Frank Guinta’s Lucrative Turkish Connection

One of Pindell’s Questions for the Weekend caught my eye:

Where is that “Turkey,” Frank Guinta, these days? Is he in New Hampshire?

A little poking around confirmed that, yes, Guinta has been in Turkey — as a guest of the Turkish Coalition of America.

The Turkish Coalition of America (TCA) on Feb. 14th wrapped up its twelfth Congressional Delegation to Turkey. … The delegation, comprised of Rep. Frank Guinta (R-N.H.) and three senior Congressional staffers … visited Istanbul and Ankara during their four-day visit.

Ironically, when Guinta campaigned for office, he pledged to co-sponsor an Armenian genocide resolution, which would condemn the 1915 slaughter of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire as genocide. His promise to co-sponsor the resolution, which is opposed by the TCA, secured the endorsement of the Armenian National Committee of America.

In his response to the ANCA’s 2010 Congressional Candidate Questionnaire, Guinta pledged to co-sponsor the Armenian Genocide Resolution and oppose any kind of historical commission that might be established to question this crime against humanity.

Guinta’s Turkish romance began soon after his election to the House. He joined the Caucus on US Turkish Relations & Turkish Americans, which is sponsored by the TCA, and was rewarded with a $5,000 campaign donation from Yalcin Ayasli, the New Hampshire entrepreneur who founded the TCA. Ayasli has deep pockets. During the 2008 election cycle, he and his family gave $424,050 to politicians and political organizations, making them the nation’s top individual contributors.

Guinta has also received $17,000 in PAC contributions from BAE Systems, a defense contractor with business interests in Turkey who has lobbied against an Armenian genocide resolution.

Last month, Guinta was one of 13 members of Congress to attend a reception celebrating the opening of a new office for the Turkish Coalition of America and the Turkish Cultural Foundation.

Guinta, pictured at the TCA/TCF reception with Yalcin Ayasli, Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-NJ), Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC) and Lincoln McCurdy, TCA President.

For the record, Guinta is not a co-sponsor of U.S. House Resolution 304, the Affirmation of the United States Record on the Armenian Genocide Resolution, which was introduced on June 14, 2011.

4th Quarter Congressional Fundraising Summary

Once again, Democrat Ann Kuster was the big winner in the congressional fundraising sweepstakes for the fourth quarter of 2011. The 2nd District congressional candidate raised over $330,000, nearly doubling the total from her likely Republican opponent, Rep. Charlie Bass, and bringing in more than New Hampshire’s two sitting congressmen combined.

Bass raised $167,500 with half of that coming from Political Action Committees. The PAC donations included $10,000 from Sen. Mitch McConnell and $2,500 from Sen. Kelly Ayotte.

                              Kuster-D     Bass-R
Itemized Contributions  . . . $202,666    $ 80,550
Non-Itemized Contributions. . $ 69,505    $  3,100
Political Committees  . . . . $ 58,951    $ 80,388

Total Receipts  . . . . . . . $331,202    $167,513

Cash On Hand  . . . . . . . . $828,036    $600,264

In the 1st District, Carol Shea-Porter led the pack of Democrats vying for the Republican-held seat, raising over $87,000. Andrew Hosmer brought in nearly $51,000 and Joanne Dowdell trailed with $43,500. Dowdell spent almost as much as she raised last quarter. Hosmer had less than $12,000 cash on hand at the end of the year.

Congressman Frank Guinta raised over $130,000, more than Shea-Porter but less than the combined totals from his three Democratic challengers. Guinta paid himself $22,000 from the campaign funds as a loan repayment, but still has a significant advantage in cash on hand, ending the year with over $565,000 compared to Shea-Porter’s $142,500.

                              Dowdell-D   Hosmer-D Shea-Porter-D  Guinta-R
Itemized Contributions  . . . $ 27,575    $ 40,630    $ 29,810    $ 67,500
Non-Itemized Contributions. . $ 13,941    $  9,254    $ 27,590    $  5,215
Political Committees  . . . . $      0    $  1,000    $ 30,000    $ 51,379

Total Receipts. . . . . . . . $ 43,516    $ 50,884    $ 87,552    $130,522

Cash On Hand  . . . . . . . . $ 98,445    $ 11,617    $142,496    $565,273

Progressive Super PAC Targets Frank Guinta

A new progressive super PAC has been launched by CREDO Mobile, the San Francisco-based mobile phone company that has raised over $67 million for progressive causes.

