Missing The Point About Earmarks For Campaign Donors

By Bristol Herald Courier Editorial Board

Published: June 13, 2008

Desperate to defend his highly suspect fundraising and earmarking practices, U.S. Rep. David Davis lashed out at this newspaper Wednesday.

Too bad his response missed the mark. It dealt only with a single earmark on behalf of a defense contractor rather than the serious ethical questions raised by his practice of taking campaign cash from all manner of corporate interests.

Federal fundraising records indicate Davis is quite cozy with Big Tobacco, oil and coal companies, health insurers (who profit by denying coverage to the sick) and Florida sugar cane growers. He’s gorged himself at the special interest trough. But it is voters who might retch after discovering whose interests Davis protects. As St. Matthew’s Gospel says, one cannot serve two masters.

Davis, a one-term Republican congressman from East Tennessee, challenged our editorial [“Campaign cash with strings,” June 8] in a press release Wednesday. The document, which purports to correct “gross misrepresentations” in a local paper, carries the byline of Ryan Tronovitch, Davis’ latest press secretary.

The Internet version of that press release initially bore a URL – or Web address – that ended in the words “bhcjerks.html.” The URL was later changed to the more professional “editorialresponse.html.”
It seems likely that a Davis staffer tried to remove the evidence of Tronovitch’s immaturity and flawed professional judgment. But the original URL still turns up in Google searches, even though the link no longer works.

Tronovitch, 23, should resign or be fired. It’s clear he lacks the judgment or experience needed to serve in such a high-profile position. The former college soccer standout had a mere six months experience as a congressional aide before Davis hired him. It wasn’t enough.

We don’t fault Tronovitch for his youth and inexperience. But Davis should have opted for a true “Capitol Hill veteran,” as he glowingly described Tronovitch when he hired him. Tronovitch replaced Timothy Hill, another young press secretary who left in disgrace after he was caught repeatedly vandalizing Wikipedia entries about Davis. Hill altered the entries to eliminate unflattering but accurate information about Davis’ dealings with other campaign donors.

Returning to the matter of Davis’ response to our editorial, we note that he didn’t send it to this newspaper. He sent it to one of our competitors, the Kingsport Times-News, which turned it into a news story that is long on boosterism and short on substance. It appears the Times-News wishes to serve as the official mouthpiece of the Davis re-election machine.

The Times-News story deals mostly with Davis’ dealings with BAE Systems – a defense contractor that runs the Holston Army Ammunition Plant in Kingsport. Davis asked for an earmark for the defense contractor, which generously ponied up $11,000 for his re-election bid. Quid pro quo? You be the judge.

Interestingly, Davis made opposition to earmarks one of his campaign planks in 2006. We even praised him for the stance in an editorial. Guess he had a change of heart.

The BAE deal is only a single example of Davis’ corporate entanglements. We took Davis to task for his full-on-the-lips smooch of any special interest waving a wad of cash – not for the BAE deal alone. Davis chose to focus on the small picture rather than the big one because he cannot defend the indefensible.