Rehberg hid thousands more in lobbyist donations

After multiple failures to properly disclose the source of his campaign contributions, Congressman Dennis Rehberg once again attempted to hide campaign contributions from registered lobbyists in his latest fundraising report.

In the final fundraising quarter of 2011, Rehberg took $4,500 from six registered lobbyists without disclosing their occupation.

As someone who has served in Congress for over a decade, Rehberg has to be well aware that Montanans want to know when lobbyists are making donations to their elected representatives.

Apparently not, because he tried to hide donations just like this throughout 2011.

In the last fundraising year Rehberg accepted a total of $25,000 from Washington lobbyists without disclosing where the money was coming from.

Montanans concerned about their future should be asking themselves why the Rehberg campaign has routinely failed to report this money. At the point where the Rehberg campaign has failed to report the donations of nearly 40 lobbyists this is more of a pattern than a one time mistake.

Rehberg has accepted a total of $92,000 from lobbyists this election cycle, a number that ranks him ninth out of the 435 members of the U.S. House.

One of Rehberg’s undisclosed donors, MDU Resources lobbyist Geoff Simon, even visited with Rehberg four times in a two-year period before donating $250 to Rehberg last November. In December, New West Strategies lobbyist Michael Ware gave $500 to Rehberg, but Rehberg failed to identify Ware as a lobbyist. New West Strategies represents Murray Energy, whose employees have given Rehberg more than $24,000 over the past two years. [FEC Year-End Financial Report, 11/28/11; Influence Explorer, accessed 3/14/12; Open Congress, accessed 3/14/12; Idaho Statesman, 12/22/11; MapLight, accessed 3/14/12]

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