First order of business for the new organization is a $3 million campaign to “Take Down the Tea Party Ten.” The group promises to open field offices and hire organizers “to hold the worst congressional extremists accountable for their radical attacks on women, science and equality.”

New Hampshire Congressman Frank Guinta made the list.  

Frank Guinta is unfit to serve in Congress. Elected with the help of the Tea Party and some shady campaign finance practices that led him to be named one of the most corrupt members of Congress, he is as anti-woman as he is corrupt. He campaigned on overturning Roe V. Wade and has advocated a total ban on abortion with no exceptions, not even to save the life of a woman.

That Was Then, This Is Now: O’Brien’s Selective Outrage

Last year, the New Hampshire Democratic Party was fined for violating the state election law that requires prerecorded political messages to disclose who paid for the call. State House Speaker Bill O’Brien was outraged and called for Chairman Ray Buckley’s ouster.

“New Hampshire has never stood for Boston-style or Chicago-style, dirty politics like this,” O’Brien said in an interview…

“Unless the Democratic Party takes concrete steps to prevent this from happening again such as removing their chairman, removing their current leadership and move into the mainstream of New Hampshire politics, those are the type of issues through a subsequent civil suit that we feel almost compelled to ask,” O’Brien said in the interview.

Last week, a firm conducting a push poll on behalf of Frank Guinta’s 2010 congressional campaign was fined for making the calls without the required disclosures. O’Brien’s response? Crickets…

h/t: Jeff Feingold

Charlie Bass Milks Presidential Candidates for Cash

New Hampshire Congressman Charlie Bass has been one of the most successful lawmakers in Congress at leveraging his influence in the presidential race for campaign fundraising.

Prior to his endorsement of Mitt Romney last month, Bass raised $10,000 from Romney and $20,000 from Newt Gingrich. The Center for Responsive Politics reports that of the 223 lawmakers who have received donations from one of the two front-runners, only Missouri Congresswoman Jo Ann Emerson raised more.

Making his $10,000 bet with Rick Perry seem small potatoes, Romney has donated a total of $743,263 to 211 current members of Congress. The 51 lawmakers who have endorsed him received $163,620. That’s a better record than Gingrich, who has donated $260,560 to 42 current members of Congress without receiving a single endorsement.

If you’re wondering why Congressman Frank Guinta has yet to endorse a presidential candidate this year, maybe he’s waiting for someone to pony up. Guinta has received just $3,500 from Romney and nary a red cent from Gingrich.

Buddy Roemer: “Congressman Guinta is Wrong”

I guess Gov. Buddy Roemer isn’t too worried about landing Rep. Frank Guinta’s endorsement in his campaign for the GOP presidential nomination. Roemer, an advocate for campaign finance reform, lashed out at Guinta today over his vote to end voluntary public financing of presidential campaigns.

“It is not lost on Granite State voters that Congressman Guinta was the subject of 2 FEC complaints regarding a loan he issued to his campaign while running for Congress, and which he failed to report. Guinta’s explanation, or lack thereof, is less than compelling according to reports I’ve read. Whether Guinta’s explanation holds any water or not is for the voters and the FEC to decide, but one would think Guinta would be the first to support voluntary public financing of campaigns that help to end corruption.”

“Perhaps it’s Guinta’s zeal to be seen as a thrifty Congressman who can cut wasteful spending. And instead of cutting taxes, which would be more impressive, he proposes to appropriate contributions that patriotic Americans have voluntarily made to the election system! That’s not the type of reform Americans are looking for, Mr. Guinta.”

h/t: Harrell

Frank Guinta’s Tax Giveaway to Big Corporations

New Hampshire Congressman Frank Guinta has a solution to reduce the deficit and create jobs “without borrowing a single dime or raising taxes.” All we have to do, says the freshman lawmaker in a letter to House leadership, is offer a tax holiday to U.S. companies that have more than $1 trillion in profits stashed in overseas subsidiaries.

“The freshman class was elected last year to get Washington’s fiscal house in order. Repatriation is a simple, direct way to help do that. We don’t need another massive infusion of additional borrowed money in an attempt to artificially stimulate the economy and create new jobs. We need genuine reforms that will encourage American businesses who are currently parking billions of dollars overseas to bring that money home and grow our economy here. That will significantly expand the government’s revenue base and free businesses to create badly-needed jobs, too, all without borrowing a single dime or raising taxes.”

