A draft report released Wednesday by Congressman Henry Waxman, the Democratic chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, found that in the months prior to the 2006 midterm elections, the White House Office of Political Affairs, formerly headed by Karl Rove, “enlisted agency heads across government in a coordinated effort to elect Republican candidates to Congress,” directing them “to make hundreds of trips – most at taxpayer expense – for the purpose of increasing the electability of Republicans.”
“The White House used its Office of Political Affairs office to orchestrate an aggressive strategy to use taxpayer-funded trips to help elect Republican candidates for public office,” the report says. “From January 1, 2006, until the mid-term elections on November 7, 2006, cabinet secretaries and other senior officials traveled to over 300 events recommended by the political affairs office. All of these events were held with Republican candidates, and in most cases, the travel costs were paid for with federal funds.”
The report recommends that the Office of Political Affairs be eliminated and that the federal law known as a the Hatch Act, which prohibits the use of government resources for political purposes, be amended to further restrict political activity by federal officials.
“The White House Office of Political Affairs has been controversial since President Reagan created the office in 1981,” the draft report says. “There is evidence that other administrations, including President Clinton’s, used the office to coordinate travel for the President or cabinet officials. But the extent of political activity by the current White House and its deep and systematic reach into the federal agencies is unprecedented.”
Waxman launched an investigation more than a year ago to probe allegations that Rove and other White House officials were holding power-point presentations at federal agencies to discuss ways in which federal officials could assist in an effort to reelect Republicans.
On a weekly basis, according to the draft report, the White House sent memos to agency officials with “suggested events” and “tracked progress on a “surrogate matrix” that listed vulnerable Republican members and the dates cabinet secretaries and other officials would make appearances on their behalf.”
The draft report says that in 2006, the political affairs office “provided at least 22 briefings to agency officials at either agency headquarters or in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building. Despite advice from the White House Counsel that these briefings should occur after business hours, many of the briefings took place during work hours with agency officials directed to attend.”
In one case, J. Scott Jennings, deputy director of political affairs, gave a presentation to the General Services Administration where Jennings outlined polling data from the 2006 national elections and issued a list of the Republican Party’s electoral targets for 2008.
Waxman said his staffers interviewed Sara Taylor, the former director of the White House Office of Political Affairs, about the issue but Taylor “refused more than ten times to answer whether she intended to help elect Republicans in close races by recommending that agency officials travel to events in their districts.”
“Ms. Taylor’s testimony contradicts the evidence in the documents produced to the Committee and statements by her predecessor, Ken Mehlman, and her subordinates at the White House,” the report says. “The record shows that Ms. Taylor was evasive during her deposition and misled the Committee about her actions.”
Mehlman, who was interviewed by Waxman’s committee, said a “a big part” of his job was to “help elect allies of the President” and to identify “vulnerable Republican members” as well as “battleground races, and States and places where they agreed the most help was needed.”
He told congressional investigators that in his view “one legally could have, in the Office of Political Affairs, focused entirely on simply promoting … the President’s allies.”
Mehlman added that he consulted former White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales about “nearly all aspects of what I was doing.”
The report says “e-mails from the White House to agency officials in 2006 referred to “our top priorities going into November” and achieving “a good result on 11/7.” Other e-mails exhorted agency officials: “Only 49 days left!” or “Only 19 days to go.”
“The pace of these events picked up as the election neared,” the report says. “In July 2006, the White House sent an e-mail to the White House liaisons at 18 departments and agencies stating: “With only 4 months left before the end of the 05-06 cycle, … we are now asking each agency to do at least 5…recommended events per month from now until November.”
On September 22, 2006, the political affairs office sent an e-mail to the Department of Veterans Affairs listing events for “our highest priority congressional incumbents” and requesting that the events occur “somewhere between October 9 – November 3rd to be most effective.” The number of recommended events in which senior officials participated increased to three per day in the month before the election.
Agencies that deviated from the White House agenda were confronted.
When the Secretary of Labor appeared at an event with a Republican member who was not on the White House list of targeted Republicans, the political affairs office e-mailed: “Do you know why she’[s] doing an event for Regula when we’ve explicitly asked the Cabinet to curtail events for non-priority members?” The agency responded: “Regula is chair of our Appropriations Subcommittee and specifically asked her to come out and do this. This is a grant to his district. is that ok?” When an official at the Department of Health and Human Services complained that “we can’t do all these events … I see a big problem looming,” the Department’s White House liaison warned that “we will be pounded on to do these events.”
The White House Office of Political Affairs e-mailed the Department of Veterans Affairs to ask whether there was an “official component” to the Secretary’s trip to Washington State in July to appear with Doug Roulstone, a nonincumbent Republican House candidate at a campaign event, explaining: “Needless to say, trying to save the campaign as much $$ as possible.”
