Hmmm...well, a few days ago, I wrote a post about the first announced challenger for Harry Mitchell in next year's election, Jim Ogsbury. In that rather quickly written post, I listed some of the political campaign contributions that he has personally made.
That list included the campaign of a couple of Democrats, Gabrielle Giffords and Ed Pastor.
Now, in a post picked up by other conservative blogs, az gnat at Sonoran Alliance has used those contributions as evidence that Ogsbury isn't a 'true' Republican.
That's crap.
I don't normally do counterposts, but this needs to be said -
Hey guys, calm down. He's a Republican, but he's also a professional lobbyist. He'd give money to Osama bin Laden if he thought there might be the slightest possible benefit to him or his clients.
There is no more Republican value than "It's all about the money."
If and when he gets the Rep nomination for CD5, we (meaning Democrats) aren't going to criticize him for contributing to Republican campaigns; we're going to go after him for being a lobbyist.
And that's not exactly a secret.
Enough said on the subject.
On to a little more info about Mr. Ogsbury...
I haven't had time to do in-depth research on any of this yet, but knowing where to look is a good start.
...According to the federal lobbyist registration database, he has lobbied on behalf of the following (and the list is nowhere near comprehensive):
Raytheon
GE
Chevron
Stewart Enterprises (funeral home/cemetary mega-corp)
ACS Government Solutions (specializes in profiting from outsourced government functions)
Apogen Technologies (government contractor)
Broward County (FL)
City of Mesa
Northrup Grumman
Lockheed Martin
Tulane University
LSU
University of New Orleans
Petroleum Helicopters
U.S. Oil and Gas Association
Sonoma Entertainment Investors (Tribal Casinos. Hmmm.....this one may bear further examination :) )
CACI (defense contractor)
City of Chandler
City of Sierra Vista
City of Surprise
Charles River Analytics (defense contractor)
Summary: believe it or not, nothing too surprising here. His lobbying activities are big corporation oriented, but they've got oodles of money, and you need a lot of money to hire professional lobbyists.
That "tribal casinos" one could be fun, though. Wonder if he ever crossed bribes...errr...'contributions' with Jack Abramoff. :))
...From the Arizona Corporation Commission -
Ogsbury is a member of Ogsbury Investments LLC (appears to be a family-owned enterprise)
He is not listed on the ACC's info page for it, but the 2007 Annual Report of the Ogsbury Mortgage Company lists him as the treasurer of the company.
On June 29, "James D. Ogsbury, PLLC" was registered with the state; its stated purpose is to provide "professional legal services." It lists a Scottsdale address (aka - it's in CD5)
Nothing incriminating, just a beginning; perhaps the lesson here will be that an early start to a campaign means an early start to opposition research. :)
Later!
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