Sunday, March 27, 2011

Meet Bill Teator: The Corrupt Lobbyist Who Chairs Chris Gibson's New Energy Panel

Anybody wondering more about the lobbyist who Chris Gibson selected to lead his new energy panel?

Meet William R. "Bill" Teator of Capital Advocates, LLC, who has worked on several stints in behalf of former Republican congressmen Gerald Solomon, John Sweeney, as well as current Representative Chris Gibson.





Remember former Congressman John Sweeney's "Lake Placid Challenge" lobbyist trips that now-Senator Kirsten Gillibrand criticized so frequently back in 2006? Apparently, Teator was the man who organized these events for Sweeney using state taxpayer money, taking advantage of a loophole in House ethics rules, which allows for the payments of trips with congressional officials using public money. In this case, the New York State Power Authority, an entity of the State of New York, funded these trips. 

Interestingly enough, at the trip, Sweeney was found skiing alongside Bill Teator, as well as Ian Paul Steff of the American Semiconductor Association. Another notable figure at the trip was Lisi Kaufman of Untied Technologies, which had until recently, been involved in the construction of nuclear devices and equipment.

Sources:
http://takeback24.blogspot.com/2006/07/reason-20-corruption-corruption.html
http://www.citizensforethics.org/index.php/press/entry/sweeney-olympic-trip-clear-abuse-of-office-takes-advantage-of-loophole/www.citizensforethics.org

Teator has also lobbied on behalf on numerous energy corporations, including Iberdrola, which is one of the largest operators of nuclear power plants in Europe.

Sources:
http://poststar.com/news/local/article_fd079eee-3f9c-11e0-b2a1-001cc4c03286.html
http://uk.reuters.com/article/2009/01/20/uk-britain-nuclear-iberdrola-sb-idUKTRE50J40S20090120

Also of interest are Bill Teator's activities in helping to fund J. Felix Strevell's scandal plagued Institute for Entrpreneurship, which received $618,000 in federal grants from the U.S. Small Business Administration. In 1999, Teator lobbied for these grants while working for The Solomon Group, the former lobbying firm led by the late Rep. Gerald B.H. Solomon. 

Strevell was a major ally of Republicans John Sweeney, Joe Bruno, Sandy Treadwell, and George Pataki, all of which appear to have connections with Mr. Teator. According to sources, it looks as though Strevell used his connections with Teator and the New York State Republican Party to help set up a bogus patronage mill which eventually fleeced the state of over $100,000. (Some are claiming that the estimated amount may actually be closer to $200,000) A January 2002 article from The Times Union revealed that Strevell's organization paid $90,000 annually to The Solomon Group, which had employed Solomon and Teator.
 

In 2001, when Teator spoke on behalf of The Solomon Group in an interview to The Times Union regarding Strevell's activities, he commented, "It's a good concept...we have no qualms about what they do."

Sources:
http://blog.timesunion.com/capitol_old/archives/25700/felix-strevell-charged-with-criminal-impersonation/
http://www.timesunion.com/local/article/State-corruption-case-kept-sealed-1068786.php
http://albarchive.merlinone.net/mweb/wmsql.wm.request?oneimage&imageid=6119737

  
The new energy committee is not the first occasion where Teator has performed extensive services on behalf of Chris Gibson. In August of 2010, Teator was appointed executive director of Chris Gibson's congressional campaign, replacing local Tea Party organizer Patrick Ziegler, after Gibson spent months of trailing behind former Rep. Scott Murphy (D - Glens Falls) in the polls.


To a great degree, it seems quite surprising that Chris Gibson would want to associate himself with an individual carrying so much baggage, as well as a long documented history of corruption and questionable activities. However, what may be even more perplexing is how a man who was never elected to public office has been able to exert so much influence over the region's representation for the past 15 years...

Friday, March 18, 2011

Lake George Mirror: Gibson votes against LG

Editorial: Congressman Gibson Votes Against Lake George
March 15th, 2011
Last summer, we reported that researchers found that song birds nesting on Dome Island had 15 to 20 times more mercury in their blood than birds from other sections of New York State. The scientists’ next task was to determine the source of the mercury: midwestern power plants, abandoned industrial sites, closed landfills or emissions from cement manufacturing plants. Scott Lorey of the Adirondack Council told us at the time that cement plants will deposit heavy concentrations of mercury within a local radius, and we were surprised to find that little had been done to compel cement plants to cut mercury emissions. That’s why we were gratified to learn that nine states, New York included, had reached a settlement with the federal Environmental Protection Agency requiring new limits on the amount of mercury and other toxic pollutants that cement plants can discharge. The EPA’s new rules were drafted to address mercury and other toxic emissions from Portland cement plants nationwide, including those located in New York. Portland cement is the most common type of cement and a basic ingredient of concrete, mortar, stucco and grout. New York state is home to three Portland cement plants: the LaFarge plant in Ravena, the St. Lawrence plant in Catskill, and the Glens Falls plant near Lake George. Collectively, these three plants discharge roughly 170 pounds of mercury emissions in New York’s air each year – about 20 percent of all mercury emitted annually in the state. If the cement plants are the source of the mercury that is poisoning Lake George’s songbirds, those new rules would have been a necessary first step in restoring the health of Lake George’s bird population. Unfortunately, the US Congress has chosen to block EPA’s power to force cement plants to comply with these new regulations by suspending funding for implementation and enforcement. What’s even more unfortunate, Lake George’s representative in Congress, Chris Gibson, not only voted with the majority, but boasted about it. In his “60 Day Progress Report” to his constituents, Gibson noted that he had “voted to defund significant portions of EPA’s overreach.” Given that mercury emissions from cement plants may be threatening Lake George’s wildlife, that’s hardly something to be proud of.

