Tom Feeney

Tom Feeney
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Florida's 24th district
Incumbent
Assumed office January 7 2003
Preceded by	First Representative (District Created After 2000 Census)
Personal details
Political party	Republican
Spouse	Ellen Stewart

Thomas Charles "Tom" Feeney III, usually known as Tom Feeney (born May 21 1958), is a Republican politician from the state of Florida. Since 2003, he has represented Florida's 24th congressional district (map), which takes up several portions of the Orlando-Daytona Beach area as well as portions of the Space Coast region.

He was born in Abington, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Philadelphia. He graduated from Penn State University in 1980, obtaining a law degree from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law in 1983. Soon afterwards, he moved to Oviedo, Florida; a suburb of Orlando where he still lives, and opened a private practice there.

Florida legislature

In 1990, Feeney was elected to the Florida House of Representatives as a Republican from Seminole County. He served two terms there before running for lieutenant governor of Florida as Jeb Bush's running mate in 1994. After the pair narrowly lost, Feeney joined the James Madison Institute, a conservative think tank, as a director. He returned to the Florida House in 1996 and was elected as Speaker of that body in 2000.

Feeney first came to national prominence in 2000, shortly after his election as Speaker, when he led efforts to certify the state's Republican presidential electors even though it was still unclear whether George W. Bush or Al Gore had won the state's electoral votes. Feeney and his colleagues claimed that Florida's electoral votes were in imminent danger of being removed from consideration if the results of the popular vote in the state could not be determined with legal certainty. While Article 2 of the United States Constitution places this power in the legislature, many Democrats insisted that recounts needed to be completed, and that by doing so, a clear legal victor would emerge. Feeney and State Senate president John McKay argued that the state Supreme Court's verdict in favor of the Democrats' position on recounts essentially "tainted" the entire process, so that there was (as Feeney stated) "a great risk" Florida's electoral votes would be disregarded altogether in the selection of the next President. The U.S. Supreme Court's verdict in Bush v. Gore rejected the argument from uncertainty by a margin of 6-3, and halted the recount process on other grounds. Bush won Florida and the election.

In 2001, Feeney was one of the lawmakers who opposed a demand by Bud Selig that the state finance a new baseball stadium for the Florida Marlins. At that time, Selig had threatened that the Marlins might leave South Florida if they did not receive a tax break.

U.S. House of Representatives

Florida gained two congressional district after the 2000 census. One of them was the 24th District in the Orlando area. Some have argued that Feeney drew this district for himself , since it included virtually all of his state House district and term limits prohibited him from running for the state House again. (The other new district, the 25th, was drawn for fellow state representative Mario Diaz-Balart). He was handily elected in 2002, re-elected unopposed in 2004, and took 58% of the vote in 2006.

Political positions

Feeney is one of the most conservative members of the House. He drafted a "Principles Card" soon after becoming state house speaker which allowed his fellow Republicans to check if legislation was consistent with conservative principles. He modified this card when he came to Congress, calling it the Conservative Check Card.

Despite his ties to the Bush family, Feeney broke with the White House and opposed the Medicare reform package of 2003 since he felt its centerpiece, a prescription drug benefit for senior citizens, was too expensive. He was a founding member of Washington Waste Watchers, a group that combats what it considers to be wasteful government spending.

Feeney is a cosponsor of a nonbinding resolution against the use of foreign law in federal courts. When Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia said (of the resolution) that "[i]t's none of your business", Feeney said that Scalia's comments were "like being told your favorite baseball player disagrees with your approach to hitting."

=== Electoral Voting scandals== There is wide speculation as to the interests which Mr. Feeney truly had on the electoral vote. There has been cases of sworn testimony that Mr. Feeney in fact hired a hacker to tamper with the electoral votes of 2000.

 In stunning revelations set to rock the vote from Tallahassee to Capitol Hill --- and perhaps even a bit further up Pennsylvania Avenue --- a Florida computer programmer has now made remarkable claims in a detailed sworn affidavit, signed this morning and obtained. 

The programmer claims that he designed and built a "vote rigging" software program at the behest of then Florida Congressman, now U.S. Congressman, Republican Tom Feeney of Florida's 24th Congressional District.

Clint Curtis, 46, claims that he built the software for Feeney in 2000 while working at a sofware design and engineering company in Oviedo, Florida (Feeney's home district).

Curtis, in his affidavit, says that as technical advisor and programmer at Yang Enterprises, Inc. (YEI) he was present at company meetings where Feeney was present "on at least a dozen occasions".

