U.S. Sen. Mark Kirk was a leading sponsor of congressional legislation that has meant $5.3 million for two clients of his onetime girlfriend, and he is backing another bill that could bring millions of dollars to a third group she represented.
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Kirk supported bills directing the Treasury Department to mint and sell collectible coins, with a surcharge for three nonprofit groups — all of which had hired Arcadian Partners, a public relations firm led by Dodie McCracken, Kirk’s ex-girlfriend and former congressional staffer.
When he was in the House, Kirk backed commemorative coin bills that yielded $2.81 million for the Disabled Veterans’ LIFE Memorial Foundation and almost $2.5 million for the Congressional Medal of Honor Foundation. In the Senate, Kirk in December co-sponsored a coin bill that, if passed, could send up to $5 million to another McCracken client, the March of Dimes.
At least two of the three bills were introduced after Kirk and McCracken became romantically involved, including the March of Dimes bill, which he co-sponsored while the two were living together.
The gold and silver commemorative coins honor significant people, groups and events in U.S. history. They are sold with a surcharge and can mean millions for groups benefiting from the legislation. Congress is allowed to pass only two commemorative coin bills a year, creating fierce competition among organizations, with some hiring lobbyists and public relations professionals to influence lawmakers.
Kirk was an original co-sponsor on all three coin bills involving McCracken’s clients, meaning he supported the measures the day the legislation was introduced. In each case, the number of original co-sponsors was small.
How much money McCracken’s firm made for its work on the legislation could not be determined, though disclosure reports in the Senate show that the March of Dimes paid Arcadian Partners $54,000 in lobbying fees. The two other nonprofits would not say how much they paid McCracken’s firm.
Kirk, 52, who suffered a stroke Jan. 21, declined to be interviewed about the coin legislation. Instead, his staff asked for written questions and answered them in writing. McCracken, 54, did not respond to messages for comment.
Eric Elk, Kirk’s chief of staff, told the Tribune that any suggestion Kirk was trying to help his onetime girlfriend was “a baseless and unfounded allegation.” He downplayed Kirk’s role in backing the coin legislation, noting that the disabled veterans bill passed the House 416-0 and the Medal of Honor bill passed on a voice vote.
Kirk had characterized himself as a key player when he spoke on the House floor before votes on the two bills. He called the disabled veterans’ bill the “Moore-Kirk bill,” a reference to himself and then-Rep. Dennis Moore, D-Kan., and said the two of them “worked many weeks” to find more than 290 co-sponsors.
Kirk, a commander in the Navy Reserve, said he and then-Rep. Chris Carney, D-Pa., put forward the Medal of Honor bill because they had forged a bond through Navy service. Kirk predicted in his floor speech that the bill would raise more than $5 million for the Medal of Honor foundation, though it raised about half that.
Kirk, in his final speech on the House floor in November 2010 before entering the Senate, cited the disabled veterans coin act as one of his achievements.
The March of Dimes bill has 34 co-sponsors in the Senate. Kirk was among the five original co-sponsors.
The Tribune reported this week that McCracken received more than $143,000 in consulting fees and expenses for working on Kirk’s 2010 Senate campaign, but that she was not listed as a recipient in federal disclosure reports because she was a subcontractor to a firm the campaign hired for advertising. The Federal Election Commission is reviewing the payments after Kirk’s ex-wife, Kimberly Vertolli, complained that Kirk may have purposely hidden the payments to McCracken — an allegation he disputes.
Kirk and McCracken have known each other for years. She was a top staffer for him for two years after he entered the House in 2001 and has supported his political campaigns as a volunteer and as a paid worker.
Kirk’s office told the Tribune that McCracken was Kirk’s girlfriend in 2008 when he was separated from his wife, whom he divorced in 2009. Kirk and McCracken lived together in Illinois and Washington from about June 2011 until January, a Kirk aide said. The two are no longer romantically involved but remain friends, the aide said.
Melanie Sloan, executive director of the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, urged the Senate Ethics Committee to investigate Kirk’s role in the coin legislation.
“If he’s using his position to benefit clients of his girlfriend, I would say that’s an ethics violation,” she said.
Under Senate ethics rules, lawmakers are barred from introducing or aiding the progress or passage of legislation if the principal purpose of the measure is to further their own financial interests or those of immediate family members. While a girlfriend would not appear to fit that definition, the Ethics Committee is also armed with a catch-all provision allowing it to probe members whose conduct brings discredit upon the Senate, even when a specific rule has not been broken.
