Catastrophe - Dick Morris [112]
In all, the Ballard firm made three quarters of a million dollars before it finally signed a contract with the state on May 24, 2007, for its future services. Since then, Ballard has billed an additional $2 million for its legal work on privatization.399
But that wasn’t the end of it: Ballard got even more money. John Estey, a Ballard chairman and Rendell’s former chief of staff, is the chairman of the Delaware River Port Authority, a state agency. DRPA has paid the Ballard firm nearly $3 million in legal fees since Rendell became governor, making it the largest outside legal contractor.400 Before Rendell was elected, the Philadelphia Bulletin reported that Ballard received only $25,000 in legal work from DRPA.401
Why is Rendell so good to his old buddies at the Ballard firm? Nostalgia? Not likely. The generous campaign donations he gets from the firm’s leaders might have more to do with it. The list of Ballard’s donations to the governor is quite impressive:
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MONEY GOV. RENDELL GOT FROM HIS OLD LAW FIRM
Ballard Spahr itself gave Rendell $481,000.402
Ballard Spahr chairman Arthur Makadon donated $87,500 to Rendell’s campaigns.403
Partner Ken Jarin donated $90,000 to Rendell. He also serves as treasurer of the Democratic Governors Association, which gave Rendell $1.5 million.404
David Cohen, a former Ballard Spahr chairman, gave $80,000 to Rendell; his wife, Rhonda, gave Rendell $156,000 more. (Help me, Rhonda!)405
The Philadelphia Future Political Action Committee—headquartered in Ballard Spahr’s offices—donated $470,000 to Rendell. The aforementioned David Cohen is the PAC’s treasurer.406
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But these donations—totaling close to $1.4 million—may tell only part of the story. Because of Pennsylvania’s two-term limit for governors, Ed Rendell is obliged to retire as governor in January 2011. Could it be that he’s making a nice nest for his retirement by sending business to Ballard Spahr? Could the firm figure in his retirement plans?
Ballard wasn’t the only campaign contributor who got Ed Rendell’s special attention. When Boscov’s, a Pennsylvania-area department store chain, went bankrupt in August 2008, Albert Boscov asked for state help in restructuring his company.407 Citing Boscov’s “reputation” as a successful businessman, Rendell came to the rescue, pumping $35 million of taxpayer money into the company.408 Why did he do it? Was it because there were important jobs for his constituents at stake? Or was it the fact that Boscov had given him $139,000 for his campaign and that other family members had kicked in an additional $25,000?409
And then there’s the Houston, Texas, law firm of Bailey Perrin Bailey, and its Philadelphia cocounsel Cohen, Placitella & Roth. The state of Pennsylvania hired the firms without bidding to represent it in a lawsuit against Janssen Pharmaceuticals, a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson. Ken Bailey donated $75,000 to Rendell’s campaign and paid for $16,000 of airfare for the gubernatorial race.410 Earlier, at another firm, Bailey had donated $25,000 to a previous Rendell campaign; Stewart Cohen, from the Philadelphia firm, gave Rendell’s campaign $12,000.411
And don’t forget the $599,000 worth of no-bid contracts Rendell awarded to the California firm DCR Financial Products, headed by David Rubin—who gave Rendell $45,000 for his campaigns.412
(Full disclosure: Dick worked for Rendell when he ran for governor unsuccessfully in 1990. Rendell’s campaign was derailed by thousands of dollars of unpaid parking tickets he had racked up in his district attorney’s car, often in front of his dry cleaner’s. But Rendell seemed like an honest sort.)
GOVERNOR BILL RICHARDSON (D-NM)
When Bill Richardson pulled out as Barack Obama’s nominee to head the Commerce Department, he was very hush-hush about his