Janice Hahn Takes Oil Money, Then Attacks Debra Bowen For Taking Oil Money

By Gene Maddaus Mon., May 16 2011 at 12:41 PM

Debra Bowen, as depicted in a Janice Hahn mailer

In the closing days of the hot Dem-on-Dem Congressional primary, Councilwoman Janice Hahn has gone on the attack against Secretary of State Debra Bowen for taking oil money.

Voters head to the polls tomorrow to choose a replacement for retired Congresswoman Jane Harman. As the campaign turned nasty in the final weekend, Bowen fired back with letters from her environmental supporters denouncing Hahn's campaign.

Hahn has pledged not to take oil money -- though she has taken thousands of dollars in oil money in previous campaigns. Despite the pledge, however, checks from oil firms keep turning up in her account.

For example, in one mailer Hahn attacks Bowen for accepting money from DeMenno Kerdoon, a subsidiary of World Oil, in the late 1990s. But Hahn received $2,500 from three DeMenno Kerdoon executives just last month.

"Janice took a pledge, and then took money," said Steve Barkan, Bowen's strategist. "That's the ultimate in hypocrisy."

Over the course of her career, Hahn has accepted tens of thousands of dollars in oil contributions -- most of it from Warren Resources, which is the largest oil driller in her district. Last fall, Hahn took $6,500 from Norman Swanton, Warren's CEO, as she sought to pay down debt from her failed campaign for lieutenant governor.

A month later, Hahn backed off on a proposal to tax oil extraction, saying she had been in touch with "various business groups" who suggested it would be the wrong climate to put such a measure on the ballot.

Environmental groups have generally sided with Bowen. In the wake of Hahn's attacks, Bowen produced letters of support from the Sierra Club, the California League of Conservation Voters and Mark Gold, president of Heal the Bay.

Bowen also sent out a negative mailer of her own, in which she attacked an insurance industry-backed independent expenditure campaign, which has spent $100,000 supporting Hahn. In e-mails to supporters, Bowen has also emphasized Hahn's financial support from City Hall lobbyists. "Send a message to the lobbyists," Bowen's mailer says. "Vote Debra Bowen for Congress."

Dave Jacobson, Hahn's campaign manager, shot back and defended the Hahn mailers: "We're calling out her hypocrisy. She's been taking special interest money and lobbyist money. She was a lobbyist."

Hahn has returned some oil contributions during this campaign. Others have been returned after the L.A. Weekly asked about them.

For example, Hahn received $2,500 from a Warren Resources executive on May 3. When asked about it, Jacobson said that check would be returned.

On the same date, Hahn received $5,000 from Esther Ek, Warren Resources' lobbyist.

In March, Hahn accepted $1,000 from an executive with WesPac Energy Group, which is trying to build a jet fuel pipeline through Hahn's district. Asked about that contribution, Jacobson said the campaign had not realized that WesPac is an oil pipeline company, and said the check would be returned.

Hahn has also taken $6,500 from two WesPac lobbyists, Rick Taylor and John Ek.

The top two candidates in tomorrow's primary will advance to a general election on July 12. Bowen would be Hahn's strongest opponent in a runoff, so Hahn is attacking her now in hopes that Bowen won't advance. Other contenders include two Republicans, Craig Huey and Mike Gin, and Democrat Marcy Winograd.

Tags:

California League of Conservation Voters, CD-36, Debra Bowen, environment, Janice Hahn, oil, Sierra Club

We Recommend

thomasjcoleman

All the bickering I see among the "involved" citizens here (who nevertheless seem too timid/afraid/neurotic to type their full names unless provided "protection" by Jack Bauer or the Ghost of Daryl Gates) only highlight the reality of the narcissism of small differences between Hahn and Bowen and their respective, worked up supporters. If you like the way the economy has been going and all the splendid, bloody, dishonest wars that have done so much to nearly destroy it, conventional Dems of this type (Hahn) and strype (Bowen) will be your cup of tea and by all means carry on like John and Blanche Bickerson. If you want real, progressive, peaceful change, the only real choice is Winograd. Election day is tomorrow. Be there. Aloha.

