Posted on 08/29/2002 8:32:54 AM PDT by Behind Liberal Lines
AUBURN NY - Rep. Sherwood Boehlert has done little on the federal level to intercede in Indian land claim issues because the 10-term Republican is receiving campaign contributions from the Oneida Nation, his opponent Dr. David Walrath is charging.
"He says the state is (responsible)," Walrath said Wednesday during an Auburn Chamber of Commerce luncheon at the Holiday Inn. "Perhaps his vision would be clearer if he wasn't receiving money from the Oneida Nation."
Boehlert spokesman Jim Phillipps said the congressman has accepted contributions from the Oneida Nation, but not since 1998 when the Oneidas amended their land-claim case to make 20,000 landowners in Oneida and Madison counties defendants.
It was not immediately known now much the tribe contributed to Boehlert. Oneida Nation Director of Communications Mark Emery would not comment on how much the Oneida Nation had previously given Boehlert, but confirmed Phillipps' statement.
"The congressman is right," Emery said. "We have not contributed to Sherwood Boehlert's campaign, and have not for quite awhile. If Dr. Walrath will lie about campaign contributions, what else will he lie about? He needs to know the facts before he speaks."
Walrath, however, indicated that lawyers with ties to the Oneida Nation have contributed to this year's Boehlert campaign. Kevin McGuiness and Neils Holch, of the law firm McGuiness and Holch, each gave Boehlert $500 in April, according to documents Walrath provided to The Citizen late Wednesday. Holch is an attorney who has represented the Oneidas and is the inventor of a gambling machine upon which the Oneida Nation holds two patents.
"The Oneida Nation does indeed include its lawyers and lobbyists, one of whom is the co-inventor of one of the Oneida Nation's patented gaming systems from which they derive significant income," Walrath said. "These facts are in the public record, I am not a liar."
The race
Boehlert of New Hartford and Walrath of Sennett, who is a surgeon and medical director of the Willard Drug Treatment Center in Seneca County, are vying for the Republican line on the ballot in the 24th Congressional District. The primary is Sept. 10 and both men have been doing some intense campaigning through the 11-county district, trying to drum up support. Boehlert is a 10-term incumbent in the 23rd Congressional District. Walrath, deputy chairman of the Cayuga County Legislature, has been a member of that body since 1994.
Walrath has played heavy on the land-claim issues, saying he is opposed to any settlement or payment to Indian tribes looking for monetary or other compensation for unratified land treaties. His interpretation is that it violates the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence and makes one class of citizen more equal than another.
For example, Walrath explained, there are two gas stations in Oneida across the street from each other. The one on Indian land charges 20 cents less for gas than the privately-owned station because the tribal-owned station does not have to pay taxes.
"How can you be a business owner and compete with a business that pays no taxes?" he said. "The Mohawk Valley has turned into Death Valley."
He said he will introduce a bill to have the treaties in the Cayuga Indian Land Claim ratified if he is elected. He said there is a similar bill pending regarding Indian land claims in Illinois.
Walrath touched on several other issues during his 20-minute speech. He said he would work to redevelop former Griffis Air Force Base in Rome into an import/export center because the base already has adequate runways, hangars and maintenance facilities to support such a endeavor.
"We could put lots of people back to work with good-paying jobs," he said.
Freshman representative
He downplayed coming into Congress as a freshman representative as opposed to a seasoned veteran.
"Tom Reynolds (R-Clarence) has been there a relatively short period of time and there's talk about making him the speaker," Walrath said, indicating that a congressman has to be senior member to be effective "isn't true."
He said Boehlert's record in bringing back member-item spending for his existing district has been abysmal. He said Boehlert is ranked 326th out of 435 representatives in what Walrath called "pork."
Walrath described himself as a fiscal conservative at the opposite end of the spectrum from Boehlert, whom Walrath characterized as a liberal Republican who votes like a Democrat.
"On the county Legislature, I voted against tax increases and large expenditures, much to the frustration of my colleagues," he said.
Walrath began his talk to chamber members by telling them how his ancestors participated in the Battle of Oriskany in the Revolutionary War.
"We were feisty pains in the butt then, so I come by it honestly," he said. "Every once in awhile, you need feisty independent people to stand up and do what needs to be done."
If the reporter went to OpenSecrets.Org she would see that, in the 1996 election cycle, Boehlert was one of the Top 10 Recipients of Indian Gaming PAC and Individual contributions.
From another thread on RINO Boehlert:
According to Boehlert's own website:
a. Boehlert is a reminder that the national Republican party once had a vibrant liberal wing.
b. Boehlert...backs the Clinton administration and strays from the GOP party line more often than all but a handful of his Republican colleagues.
c.Boehlert was one of just 30 House Republicans who voted “no” on at least two of the four articles of impeachment against President Clinton.
Boehlert and three other republicans wrote Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., recommending that the Senate vote against impeachment.
Human Events magazine has described Boehlert as one of a group of Liberal Republicans in the House of Representatives [who] seem to have learned a lesson from the defection of Sen. Jim Jeffords (I.-Vt.): The easiest way to win the adoration of the media is to oppose President Bush or make the congressional Republican leadership look bad.”
Boehlert (R.-N.Y.) has supported four Democratic efforts to block President Bush’s energy proposals, while rejecting the Republican rule that would have governed floor debate on new campaign finance restrictions.
On the American Conservative Union's ranking of members of congress, Boehlert received a rating of 36.
In 2001, Boehlert voted:
a.For Clinton-era workplace regulations
b.Against a constitutional amendment to require a two-thirds majority vote of the entire House and Senate to pass any tax increase.
C.Against Passage of a bill making it a criminal offense to injure or kill a fetus during the commission of a violent crime.
D.Against scholarships for students from consistently low-performing of dangerous schools. Scholarships could be used at private, including religious schools
E.For funding the National Endowment of the arts.
F.For lifting the embargo on Cuba
G.For keeping files on all gun owners who undergo background checks
H.For the last-minute Clinton Administration requirement for sharply lower arsenic content in drinking water.
I.In favor of D.C. extending city employees' health benefits to unmarried domestic partners.
J.In favor of requiring federal contractors and other recipients of federal assistance to provide unlimited translators for people who don’t speak English.
Citizens Against Government Waste gave him a ranking of only 44%: “lukewarm to taxpayers.”
In 1998, he voted against making English the official language of Puerto Rico .
In March, 2001, Boehlert made personal appearances with Hillary Clinton.
STOP THE RINO!!!
My guess is Boehlert in a walk.
Walrath is doing that because two of the counties, Cayuga and Seneca are currently in the middle of a separate land claim and Boehlert, much to the consternation of republicans in those counties, is urging settlement.
After reading through your list of what Bohlert has endorsed, he might as well run off and join Jeffords with the rest of his socialist's frinds. Bohlert has learned that to recieve the accolades of the media he must start sounding more like liberals. Pretty hard to find him getting any bad press.
Awfully diheartening to drive around Norwich and see all the Bohlert signs on the lawns.
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