SO CALLED HONEST MAXINE WALTERS WHO WILL HAVE A MAJOR LEADERSHIP POSITION IF THE DEMS WIN THE MID TERMS

Details on the Honest Maxine Walters, (D CA) who is being touted for a leadership position if the Democrats take Congress in '06. Below is meticulously footnoted HERE at the Citizens For Ethics report. As you will see she has involved her entire family in her web of deceit and has enriched herself and her family in direct violation of the law.

REP. MAXINE WATERS
Maxine Waters (D-CA) is an eighth-term member of the U.S. House of Representatives, representing the 35th district of California. A powerful and renowned politician in her state, Rep. Waters is recognized for her unique ability to unite voters in South Los Angeles around causes she deems important. Her ethics issues stem from the exercise of this power to financially benefit her daughter, husband and son. Rep. Waters’ family has earned a total of more than $1 million in the last eight years through business dealings with companies and issue organizations that Rep. Waters has assisted.

Karen Waters: Rep. Waters’ daughter, Karen Waters, has benefitted primarily through charging for spots on her mothers’ “slate mailers” issued by L.A. Vote. L.A. Vote is a non-profit, political
organization that sends sample ballots to South Los Angeles residents featuring the photo of Rep. Waters and the names of candidates she supports. Charges for a spot on the ballot have
ranged widely from $171,000 for an affluent, California businessman running for elected office, to tens of thousands of dollars for candidates such as former Gov. Gray Davis, to $250 for a
school board candidate. Of the $1.7 million collected by L.A. Vote over the last 8 years, mainly from candidates who have paid to have their names appear on slate mailers, approximately
$450,000 has gone to Karen Waters and her consulting firm, Progressive Connections, and $115,000 to Rep. Waters’ son, Edward. Karen Waters also has collected $20,000 from a small, non-profit organization called African American Committee 2000 & Beyond that she established with her mother. Many
corporations and organizations seeking to win Rep. Waters’ favor have donated to African American Committee 2000 & Beyond. The non-profit has used this money to pay for parties hosted by Rep. Waters at the Democratic national conventions. Sponsors of these convention parties include Fannie Mae, a company that has been investigated for alleged accounting misconduct.

Sidney Williams
Rep. Waters’ husband, Sidney Williams, has also benefitted financially from his wife’s political clout, working as a part-time consultant for a bond underwriting firm, Siebert, Brandford, & Shank. Despite having no apparent background in the bond business prior to his work as a consultant for the company, Mr. Williams has collected close to $500,000 by making valuable introductions for Siebert to politicians who have received his wife’s support. Government bond deals are awarded based on negotiations, allowing Mr. Williams to capitalize on his wife’s connections to close many lucrative business deals for Siebert, from which he has
personally profited. For example, when school board members in Inglewood, a city in Rep. Waters’ congressional district to which she guaranteed a $10 million loan from the Department of Housing and Urban Development, needed a bond underwriting firm to handle a $40 million school bond sale, they chose Siebert. Mr. Williams earned $54,000 in commission from the deal.

Edward Waters
Rep. Waters’ son, Edward Waters, together with her husband Sidney Williams, benefitted from Rep. Waters’ political connections when they won a 20-year lease to run the county-owned Chester Washington Golf Course in South Los Angeles. The key decision-maker for the deal was County Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke, in whose district the golf course was located. Rep. Waters handed the County Supervisor a victory just several months earlier when she endorsed Ms. Burke in a close election. Financial records indicate that Mr. Williams and Mr. Waters earned between $140,000 and $400,000 through the golf venture. In addition, both of Rep. Waters’ children have collected money working as paid
consultants for politicians and interests endorsed by their mother.
Rule 23 of the House Ethics Manual requires all members of the House to conduct themselves “at all times in a manner that reflects creditably on the House.” This ethics standard is considered to be “the most comprehensive provision of the code.” When this
section was first adopted, the Select Committee on Standards of Official Conduct of the 90th Congress noted that it was included within the Code to deal with “flagrant” violations of the law
that reflect on “Congress as a whole,” and that might otherwise go unpunished. This rule has been relied on by the Ethics Committee in numerous prior cases in which the Committee found unethical conduct including: the failure to report campaign contributions, making false statements to the Committee, criminal convictions for bribery, or accepting illegal gratuities, and accepting gifts from persons with interest in legislation in violation of the then gift rule.
Another “fundamental rule[] of ethics” for Members of the House is that they are prohibited from taking any official actions for the prospect of personal gain for themselves or anyone else. In that memorandum, the Committee directed House members to adhere to 5 CFR §2635.702(a),27 issued by the U.S. Office of Government Ethics for the Executive Branch, which provides: An employee shall not use or permit the use of his Government position or title
or any authority associated with his public office in a manner that is intended to coerce or induce another person . . . to provide any benefit , financial or otherwise, to himself or to friends, relatives, or persons with whom the employee is affiliated in a nongovernmental capacity.

Rep. Waters has assisted her family in making commercial deals from which they have reaped personal financial gain. By allowing the use of her name and authority associated with her position as a member of the House in this manner, Rep. Waters has run afoul of 5 CFR §2635.702(a). In addition, this conduct does not reflect creditably on the House of Representatives. Therefore, the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct should investigate
Rep. Waters’ connections with L.A. Vote, the African American Committee 2000, the firm of Siebert, Brandford and Shank, and the Chester Washington Golf Course.