Charles Tiefer, a University of Baltimore School of Law professor and former deputy general counsel of the House of Representatives, said he did not believe Kirk’s conduct crossed the line.
“It’s a question of appearances,” he said, “not a violation of hard-and-fast congressional ethics rules.”
In 2010, the U.S. Mint produced a $1 silver coin to help the Disabled Veterans’ LIFE Memorial Foundation, which is building a memorial near the Capitol. The bottom line: 281,071 of the coins were sold, each with a $10 surcharge, giving the foundation $2.81 million, said Gordon Hume, a Mint spokesman.
The Mint produced a $5 gold coin and a $1 silver coin for the Medal of Honor foundation, which heralds recipients of the nation’s highest award for military valor. Altogether, 183,817 of those coins were sold. The surcharge was $35 on a gold coin and $10 on a silver coin. Based on sales, a total of $2.49 million has gone to the foundation, Hume said.
Rick Fenstermacher, chief operating officer for the disabled veterans’ foundation, said McCracken’s Arcadian Partners handled publicity for the foundation from February 2006 to April 2007. The foundation’s coin bill was introduced in January 2007.
Arcadian Partners, based in Fairfax, Va., received a retainer and did not get a percentage of the coin proceeds, Fenstermacher said. He declined to say how much the firm was paid.
Retired Air Force Gen. Nick Kehoe, who was president of the Medal of Honor foundation, recalled that Arcadian Partners approached the group around November 2008 and pitched the idea of a coin to mark the medal’s upcoming 150th anniversary. Kehoe said Arcadian Partners pointed to its success in passage of the disabled veterans coin bill, which President George W. Bush signed into law in July 2008.
McCracken did not respond to questions about whether her firm came up with the idea for a coin and approached Kehoe.
Kehoe said he worked with McCracken on his foundation’s coin bill, introduced in the House in February 2009, but more often dealt with two of her associates, Gerald Michaud and Tom Busch. Michaud said McCracken is the firm’s president and chief executive officer and he is its managing partner. Busch could not be reached for comment.
“You could tell she was the one in charge when we worked all the details,” Kehoe said. “They were essentially trying to get legislation passed and knew the process.”
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Kehoe said Arcadian Partners lined up the four original sponsors, including Kirk. “Arcadian Partners was the key in helping us get draft legislation through the Congress,” he added.
After President Barack Obama signed the Medal of Honor coin bill in November 2009, McCracken issued a news release quoting Kehoe and crediting Kirk and the three other leading sponsors. In March 2010, Kirk and McCracken attended a Medal of Honor foundation appreciation reception celebrating the coin’s passage, Kehoe said.
Kehoe said the foundation stopped doing business with her firm last June. He would not say how much the foundation paid Arcadian Partners.
The March of Dimes, the third former McCracken client, wants a commemorative coin in 2014 to celebrate the 75th anniversary of its work to end polio and fight birth defects.
Lobbying disclosures show that Arcadian Partners registered in July 2011 to push for the coin. McCracken’s name does not appear on the disclosures, which list Michaud as the contact and Busch as the lobbyist.
Arcadian Partners was recommended by a New York firm helping with the charity’s anniversary, said Cynthia Pellegrini, the March of Dimes’ senior vice president of public policy and government affairs.
McCracken was the March of Dimes’ main contact at Arcadian Partners, leading the team that crafted the legislation and drew up a legislative strategy, according to Pellegrini, who said she knew McCracken had earlier worked on Kirk’s House staff.
Nate Brown, a March of Dimes spokesman, said charity staffers and volunteers from Illinois asked Kirk’s staff for his support in Washington on Oct. 20. The bill calls for 500,000 silver-dollar coins with $10 surcharges.
The charity paid $54,000 to Arcadian Partners to lobby before its relationship with the firm ended March 31, disclosures show. Pellegrini said Arcadian Partners was no longer being paid because the group’s government affairs staff took over after the coin bill’s “successful introduction.”
The bill was referred to the Senate Banking Committee, which Kirk sits on, though he has not returned to the Senate chamber since his stroke.
The current Congress has approved one commemorative coin — to pay tribute to the 225th anniversary of the U.S. Marshals Service — and has before it proposals for 14 others. The bills endorse coins for the centennial of Marine Corps aviation, the National Baseball Hall of Fame and the National Future Farmers of America, among others.