Slattery: Concealing Facts Kansans Deserve to Know

Today, Washington lobbyist Jim Slattery filed some of the paperwork required of a U.S. Senate candidate.

Today’s filing only repeats what we already knew, that Slattery wants to go from being a Washington lobbyist to a United States Senator.

But so far Jim Slattery has refused to file the required paperwork telling us what we really need to know:

(1) How many millions of dollars has he made as a Washington lobbyist?

(2) Just what favors did he do for special interests in exchange for those millions?

Fourteen years ago, Jim Slattery stopped working for Kansas so he could enrich himself working for special interests.

How rich has he become selling his access as a former Member of Congress?

The Associated Press reported May 12th that Slattery’s lobbying firm, “earned profits per partner of $4.4 million,” in 2006 alone. In 2006, Slattery was listed as a partner in the lobbying firm Wiley Rein LLP.

However, Slattery maintained during a radio interview that on May 22nd that the figure was “inaccurate.”

Of course, we wouldn’t have to take his word for it if he would just release the financial information required of him as a Senate candidate. That information was due May 15th, but Slattery has so far refused to file it.

Also, in response to the AP story, Slattery pledged to release “a digest of what he did for each [lobbying] client.” (KC Star Buzz Blog)

His campaign said that digest would be released “soon.”

More than three weeks later, Slattery still hasn’t kept his promise.

Now, given that Jim Slattery has been a Washington lobbyist longer than he was a Congressman, it understandably takes some time to sort through all of that lobbying, all of those clients, and all of those millions of dollars.

But today we didn’t learn anything we didn’t already know—the lobbyist wants to be Senator.

What the law requires Jim Slattery to tell us is:

(1) How many millions of dollars has he made as a Washington lobbyist?

(2) Just what favors did he do for special interests in exchange for those millions?

Now that’s something Kansans deserve to know.