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HOSTILE TAKEOVER How Big Money & Corruption Conquered Our Government ; and Now Wct:Bake It Back ilrasebserver will host DAVID SIROTA in the national launch of his new book Hostile Takeover: How Big Money and Corruption Have Conquered Our Government And How We Can Take It Back and a panel discussion featuring The Legendary Molly Ivins Cronies Author Robert Bryce Texans for Public Justice’s Craig McDonald Special Guest: Congressman Lloyd Doggett David Sirota founded and co-chairs the Progressive Legislative Action Network In These Times magazine. He also writes for The Nation and The American Prospect, runs a popular blog \(www.davidsirota.com and appears regularly on Air America’s Al Franken Show. David will be signing copies of his new book. FRIDAY, APRIL 21 The Old School Austin 1604 E. 11th St. 6:30 reception 7:30 panel discussion and Q&A OPEN TO THE PUBLIC $10 SUGGESTED DONATION for info call or e-mail Julia Austin at 512-477-0746 or [email protected] also represented Christian radio chain Salem Communications Corp. Salem founder Edward Atsinger III has given $6,000 to DeLay’s legal defense fund and $28,311 to the Republican Majority Issues Committeewhich kept DeLay’s daughter on a fat retainer. Now federal lobby filings suggest that Gallant is attempting to reassemble ASG’s wreckage under the name Aduston Consulting. Aduston represents five former ASG clients: Salem Communications, National Religious Broadcasters, United Parcel Service Inc., and advertising interests International Sign Association and ValueClick Inc. The firm has yet to report a client that did not come from ASG. Gallant did not respond to a request for comment. Gallant’s ties to DeLay’s TRMPAC co-defendants in Texas go beyond the fact that he preceded defendant James Ellis as ARMPAC’s director. As the TRMPAC scandal broke in 2003, the Washington law firm Swidler Berlin Shereff Friedman signed Texas lobby contracts with Ellis and John Colyandro, who would soon be indicted by a Travis County grand jury in the TRMPAC case. A Democratic-leaning firm that employed ex-Clinton aide Thurgood Marshall Jr., son of the late Supreme Court justice, Swidler had a “strategic alliance” with Republican-dominated ASG to work both sides of the aisle. Future TRMPAC indictee Ellis, who lives in the Washington area, reported that Swidler contracted him in 2003 through the Austin office of Kerry Cammack, Colyandro’s officemate who married Texas Supreme Court Justice Harriet O’Neill that year. Ellis and Colyandro reported that Swidler paid them to lobby in Texas on “charitable & nonprofit organizations.” They did not disclose the ultimate client that paid Swidler to take out this mystery lobby contract. Ellis, Colyandro and Cammack did not respond to requests for comment. Around this time in 2003, Swidler also took out a federal lobby contract with ASG, reporting Rudy as the lead man on the account. In a press release the following year, Swidler bragged that the work of ASG and Swidler lobbyists culminated in President Bush’s enacting a 2004 law that makes energy-efficient, multifamily housing projects eligible for more federal mortgage insurance. Swidler did not report the client that benefited from this handiwork. Yet it credited the victory to several lobbyists, including Rudy, as well as Marshall and Gary Gallant, both of whom now work at Swidler’s successor law firm, Bingham McCutchen. Gary Gallant, who is not related to Karl Gallant, said Swidler’s client for this contract was Connecticut developer Becker & Becker Associates, which specializes in converting landmark buildings into affordable housing projects that yield valuable tax credits. Gary Gallant, Marshall and Ellen Katkin, a spokesperson for Swidler and Bingham McCutchen, said they do not know anything about Swidler’s 2003 hiring of Colyandro and Ellis as Texas lobbyists. Two other ASG employees have resurfaced in the federal lobby. ASG lobbyist Allison Shulman, a former Senate Banking Committee aide, landed at law firm Dickstein Shapiro Morin & Oshinsky, where she lobbies on tax matters for financial software company Intuit Inc. Ex-ASG lobbyist Terry Allen, a former aide to Rep. Steve Largent, a Republican from Oklahoma, has launched a new firm: Fidelis Government Relations. Fidelis has reported just one client: the Coalition to Preserve DSHEA \(a group’s lobby firm in recent years has been none other than the Harbour GroupSwidler Berlin’s lobby arm. Harbour went independent earlier this year after Swidler merged into Bingham McCutchen. Allen told the Observer that it would be inaccurate to characterize Fidelis as an ASG successor. “Fidelis is just me,” he said. Allen said he has signed additional clients that will appear in federal lobby filings soon. But he declined to identify them, saying, “I really don’t want to feed this story.” Contributing writer Andrew Wheat is research director for Austin-based Texans for Public Justice. APRIL 21, 2006 THE TEXAS OBSERVER 17