Lydia

Going negative isn't the point. Hahn's actions are hypocritical. And if you live in the district, you've seen how over-the-top and outrageous the attack mailers are. The funny thing is, they include nothing to indicate Bowen has allowed special interest money to influence her. The same clearly cannot be said about Janice Hahn. That's why the Sierra Club, California Nurses Association, League of Conservation Voters, and environmental legends Fran Pavley, Sheila Kuehl and Ruth Galanter support Bowen.

Ari R.

I'm a bit dispirited by the tone of this article. I don't want to speak ill of any candidate but I have to defend Councilwoman Hahn. I have tracked her work in the LA Harbor, particularly her effort to replace diesel trucks with electric rigs and to stop cargo ships from burning dirty bunker fuel while in port. There was a report published last year concluding that air quality in the region... the particulate matter... has decreased by 80 percent. That's not peanuts! It's the air I and my family breathe, and I am grateful for the improvement. I'm no fan of negative campaigning, but this article certainly does nothing to raise the level or veracity of conversation.I'm a bit dispirited by the tone of this article. I don't want to speak ill of any candidate but I have to defend Councilwoman Hahn. I have tracked her work in the LA Harbor, particularly her effort to replace diesel trucks with electric rigs and to stop cargo ships from burning dirty bunker fuel while in port. There was a report published last year concluding that air quality in the region... the particulate matter... has decreased by 80 percent. That's not peanuts! It's the air I and my family breathe, and I am grateful for the improvement. I'm no fan of negative campaigning, but this article certainly does nothing to raise the level or veracity of conversation.

Kristin

I'm gonna echo Ari R's comments. I'm a huge supporter of Janice's. Why am I a huge supporter? Because I've watched her battle oil companies firsthand. Last year, there was a horrible episode when the oil company Tesoro tried to take the jobs of nearly 30 workers from the refinery in Wilmington, in order to replace them with cheaper labor. I was friends with some of these men, and was pretty peeved that no one came to their aid. Until Janice stepped in. She negotiated with the refinery and got management to sit at the table with my friends, the workers. She fought for us, against the oil company. Nothing upsets me more than hearing honest politicians being attacked with outright lies. Janice is no friend of oil. I know that for a fact.

CD15 Resident

I wish this article had been labeled "editorial." Who really started this spate of negative attacks? In April I attended a Democrats for Israel hosted debate in which Ms. Bowen clearly went negative against Ms. Hahn, spreading the lie -- repeated in this article -- that Ms. Hahn withdrew her support for Proposition O because of moneyed interest: as opposed to the truth that it was poorly written legislation, introduced at the wrong time. When it comes to accepting money from large oil companies, it is important to set the record straight. Throughout her career, Ms. Bowen has hardly been a saint.

Msblucow

Well, it didn't help that Hahn lied about why she withdrew her support. She told the Times it was because she thought the City didn't have the resources to defend the ballot measure. But The City Maven website checked the transcripts and saw Hahn never mentioned this "concern" at the time the measure was being debated - only that "business interests" in her district had given her an earful.

CA36vOTER

If you live on the Congressional District 36, do not vote for Janice Hahn. During her tenure in in the LA City Council she was part of voting in favor of laying off thousand of workers. Now she promises 25,000 jobs? This should make her blush and people angry but people like Janice Hahn do not blush, 'cause she's shameless!

CA36vOTER

P.S. And why can't she create jobs now? Isn't that her job as City Councilwoman?

thomasjcoleman

Just shows again this is a very conventional primary as far as Democrats are concerned, apart from Marcy Winograd. By conventional I mean the footsteps that Hahn and Bowen shamelessly follow, Dems like Jane Harman and Dianne Feinstein (and Howard Berman & Henry Waxman for that matter), who talk a lot about peace in a lame attempt to clean all the buckets of useless blood they've splattered all over the place due to their feckless support for the multi-trillion $ gigablunder that was (is) the invasion and occupation of Iraq: tens of thousands slaughtered and maimed, millions displaced, a nation and culture destroyed, the primary geopolitical consequence of which has been to vastly increase the power of Iran in the region--and paving the way for the next war of course, wars without end from the love me love me I'm a liberal types.