Kean accepted contributions from firms he had sought to ban
2006-10-09
Source: Newark Star-Ledger
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rss feedNearly two years ago, Republican state Sen. Tom Kean Jr. introduced a bill that would ban all donations by government contractors to state political candidates. He dubbed it "George's Law," after South Jersey Democratic political boss George Norcross III.
Since then, Kean, now the Republican candidate for U.S. Senate, has accepted $213,025 from employees of the same firms he wanted to remove from the process: those doing business with the state or its authorities, a Star-Ledger analysis has found.
The review, covering all donations from when the bill was introduced Dec. 7, 2004, shows Kean accepted contributions from engineering firms, law firms, undewriters and other state contractors. Two of the firms are among the candidate's top 10 contributors since his political career began in 1999.
The lion's share of the campaign cash went to Kean's U.S. Senate fund-raising committee, which is not regulated by state law. About $5,900 of the contractor cash went to a fund-raising committee Kean set up for the 2007 campaign for his state Senate seat.
Kean's spokeswoman says the Republican, who has made government ethics a cornerstone of his campaign, remains the true reformer in the U.S. Senate race. Democrats claim the donations raise doubts about Kean's tough stance against pay-to-play.
"It's absolutely hypocritical," said Matt Miller, spokesman for U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez, Kean's Democratic opponent. "He's not a reformer. He takes thousands of dollars from state contractors even though he says that money should be illegal."
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