Feeney, who had run in 1994 as Jeb Bush's running-mate in his initial unsuccessful bid for Florida Governor, was serving as both corporate counsel and registered lobbyist for YEI during the period that Curtis worked at the company. Feeney was also concurrently serving as a Florida state congressman while performing those services for YEI. Feeney would eventually become Speaker of the Florida House before being elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2002. He is now a member of the U.S. House Judiciary Committee.

At an October 2000 meeting with Feeney, according to the affidavit and BRAD BLOG interviews with Curtis over the past three days, Feeney inquired whether the company could build a "vote fraud software prototype".

At least three YEI employees are said to have been present at that meeting; Curtis, company owner, Mrs. Li Woan Yang, and her executive secretary, Mike Cohen. Two other YEI employees may have come in and out at different points of the meeting according to Curtis.

Curtis says that Feeney "was very specific in the design and specifications required for this program."

"He detailed, in his own words, that; (a) the program needed to be touch-screen capable (b) the user should be able to trigger the program without any additional equipment (c) the programming to accomplish this needed to stay hidden even if the source code was inspected."

Though there was no problem with the first two requirements, Curtis explained to the Congressman that it would be "virtually impossible to hide such code written to change the voting results if anyone is able to review the uncompiled source code"

Nonetheless, he was asked at the meeting by Mrs. Yang to build the prototype anyway.

Curtis, "a life-long Republican" at the time, claims that it was his initial belief that Feeney's interest was in trying to stop Democrats from using "such a program to steal an election". Curtis had assumed that Feeney, "wanted to be able to detect and prevent that if it occurred."

Upon delivery of the software design and documentation on CD to Mrs. Yang, Curtis again explained to her that it would be impossible to hide routines created to manipulate the vote if anybody would be able to inspect the precompiled source code.

Mrs. Yang then told him, "You don't understand, in order to get the contract we have to hide the manipulation in the source code. This program is needed to control the vote in South Florida." [emphasis in affidavit]

Mrs. Yang then took the CD containing the software from Curtis, reportedly for later delivery to Feeney.

In other meetings with Feeny prior to the 2000 elections, it became clear to Curtis that Feeney had plans to suppress the vote in strong Democratic precincts. In the affidavit, Curtis claims that in those meetings Feeney had "bragged that he had already implemented 'exclusion lists' to reduce the 'black vote'." Feeney also mentioned that "proper placement of police patrols could further reduce the black vote by as much as 25%."

Curtis says that he submitted his resignation to YEI effective December 2000, but stayed on until they had found someone to replace him in February of 2001. He eventually became employed by the Florida Dept. of Transportation (FDOT) after leaving YEI.

But the scandals didn't stop there.

In May of 2001, while at FDOT, Curtis and another FDOT employee, Mavis Georgalis, discovered and then reported several allegations to the Inspector General at FDOT concerning over-billing by YEI --- who had been an FDOT contractor --- and software that was never delivered by the company. Allegations also included the employment of a suspected illegal alien, Mr. Hai Lin Nee, who worked as YEI's "quality control" manager.

Both Curtis and Georgalis were reportedly harassed after filing their complaints about malfeasance at YEI and pressure mounted on the FDOT --- purportedly from the powerful Feeney who was still working with YEI --- to have them both fired.

In November 2001, after Curtis filed his complaints at FDOT, both he and Georgalis' were subsequently sued by YEI "in retaliation" for their complaints against the company. The charge was "theft of intellectual property", which Curtis has catagorized as "ridiculous" in interviews, because the "intellectual property" in question was, in fact, software that FDOT had long ago paid YEI to develop for them.

YEI was represented in the lawsuit by Congressman Feeney's law firm.

When the two had sought help from FDOT in fighting YEI's suit against them, they were told that FDOT couldn't help them because FDOT had not been named in the suit.

After several rounds of court battles, Georgalis was finally successful in having FDOT added to the suit as a third co-defendant. The suit was originally filed in Seminole County, but moved to Leon County upon the addition of FDOT.

In April of 2002 --- on the very same day --- Curtis and Georgalis were both fired by FDOT without explanation.

The Daytona Beach News-Journal reported extensively in 2002 on the case. They reported at the time that Curtis had written to the Inspector General at FDOT to inquire why no investigation had yet been made into YEI. As well, Curtis had contacted the Florida Bar, since Feeney was a member, to inform them that "Feeney has used his position to promote the profits of Yang Enterprises, from whom he received compensation under the guise of lobbyist and attorney."

