Wolf Creek Development Tangled with Political Ties

Mike Soraghan wrote a
Denver Post story (2-5-6) entitled: “Wolf Creek Development Tangled with Political Ties”

The article outlines some of the political juice that has pushed this project. It is a long story, but here are some key quotes:

"Washington - Texas billionaire B.J. "Red" McCombs... lobbied to get the official who oversees the agency appointed, and ... has since met repeatedly with the official to discuss the controversial project, records and interviews show.
"McCombs pushed to have Mark Rey, a longtime timber-industry lobbyist, appointed undersecretary of agriculture, overseeing the Forest Service...


"McCombs is a longtime donor to Republicans and a friend of the family of President Bush (Sr). He's given more than $475,000 to congressional and presidential campaigns since 1989, 91 percent of it to Republicans, according to the Center for Responsive Politics...


"McCombs tapped former U.S. Rep. Tom Loeffler, now a Texas lobbyist and a top fundraiser for Bush.
"It's not clear whom McCombs and Loeffler approached on Rey's behalf. But after Rey was selected, Honts wrote a letter to McCombs regarding Rey's appointment.
"It is my understanding that your effort and former Congressman Loeffler's efforts had an impact at exactly the right time in the process," said Honts' ...


"After Rey's appointment, Honts got access to him at key steps in the process of reviewing the Village at Wolf Creek proposal, according to Rey's calendars, obtained by The Post...


"The first of three meetings was Nov. 28, 2001, about two months after Rey was sworn in. Rey's calendars show he's had several more meetings with McCombs' representatives...


"In February 2003, Rey again met with Honts to discuss access to the site of the McCombs project. It was about two weeks after McCombs had given $25,000 to the national Republican Party...


"Also at the meeting was Honts' lobbyist, Steve Quarles, chief litigation counsel to the American Forest and Paper Association, where Rey was an executive in the early 1990s...


"McCombs has paid Quarles at least $40,000 a year, documents indicate that Quarles supplied the language for a important Forest Service letter that defined McCombs' access to his property...


"In June, Rey met once again on Wolf Creek, this time with McCombs himself. They had an hour-and-a-half "working lunch" in the secretary of agriculture's dining room...


"Randy Karstaedt, an official at the Forest Service's Lakewood regional headquarters, said that Tenny (McCombs deputy) monitored the Wolf Creek situation closely...


"In August 2004, Karstaedt e-mailed a regional planner with concerns about Honts' and Quarles' demands to see early drafts of an environmental impact statement on their project before agency officials had the chance to review them...


"When a farm subsidy bill passed without a pro-McCombs (VWC) amendment in May 2002, McCombs wrote to DeLay to thank him for trying and asked a DeLay aide to try again. Five days later, McCombs contributed $25,000 to the Republican National State Elections Committee..."

{For the complete text visit
The Denver Post Archives or email: citizenschallenge@gmail.com.}

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Documentation can be found at: www.friendsofwolfcreek.org/whitepaper/index.html