Congress to relax in and tend to major GOP donors, and Blunt and DeLay even arranged for GOP members to be hauled around Philadelphia in limousines.
All these activities were paid for by Blunt and DeLay's PACs. DeLay has never disclosed the source of the funds to ARMPAC-Convention, the PAC which also funneled $150,000 to Blunt's ROYB Fund.
Both PACs were run by Jim Ellis. Ellis, along with former DeLay staffer Ed Buckham were affiliated with the U.S. Family Network [5], a front group funded by clients of Jack Abramoff. During this time window, Blunt's PAC shared office space with Buckham's lobbying firm, DeLay's ARMPAC, and the U.S. Family Network.
In addition, the U.S. Family Network had previously been the recipient of a $500,000 contribution from the National Republican Congressional Committee, where Ms. Abigail Perlman, Rep. Blunt's future wife was employed as the finance director.
At the time, Buckham's lobbying firm was on retainer to Blunt's PAC for around $10,000 a month. In addition, Buckham's firm was drawing a similar amount from the U.S. Family Network, and also shared clients with Jack Abramoff.
In May of 2000, Tom Carter organized a meeting to help plan for the 2000 Republican Convention. He was reimbursed $1,481.35 for the cost of the meeting by Blunt's ROYB Fund [5].
Carter's organizing took place at the height of the shadiest financial activity between Blunt and DeLay.
On the same report where Carter is reimbursed, Blunt accepted $100,000 from DeLay's ARMPAC-Convention. The source of those funds has never been dislosed, but by then, DeLay had accepted checks in the amount of $1 million from Russian oil executives with ties to Jack Abramoff into the U.S. Family Network, so one can very well imagine what the source of the funds to ROYB might have been.
Blunt also passed along $100,000 to the Missouri Republican Party during the same period. He also wrote a mysterious check for $10,000 to the DeLay Foundation during the same quarter. And his committee directly accepted contributions from Abramoff clients totalling $6,000.
Given Carter's role in planning the convention activity, he very likely would have had an understanding of how the activities were to be financed. He would have known the roles of Ed Buckham and Jim Ellis, and he may have known exactly what Jack Abramoff's role was in all this.
Texas prosecutors are examing the records of both Rep. Blunt and Governor Blunt for this period, as well as for DeLay. And there's little doubt that as federal prosecutors begin to look more closely at the activities of DeLay and Buckham, they will take interest in these activities as well.
Given all that, it's no wonder that Governor Matt Blunt decided to award Carter, not one, not two, but three very lucrative fee offices. No doubt Governor Blunt and Rep. Blunt hope that as the numbers on Carter's personal bank account grow more vivid, his memory might very well fade.