According to The Orlando Sentinel in 2001, of 160 Florida congressmen, Feeney was the only known registered lobbyist. He would later be cleared of all ethics violations brought against him in the Florida house on these matters by the Ethics Committee which included four Republicans appointed to the committee by Feeney. Curtis was never interviewed by the Ethics Committee concerning his allegations.

After Curtis and Georgalis were fired by FDOT, each attempted to file "Whistleblower Suits" in the state of Florida. Georgalis' suit was successful and FDOT was eventually ordered, after lengthy court battles, to reinstate her with full back-pay by the circuit court. Curtis' suit was not successful due to having missed the filing deadline for the suit.

That suit, filed over three years ago, is still pending. The reason, explained Curtis, is that YEI has since avoided all defendants attempts to depose company employees in the case.

By May of 2002, the FDOT had finally taken up the investigation into malfeasance by YEI.

In one particularly chilling paragraph in the affidavit, Curtis explains what became of Raymond Lemme, the inspector at FDOT who was said to be pursing the allegations against YEI, Tom Feeney and the other reported matters:

"[I]n June of 2003, he told me that he had tracked the corruption 'all the way to the top' and that the story would break in the next few weeks and I would be satisfied with the results. A few weeks later, on July 1st, Mr. Lemme was found dead with his arm slashed in a hotel room in Valdosta, Georgia."

The death was ruled a suicide by the Valdosta Police. The BRAD BLOG has obtained and is currently reviewing many official documents related to Mr. Lemme's death.

Mr. Hai Lin Nee, "the ilegal alien" who had worked at YEI and was reported by Curtis, was arrested in March of 2004 on espionage charges which included "shipping radar guidance system chips for Hellfire Anti-Tank Missiles to a company in Communist China."

Curtis discussed in detail, during our interviews, Mr. Nee having placed "wiretapping modules" into software code created by the company. The secret "wiretapping modules", Curtis claims, were to download information from programs built by YEI for contractors, and then either copy or send that information via Email back to YEI. Such software, Curtis claims, was created for companies such as NASA with whom YEI held substantial contracts.

According to both the Curtis affidavit and email dated November 22, 2004 obtained by The BRAD BLOG, YEI is currently under investigation by the FBI.

That information was sent to Curtis after he had attempted on several occassions to notify law enforcement authorities of his seemingly remarkable story of espionage, possible vote tampering and other ethical concerns.

In July of this year, in an email we've reviewed which purports to be from a current YEI employee whose name we are withholding, Curtis was sent the following message in regard to a book that the employee had learned Curtis was working on:

Awards

In 2006, Feeney was named a "Taxpayer Superhero" by the Citizens Against Government Waste. He received a perfect score from the Grover Norquist's Americans for Tax Reform(ATR). He was named "Guardian of Small Business" by the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB). The National Taxpayers Union presented Feeney with the "Taxpayers' Friend Award" in 2004 and in 2006.

Controversies

In September 2006, Feeney was named one of the "20 Most Corrupt Members of Congress" in a report by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington; he was also listed in the first report by the organization in January 2006, when he was one of 13 named members. The organization said "His ethics issues arise from trips he has taken in apparent violation of House travel and gift rules and from his failure to disclosure his ownership of rental property."

Trips

Korea

In 2003, Feeney visited South Korea on a trip sponsored by the Korea-U.S. Exchange Council (KORUSEC), despite the fact that the organization was registered with the Department of Justice under the Foreign Agents Registration Act; he also failed to file travel disclosure forms for the trip.

Scotland

In August 2003, Feeney took a trip to Scotland, apparently to golf (a violation of House rules). When Feeney reported the trip on congressional-disclosure forms, he said the National Center for Public Policy Research had paid for it, something that the Center denied. In fact, the trip was paid for by former lobbyist (now convicted criminal) Jack Abramoff, who went with Feeney to Scotland. Feeney has said "My office has never done anything for Jack Abramoff", but in March 2003, Feeney was one of ten Republican lawmakers who wrote to the Energy Department opposing changes to the Energy Star, changes also being fought by an Abramoff client.

In January 2007, Feeney agreed to pay $5,643 to the U.S. Treasury to cover the trip's cost, after the House ethics committee concluded that the trip did not comply with House rules. In April 2007, Federal agents asked the St. Petersburg Times for an email sent to the newspaper by Feeney's office describing the trip.

