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Many unanswered questions about Hoyer, $18 million Recovery.gov redesign award
By: Mark Tapscott
Editorial Page Editor
07/11/09 6:02 PM EDT
Within five minutes, David Freddoso emailed back the news that several Smartonix executives had made $19,000 in contributions to House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer since 1999, and that it appeared those were their only contributions. I was quite surprised, having been an admirer of Hoyer since my years at the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) during the Reagan administration.
Hoyer is a Maryland Democrat who represents a district that includes many federal installations and thousands of active and retired federal career civil servants. So he was among the House Democrats with whom OPM most frequently dealt. Hoyer is a 70s generation liberal, an exremely adept politician whose career has been free of taint. We had even editorialized shortly after the 2006 election that Hoyer, who is known for being a master legislative operator, would make a far better House Speaker than Nancy Pelosi.
But, the FEC records were clear, so we had to start asking questions. And we got predictable answers. A spokesman for Recovery.gov told David that Smartronix was one of only three bidders and that the contract required design of a sophisticated web site with many advances over the existing site. And Stephanie Lundberg, Hoyer's spokesman as House Majority Leader said the Hoyer office didn't know about the contract award until the evening of the day it was first reported.
So we put up apost with a headline that included a reference to the "Hoyer-linked firm." That's when Lundberg went off, thus beginning a very interesting conversation about whether the headline was accurate. In a series of emails and telephone conversations, Lundberg insisted that Hoyer didn't know about the award until it was announced and therefore the headline reference was inaccurate.
She was further enraged when a number of bloggers and cable news outlets picked up the story and began asking questions. I rejected her demand that we change the headline to remove any Hoyer reference, but assured her that we would give her concerns a full description, as we did.
But then Lundberg said something that really sparked my curiousity, namely that Smartronix was "just a small company in our district, in St. Mary's County, they have no political involvement, they were just supporting their hometown congressman." And she asserted that "these guys are not big players trying to “buy” influence anywhere they can. They support Congressman Hoyer for the reasons many people support their local Congressperson - because they believe he does a good job representing the district or they share his views on issues. There is nothing wrong or bad about them contributing to Congressman Hoyer."
When I then asked Lundberg if her assessment was conjectural on her part or based on direct knowledge, she refused to answer, saying instead: "Is your assessment of there being anything more than a coincidental link between the contract and the contributions based on direct knowledge or conjecture?"
To which I responded, asking: "When did you talk to the three Smartronix execs about the reasons for their substantial contributions? Did they initiate that conversation or did you? Where did it take place, in your congressional office or outside? When did it take place? Was Mr. Hoyer aware of it before, during or after? Was he present at the discussion?"
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