Doolittle's Wife Sees Pay Hike

July 19, 2006
By Paul Kane
Roll Call Staff

Focusing solely on his own re-election, Rep. John Doolittle (R-Calif.) has abandoned raising money for his leadership political action committee, collecting less than a handful of checks so far this year.

With his Superior California PAC's account essentially dry, Doolittle has shifted the focus of his top fundraiser, his wife, Julie Doolittle, to his re-election effort, and they have succeeded in increasing their take beyond that of recent election cycles.

While Doolittle has not been considered a top-tier target by Democrats, he continues to battle allegations about his family's connections to ex-lobbyist Jack Abramoff as well as lobbyists and contractors connected to the former Rep. Duke Cunningham (R-Calif.) scandal.

The change in fundraising emphasis hasn't reduced the fees paid to Sierra Dominion Financial Solutions, the firm run by Julie Doolittle, which has come under scrutiny by federal investigators for its work on behalf of Abramoff.

In fact, Julie Doolittle is on pace to more than double the amount she receives from her husband's political committees in the 2006 election cycle in comparison to what she earned in the '04 cycle. She receives a 15 percent commission for every dollar accredited to Sierra Dominion's work for her husband.

From April 1 through June 30, she collected more than $35,000 in commissions from the John T. Doolittle for Congress committee, one of her highest-grossing quarters ever, according to filings with the FEC.

Until late in 2005, Sierra Dominion had worked for Superior California PAC, not John T. Doolittle for Congress.

The shift away from the PAC is somewhat surprising, given that Doolittle, the sixth-ranking member of GOP leadership as Conference secretary, had turned Superior California into a successful vehicle to raise money and distribute it to his colleagues. After raising about $65,000 in 2003, he raked in $377,607 in 2004 and brought in more than $422,000 last year. In those two years, Doolittle's PAC doled out $330,000 in donations to House and Senate candidates as well as national party committees.

In the first six months of 2006, however, Superior California took in just $11,200 while giving out $71,500 to GOP candidates and committees.

The PAC had less than $4,000 in cash on hand at the end of June. Doolittle's office declined comment on the PAC's diminished cash.

Julie Doolittle's work for the PAC has come under scrutiny because some of the largest donors to Superior California have also been clients of Abramoff and Ed Buckham, the ex-lobbyist who is alleged in court papers to have conspired with Abramoff to steer cash payments and other things of value to Congressional staffers.

Federal prosecutors have subpoenaed Sierra Dominion's records in connection with the Abramoff probe and also obtained its entire list of clients.

In addition to raising money from clients of Abramoff and Buckham, Doolittle's Sierra Dominion fundraising firm also worked directly for entities controlled by the two former lobbyists.

The Senate Indian Affairs Committee released a report last month documenting $67,000 in payments from Abramoff, money that came from his former law firm, including fees that coincided with the timing of letters Rep. Doolittle wrote in support of Abramoff's tribal casino clients.

Sierra Dominion worked from 2002 through 2004 for the Korean-U.S. Exchange Council, a nonprofit that was founded by Buckham and his one-time lobbying firm, Alexander Strategy Group. National Journal reported last week that Julie Doolittle was paid $2,000 a month by KORUSEC, a total of roughly $30,000 in payments.

From 2002 through 2004, Rep. Doolittle helped secure $37 million in defense contracts for one of Buckham's biggest clients, PerfectWave, a defense contractor owned by Brent Wilkes.

Cunningham pleaded guilty last year to taking hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes from Wilkes, who maintains his innocence, in exchange for earmarking contracts to his defense companies.

Doolittle has denied any wrongdoing in his official actions, and his office has called it "insulting" to suggest that Julie Doolittle's commissions were anything but hard-earned. Her lawyer said she did event-planning work for Abramoff's charity and a pair of restaurants he owned.

Sierra Dominion's shift to working on the campaign committee was necessitated in part by the departure of Doolittle's longtime chief of staff and political adviser, David Lopez.

Lopez, whose financial records were examined last year by the Justice Department, left the Congressional payroll last spring and ended his role as a Doolittle political consultant in February.

Julie Doolittle stepped full time into the campaign void left behind by Lopez earlier this year and has helped her husband rake in more than $1.2 million so far for his effort to win a ninth term.

In doing so, she has collected more than $51,000 in commissions in the first six months of this year, according to FEC records. In 2005, she collected almost $81,000 in commissions from the lawmaker's political committees, and in 2003 Sierra Dominion received more than $72,000, all from Superior California.

With more than four months until Election Day, Rep. Doolittle has already raised more money than he did in any of the previous three elections.

He had more than $261,000 in the bank when June ended.

Doolittle remains a strong favorite in his race against Charlie Brown, a Roseville Police Department administrator and Air Force veteran, for a race in one of the most conservative districts in the Golden State.

Brown had raised $254,000 through June 30 and had $74,000 in cash on hand.