Sound too good to be true?

It’s a seductive argument — reap billions in tax revenue from money that’s currently untaxed and generate economic growth to boot. On closer inspection, though, the coalition’s argument has some logical loopholes. An almost identical holiday passed by Congress in 2004 and taken mostly in 2005 did little to boost jobs or investment, according to several independent economic studies.

The 2005 repatriation “did not increase domestic investment, employment, or R&D,” but did boost share buybacks, concludes a forthcoming Journal of Finance article by Illinois’ [Dhammika] Dharmapala, C. Fritz Foley at Harvard Business School and Kristin J. Forbes at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Sloan School of Management.

One anecdote makes the point acutely: Hewlett-Packard, even as it was pulling its $14.5 billion home from abroad, announced plans in 2005 to reduce its workforce by 14,500.

Fernald: GOP Not Serious About Deficit Reduction

Mark Fernald, 2002 Democratic nominee for Governor, blames the failure of the serious deficit reduction on Republican lawmakers whose concern is ”ideology, not governing.”

Five changes to our federal tax code — allowing the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy to expire; eliminating preferential tax rates for dividends and capital gains; eliminating tax breaks for oil and gas; plugging the holes in the corporate income tax so that it brings in revenue similar to other countries; and a financial transactions tax — would bring in $337 billion a year

Simple math dictates a balanced approach to the deficit problem, but Republicans cannot do math any more, they can only do pledges. The Republicans — including Congressman Bass, Congressman Guinta, and Senator Ayotte — are committed to the Grover Norquist pledge not to raise any taxes, the deficit be damned. If Republicans stick by the pledge — and if voters stick by the Republicans — we have no hope of taming the deficit.

Frank Guinta: Turning His Back on the 99%

Earlier this month, Congressman Frank Guinta took to the editorial pages to lambaste President Obama’s jobs bill as an attack on the work of charitable organizations.

You may be surprised to learn just how big [nonprofit organizations] role is, and even more surprised to hear what some people in Washington are trying to do that would hinder their efforts to provide much-needed services. …

[T]he jobs bill that President Obama submitted to Congress last month contained harmful consequences to nonprofit groups.

I agree our tax code needs substantial, powerful reforms. But we must ensure we don’t penalize the very groups that are doing so much to help our communities.

In a letter to the editor, Joan Jacobs sets the record straight on the jobs bill provisions — and takes Guinta to task for choosing to protect the tax privileges of the top 1% over putting people back to work.

Mr. Guinta should know better. President Obama’s proposed limitations would apply only to families with taxable incomes over $250,000. And for that top 1 percent, the change would be modest. Their tax deductions for charitable giving would be reduced from the high 35 percent they get now to the 28 percent most of the rest of us get.

Among the many good things that would result from the Jobs Act: preventing layoffs of teachers, police and firefighters; modernizing more than 35,000 schools; expanding access to high-speed wireless Internet service; and helping veterans get hired. An estimated 18,000 long-term unemployed in New Hampshire could benefits from this legislation.

Frank Guinta and his tea party Republican allies in Congress are doing everything they can to kill the American Jobs Act. Their overriding goal is to protect the tax privileges given to the top 1 percent, even if it means turning their backs on the rest of us.

Guinta Dons Disguise to Avoid Constituents

In an apparent attempt to avoid angry constituents, New Hampshire Congressman Frank Guinta confesses he occasionally wears a disguise when venturing out in public.

One of the final questions was if Guinta ever put on a disguise to go out in public. He said he would occasionally put on a hat and sunglasses when going to the grocery store on the weekends. That paired with shorts and a T-shirt allows the typically suit donning politician to shop incognito.

Rick Perry & Frank Guinta on Obama’s Citizenship

Is Gov. Rick Perry trying to win Rep. Frank Guinta’s endorsement by raising the birther issue?

New comments by Rick Perry in Parade magazine have revived the issue of whether the Texas governor believes that President Obama was born in the United States.

In the interview, Mr. Perry was asked if Mr. Obama was born in the United States, and he replied, “I have no reason to think otherwise.” When pressed, he said, “Well, I don’t have a definitive answer.”

Rep. Frank Guinta: