Press Releases
Another Shaw-Big Oil Connection
October 14, 2008
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 21, 2008
Evidence of Greg Shaw's Ties to Big Oil Continues to Mount
Campaign consultant linked to interests involving big oil, big gas
MONTGOMERY, AL - Alabama Democratic Party officials Wednesday continued to link Supreme Court candidate Greg Shaw's campaign to big oil and big gas.
"We connect yet another dot in the intimate relationship between shady oil and gas interests and the Shaw campaign. The dots are painting a troubling picture of outside influence on our Supreme Court. The Greg Shaw campaign is being influenced and managed by persons and organizations that have deep relationships and connections to big oil," Democratic Party Chairman Joe Turnham said. Shaw's campaign consultant, Terry Benham, is a registered Washington lobbyist whose Washington, D.C. firm has been paid more than one million dollars by oil interests inside and outside the United States."(see below)
According to Shaw's own financial disclosure statement, his campaign has taken more than a quarter of a million dollars from organizations and PACs with ties to oil and gas.
Democrats have also called into question the million dollars worth of TV ad expenditures made on Greg Shaw's behalf by the Center for Individual Freedom. This out-of-state third party group has ties to the same oil and gas industry that Benham represents and refuses to disclose its true source of funding.
"It is time for Greg Shaw to tell the people of Alabama the truth, and either demand that the Center for Individual Freedom reveal their true source of funding for these ads or immediately pull the ads from Alabama television".
"The facts are apparently clear in this campaign: Shaw has strong ties to big oil; he does not have trial bench or Supreme Court experience; and the Center for Individual Freedom, with heavy ties to the oil and gas industry, has spent more than $1 million on advertising on the Shaw campaign. It does not take a hydrocarbon geologist to make the connection to Shaw and Big Oil and undisclosed corporate money," he said.
The Facts:
Terry Benham's Louisiana Company, The Political Firm, has also been paid $336,000 by the Shaw campaign.
Terry Benham is a strategic partner in the DC-based, mega-lobbying firm Livingston Group.
Oil companies and oil industry associations have paid $1.3 million to the Livingston Group to lobby on their behalf since 2002. (See attachment)
The Livingston Group was founded by former U.S. Senator Bob Livingston (R-LA).
Benham is a director in the firm's state issues section. He has worked for the firm since 2000 (Livingston Group website).
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