Coal Group Reveals 6 More Forged Lobbying Letters

By David A. Fahrenthold
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, August 5, 2009

A total of 12 forged letters -- all appearing to come from local groups
unhappy with a climate-change bill -- were sent to three congressional
offices this summer by a Washington lobbying firm, according to the pro-coal
group for which the firm was working.

That is six more fraudulent letters than were previously known to have been
sent by the firm, Bonner and Associates. The newly revealed letters were
sent to Reps. Chris Carney (D-Pa.) and Kathy Dahlkemper (D-Pa.), according
to the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity, the trade group that
hired Bonner and Associates.

On Friday, a spokeswoman for Rep. Tom Perriello (D-Va.) said his office had
received six fake letters, purporting to be from a Latino social-services
group and NAACP members in his district.

Bonner and Associates bills itself as one of Washington's premier firms for
grass-roots lobbying, which often involves eliciting phone calls, letters or
e-mails from constituents or groups in a particular congressional district.

On Tuesday, the firm was denounced by both the pro-coal group, whose
president said it was outraged, and by the Hawthorn Group, an
Alexandria-based public affairs firm that hired Bonner as a subcontractor in
June.

Harvey Valentine, a spokesman for the Hawthorn Group, said it had been told
that Bonner officials would check all letters before they were sent to
Capitol Hill.

"It turns out that the quality-control mechanisms took place, but after [the
letters] went to the Hill," Valentine said. "We were furious about this." He
said Hawthorn had fired Bonner and Associates and had not yet paid it for
its work.

Jack Bonner, the founder of Bonner and Associates, denied that his firm was
fired and said it finished its work under the contract. In an e-mail
Tuesday, he said that the letters were written by a "temporary employee who
worked for us for 7 days [who] acted alone" and that "it was through our
quality control effort that we found the problem and fired the employee on
the same day we discovered it."

This saga of modern Washington -- in which an "American coalition" claiming
200,000 supporters still relies on a subcontractor to gin up favorable
letters -- was set off by debate in the House over the climate bill.

The House legislation, since adopted, called for a reduction in U.S.
greenhouse gas emissions, but the pro-coal group was worried this would
drive the price of electric power too high. It wanted Congress, among other
things, to impose price limits. And it wanted other people to say so, too.

"Hawthorn was charged to find -- could we go out and find some of these
community groups" that might also object to higher electric prices, said Joe
Lucas, a spokesman for the pro-coal group.

On the coal group's behalf, Hawthorn hired Bonner and Associates. In all,
the coal group estimated, Bonner and Associates was responsible for 46 or 47
letters that were sent to Congress.

On Monday, officials at the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity
said they had sought to speak with all the groups whose names were
fraudulently used, as well as all three congressional offices that received
the letters. The House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global
Warming has said it would investigate the letters.

The climate bill approved by the House did not include the price guarantee
the pro-coal group had sought. Legislation is still pending in the Senate.
In the House, Perriello voted for the bill. Dahlkemper and Carney voted
against it.

A spokesman for Carney did not respond to calls for comment by Tuesday
afternoon. A spokesman for Dahlkemper said the letters "did not have undue
influence" on her decision.