Feeney was named as "Representative #3" in the Justice Department's April 23, 2007 criminal information against Mark Zachares, a former congressional aide of Representative Don Young. Zachares has pleaded guilty to accepting tens of thousands of dollars in gifts from Abramoff.

Orlando, Florida

In November 2003, Feeney and his wife, Ellen, spent four days in Orlando, Florida, on a trip paid for by a registered lobbying firm.

Rental property

In May 2006, Feeney reported on his personal financial disclosure form that he was the joint owner of a condominium at the Royal Mansions resort in Cape Canaveral, Florida. Feeney listed the purchase date as January of 2005, but online records of the Brevard County Appraiser's office show that the sale actually took place in late 2003. The only listed purchaser is James A. Fowler, Feeney's former law partner. Fowler said that he and Feeney purchased the condo as an investment, paying a total of $175,000.

Two identically sized units at the resort sold earlier in 2006 for $420,000 and $450,000. According to a note in the Harper's Magazine weblog "Washington Babylon," while not necessarily illegal, Feeney's failure to include the purchase as part of his 2003 financial reporting is a violation of House rules.

Voting fraud

Feeney's 2006 congressional opponent, Clint Curtis has previously provided a sworn affidavit alleging that in October 2000, Feeney asked Curtis, then a computer programmer at Yang Enterprises, to design a computer program to falsify touch-screen voting results in Palm Beach County. Although a Wired News story cast doubt on Curtis's allegations, Curtis subsequently passed a polygraph (lie detector) test commissioned by a Washington, D.C. private investigator.

Feeney has responded that he has no recollection of even meeting Curtis; that he could not have engaged in such a scheme because Palm Beach County did not even consider obtaining touch screen machines until after the 2000 election; and that although Curtis wrote a book in the summer of 2004 accusing Feeney of a wide variety of misconduct, Curtis did not even mention the alleged scheme to commit vote fraud in the edition published prior to the 2004 election.

2006 re-election campaign

In 2006, Feeney faced Democrat Clint Curtis in the November general election.

In September, Feeney's campaign launched a website that depicts Curtis as a tinfoil hat-wearing loony-bin candidate. The website is full of references to conspiracies and aluminum hats. Curtis claimed that the attention was actually helping him. The website in question was created by political consultant Ralph Gonzales, who was later murdered in a bizarre double-murder/suicide.

In early October, Feeney's campaign sent out flyers to 110,000 voters that showed the head of Curtis superimposed on what's supposed to be the body of Playboy magazine publisher Hugh Hefner. The flyer also mentioned Larry Flynt and Hustler magazine. Feeney said he was using such tactics to inform the voters that Curtis was endorsed by Flynt. Curtis responded that he has never met Flynt or anyone at Hustler magazine.

Feeney refused to debate Curtis on substantive policy issues. It would be a disservice to voters to do so, he said. Curtis countered that Feeney was ducking him.

Feeney was reelected with 58% of the vote in 2006.

2008 election

Presidential candidate support

In mid-January 2007, Feeney endorsed Mitt Romney's nascent campaign for United States President. "With his record of fighting for lower taxes and balanced budgets, Gov. Romney is the right kind of leader to bring fiscal sanity back to Washington," Feeney said in a statement.

Feeney's chief of staff, Jason Roe (politician), is serving as deputy campaign manager for Romney.

Re-election

In June 2007, the 24th Congressional District was one of five in Florida that Democrats hoped to win from the Republicans in 2008. At that time, the party was recruiting a candidate to oppose Feeney.

See also

• 2004 U.S. presidential election controversy
• 2004 U.S. presidential election controversy, voting machines

External links

• U.S. Congressman Tom Feeney official House site
• United States Congress. "Tom Feeney (id: f000447)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
• Federal Election Commission — Tom Feeney campaign finance reports and data
• On the Issues — Tom Feeney issue positions and quotes
• OpenSecrets.org — Tom Feeney campaign contributions
• Project Vote Smart — Representative Tom Feeney (FL) profile
• SourceWatch Congresspedia — Tom Feeney profile
• Washington Post — Congress Votes Database: Tom Feeney voting record
• Tom Feeney for Congress — official campaign site
• Beyond Delay — Rep. Tom Feeney (R-FL) from Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington
• Altamonte Springs Community Blog
• Video of Clinton Curtis's testimony (YouTube)