See original post here: http://www.lakegeorgemirror.com/news/2011/03/congressman-gibson-votes-against-lake-george/

Thursday, March 17, 2011

Gibson hopes to cut funding to public broadcasting

North Country Public Radio reports:

05:06pm Congressman Chris Gibson (NY-20) released the following statement today: “Today I voted against eliminating funding for NPR because I know that our local affiliates - like WAMC and North Country Public Radio - provide a valuable service to my constituents, particularly in our rural communities." Gibson said he still hopes to cut public broadcasting funding back to FY 2008 levels.

Gibson votes NO on HR 1076


H.R.1076 -- To prohibit Federal funding of National Public Radio and the use of Federal funds to acquire radio content. (Introduced in House - IH)

Congressman Gibson was one of only 7 Republicans to oppose the bill which would prevent local stations from using federal funds to purchase programming from NPR.

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Press Release: Chris Gibson Watch launched by Glens Falls DFA as public service providing accurate information on Gibson’s extremist record

Press Release:  Chris Gibson Watch launched by Glens Falls DFA as public service providing accurate information on Gibson’s extremist record

Press Release
For Immediate Release

Democracy For The Greater Glens Falls Area, a member of the nation-wide network of groups led by Democracy For America, has established a public information service, http://www.chrisgibsonwatch.com, to provide fact-checking, accurate and timely information, and constructive alternatives, to the positions,  policies, activities, politics and campaign finances of right-wing Republican Rep. Chris Gibson.  The new service will also explain the consequences of Gibson’s positions and actions for residents of New York’s 20th Congressional District, and who Rep. Gibson actually represents.  
The Gibson Watch website is also a highly-integrated web-based system:  posts to the Gibson Watch site, which is organized in searchable blog form with side areas for special information and media, are automatically fed to a special twitter account,  http://twitter.com/gibsonwatch, for those who want to be immediately alerted to  the service’s postings on a regular basis.  Postings will also be automatically fed to the Gibson Watch Facebook page,  http://http://www.facebook.com/pages/Chris-Gibson-Watch/108979135849779  Anyone who is interested in following Gibson Watch postings are urged to subscribe to the twitter feed.
Gibson Watch is a volunteer, collaborative effort and is not affiliated with any political campaign or candidate.  It’s goal is based on the reality that congressional representatives, particularly from upstate New York, routinely go to Washington and then consistently vote against the interests and beliefs of their constituents— and get away with it—  due to the geographically dispersed nature of a district as large as the 20th, which generates considerable confusion since voters often do not know what is going on in other areas of these large districts, and the unfortunate fact that today’s news organizations do not always have the resources to adequately follow what a member of Congress is actually doing.   
As a result, misrepresentations often go uncorrected.  One current example is Rep. Gibson’s recent statement he is an original co-sponsor of  a provision passed in the House of Representatives to repeal a requirement in the Healthcare Reform Bill that small businesses  file 1099 forms with the IRS for every purchase of goods and services over $600.   In fact, this problem was first identified by Rep. Scott Murphy last year.  It was Murphy, a small businessman himself and an expert on small business problems, who sponsored the first legislative action to relieve the paperwork burden of this provision.  Gibson is to be applauded for supporting Murphy’s initiative.  But  it is intellectually dishonest, and a bad sign of what area voters can expect,  for Gibson not to give Murphy credit for identifying this problem and being the first to take action, the equivalent of a student copying another’s homework, or an author copying another’s work without attribution.   (GIbson defeated Murphy last November.)
The Gibson Watch team of volunteers will identify or develop areas in which they  have expertise, whether it be educational issues, environment, economics, national security or others, and follow Gibson’s positions accordingly.   It is the intention of Gibson Watch not to merely critique Gibson’s policies and actions, but to also provide concrete policy alternatives that benefit the people of the 20th Congressional District.  
Gibson Watch will especially focus on how Gibson’s positions are out of the mainstream of his district and upstate New York in general, and damage the local economy, jobs and environment.  However, Gibson Watch will not neglect the impact of Gibson’s policies on the nation as a whole.  One example would be the consequences of eliminating the 1099 reporting provision cited above.  Despite Republican claims that deficit reduction is their overriding priority, eliminating the reporting requirement is unfunded, unlike earlier Democratic provisions, and will add to the deficit in the same way other unfunded Republican tax cuts also add to the deficit.  
The Gibson Watch team is open to all  liberals, moderates and progressives across the 20th CD and the upstate New York region who support responsible positions that build the district and the nation, support peace, economic and social justice,  human rights and human dignity, and America’s progressive tradition of a government, as Lincoln put, “of, by and for the people,” not the powerful, the connected, or privileged and wealthy elites.  
Democracy For The Greater Glens Falls Area was founded as a Dean For America Meetup  in March 2003 and had its first meeting as such in April 2003.  When Gov. Dean suspended his campaign in 2004, he went on to create Democracy For America, which the local group also joined, formally becoming Democracy For The Greater Glens Falls Area, but also widely known as Glens Falls DFA.   With DFA National, GFA-DFA continues the principles of the Dean campaign of backing progressive candidates and causes, resisting right-wing extremism and building a new American community.   

for info:  Coordinator, Larry Dudley, ldudley@nycap.rr.com

Monday, March 7, 2011

Update

Announcing Chris Gibson Watch is now supplying feeds to Twitter and Facebook accounts.  Stay tuned for official announcement!