The Truth About Watkins Abbitt’s Record

It is complicated, the web of lobbyists orbiting Watkins Abbitt He is surrounded by lobbyists whose clients have donated to his campaign.

The graphics, courtesy of Contributing Editor Lisa Blanton, make it easier to see the connections and the figures clearly in their context.

(Note: at each of these links, you can find where these companies donated their money during the cycle in question.)

These are the current clients of Madeline Abbitt. I am sure she represents them well. Notice Barr Laboratories and MedQuest. They are two of her biggest clients.

• AT&T
• Barr Laboratories Inc
• Identity Sciences, LLP
• Mark M. Deutsch, LLC, Health Care Advisory
• MedQuest Associates Inc
• Richmond Renegades

These are her clients for 2006 - 2007. Notice the heavy number of medical/medical supply clients.

• American College of Radiology - Va Chapter
• AT&T
• Barr Laboratories Inc
• MedQuest Associates Inc
• Richmond Renegades
• Va Chapter American College of Cardiology
• Value Options

The list below was her registered clients for 2005 - 2006. Again, medical/medical supply companies dominate the list.

• AT&T
• Barr Laboratories Inc
• DCI Consulting
• MedQuest Associates Inc
• Va Chapter American College of Cardiology
• Value Options

Below is the amount of money taken by Watkins Abbitt for his reelection campaigns during the same years.

2007 Health care Category (VPAP)

Health Care $20,400

2005 Health Care Category (VPAP)

Health Care $8,400

Health care is not the only category:

2007 Telecommunications Category (VPAP)
AT&T $500

Plus another $2,250 from other telephone companies/carriers (same link)

2005 Telecommunications Category (VPAP)

AT&T $500

Plus another $1,500 from other telephone companies/carriers (same link)

Since my time and space here are limited, and you don’t want to read all the numbers here anyway, do yourself a favor. Go to the links above, and read for yourself about donations to Watkins Abbitt’s campaign.

You may have thought this was a small slice taken out of Abbitt’s donations in order to prove a point. I do have a point to prove. Beyond Mrs. Abbitt, there are other family-connected lobbyists for companies that donate to Abbitt as well.

Anne Leigh Kerr, Esq, serves as the Director of
State Government Affairs for the Virginia office of the
Troutman Sanders Public Affairs Group. Her practice
specializes in state and local government relations, including
legislative lobbying work before the Virginia General
Assembly and the Executive Branch. Ms. Kerr represents
national business interests and trade associations in a
variety of areas including alcohol beverage control, health
care, insurance, and natural resources. (source: (VLTA)

Anne Leigh Kerr is Watkins Abbitt’s niece, the daughter of his sister. In Part II, we will discover who her clients are and how much they donated to Watkins Abbitt.

I will leave you now with these statistics: The overall amount Watkins has taken from various groups this year, and the percentage of his contributions that are less than $500. (the little guy)

Percentage of donors above $500.00 - 73%

Percentage of donors below $500.00 - 27%

Source: Virginia Public Access Project

<Thanks, Mark, for the chance to write on your blog.>

The word on the street is that Watkins Abbitt is so threatened and desperate to beat Connie Brennan in the 59^th District that he has printed up new signs about hunting that are being posted around the area just as the early hunting seasons are beginning. I saw one today in front of a big weekly turkey shoot location on Route 60 in rural Cumberland County. “Protect your hunting rights” it said in big green letters on a yellow background, followed by “Re-elect Watkins Abbitt.” What a pathetic move by someone who is misleading local hunters into thinking that Connie Brennan is about to take their guns and their tradition of hunting away. That is not her position at all. For more information on what Connie thinks about hunting and the right to bear arms, go to her website and check out a flyer about her position.

There is only person telling the truth in the last days of the campaign for House of Delegates in this district—and, as we’ll keep pointing out, that’s Connie Brennan.

There has been lots of discussion around Cumberland County for the last 18 months concerning the Board of Supervisors’ decision to bring a private dump to the county. Despite widespread opposition and at least one organized group, the Supervisors decided to enter into a Host Agreement with Allied Waste, a mega-trash company headquartered in Arizona.

What makes it possible for the dump to be located in the spot they have chosen is that Watkins Abbitt, friend to the dump industry, introduced and got passed HB 2129 (2005), which changes the distance that a dump can be located to a public water intake. It had been 5 miles; it is now 3 miles. Here is the official summary from when the bill was introduced:

Summary as introduced:
Siting of landfills. Reduces the distance that a landfill can be sited from a groundwater supply. Currently, a landfill cannot be constructed within five miles of a groundwater public supply intake. The bill prohibits the construction of a landfill within 500 feet of an existing groundwater supply. The bill also increases the acreage threshold for allowing a landfill to be constructed or expanded in a nontidal wetland. Under the existing law, permits may be issued for the construction or expansion of a landfill that impacts less than 1.25 acres of nontidal wetlands. This bill would allow the issuance of a permit for a landfill that would impact less than 3.5 acres, provided that the wetlands are replaced on a two-to-one basis with wetlands of an equal or higher environmental value as determined by the Director of the Department of Environmental Quality. (emphasis mine)

Anyone with a brain can understand that the closer a dump is to a public water intake, the more chances it will be violated by runoff and leachate from that dump. Here is the summary for the bill how it was passed:

Summary as passed House:
Siting of landfills. Reduces from five miles to three miles the distance that a landfill can be sited from a surface water or a groundwater supply intake or reservoir. However, a landfill can be constructed as close as one mile from any existing surface or groundwater supply if the landfill meets certain conditions. The bill also increases the acreage threshold for allowing a landfill to be constructed or expanded in a nontidal wetland. Under existing law, permits may be issued for the construction or expansion of a landfill that impacts less than 1.25 acres of nontidal wetlands. This bill would allow the issuance of a permit for a landfill that would impact less than two acres. The bill authorizes the Director of the Department of Environmental Quality to issue a permit for an expansion of a landfill located in a wetland only under certain specific conditions, such as the proposed site has to be at least 100 feet from any surface water body and one mile from any tidal wetland and that there is a minimum two-to-one wetlands mitigation ratio. (emphasis mine)

Obviously, nobody would want a dump built in their backyard. The trash has to go somewhere. But for Abbitt to make it so easy is a sell-out of his own constituents. Here is the record of money taken from Abbitt from waste companies.

So, as we see here, Abbitt thinks a dump is a ‘local issue’, but takes plenty of money for his re-election from those industries that operate dumps and haul and process human waste sludge. Where I am from that is called hypocrisy.

Now YOU have a friend in the dump business. Unless of course, the dump is going to be located in your neighborhood; then it is a ‘local issue’.

This is great:

I read with amusement a recent political mailer that was sent out by Virginia House of Delegate member Watkins Abbitt. He is a 22yr member who left the Democrats in 2000, to become a Republican because he was threatened to get redistricted out, at the time. His latest campaign mailer accuses his current opponent of taking contributions from personal injury lawyers. “The kind who file frivolous lawsuits that hurt innocent people”. He conveniently forgot to also add that he had sought contributions from the Virginia Trial Lawyer organization. However, it still amazes me that this kind of garbage is still being put out there. A guy like this probably won’t support a “loser pays” bill, because he knows that the real frivolous lawsuits are those that are required by insurance companies, who fail to pay, even when their insured is at fault.

Source: Joel Bieber’s Blog

This is an indication of the outright lies Watkins Abbitt tells to get re-elected. How many more lies are there? We should find out this week. We can’t afford a serial liar like Watkins Abbitt in Richmond taking care of his fat cat donors while his district goes begging. Does he really need to smear Connie Brennan in order to win?

Abbitt’s largest individual contributor before today’s report?

His largest individual contributor is Robert Carter, a member of the Virginia Trial Lawyer’s Association, for $5,000.

Let’s not elect a serial liar and hypocrite to the House of Delegates.

Watkins Abbitt is fond of bragging this election season of his concern for those in need of prescription drugs and health care. I thought we should take a look at who he accepts money from in the health care industry and what it might mean.

First, let’s start with the money he has accepted from big health care companies.

1997 - present $41,110

Sectors:

Now, let’s say you have a problem to discuss with your representative in the House of Delegates. It’s about your HMO. You tell your Delegate that Anthem is not doing what they are supposed to be doing, like coverage for an illness.

Anthem donated $5,250 to Watkins Abbitt over the last ten years, $3,000 of it in this election cycle. Whose interests are going to be looked after? I won’t say that your complaint would fall on deaf ears, but these contributions are what helps Abbitt get elected over and over again. The Virginia Association of Health Plans has given Abbitt $3,250 since 2003.

Let’s say you have a problem with your dentist, something about the service you got from that office or offices. You call your Delegate, and tell him your problem. He remembers the $7,750 he has gotten from the Virginia Dental Association, including $5,000 this election cycle alone. Does he have a satisfactory answer for you?

Remember those mailers this year with the picture of Mr. Abbitt in a nursing home looking at a prescription bottle? That’s right, he took $3,000 from the nursing home industry, including $1,000 from the Virginia Health Care Association just this cycle.

Do you see a trend here?

That prescription bottle he was holding up in that oft-used picture in his mailers is a puzzle. He claims to be protecting us from rising prescription drug costs. He even claims to be ‘fighting to strengthen Medicare and Social Security.’ (campaign mailer)

I wonder if he can do anything about Social Security, since it is a federal program. There are programs administered by the Commonwealth, but largely under federal funding and guidelines

And there is the fact that he has taken over $4,800 from pharmaceutical interests, including $1,000 this cycle.

Who do you think Mr. Abbitt will listen to when you call?

Watkins Abbitt has certainly taken trips during his tenure as Delegate from the 59th District. In February of last year, Blair Goldstein of the Lynchburg News-Advance wrote an article entitled, “Yes Virginia, There Is a Legislative Santa Claus”. In it he reported:

Abbitt may have a chance to try again, as trips on the sheriffs’ association’s dime have become somewhat of a tradition during the past four years. He’s gone bear hunting in Quebec; flounder fishing in Wachapreague, Va; and duck hunting in Louisiana.

Abbitt said he paid about $2,000 of his own money toward the moose-hunting trip and the sheriffs’ association picked up the rest.

The fall moose-hunting trip was among the approximate $315,000 in gifts, honorariums, travel and taxpayer-funded trips that legislators and three statewide officeholders reported receiving in 2005, according to a Richmond Times-Dispatch analysis of a database of disclosure statements compiled by the Virginia Public Access Project.

That money includes dinners, meetings and trips taken by Lynchburg-area delegates.

Abbitt reported accepting about $5,953 from companies and organizations. “I don’t think I have to explain,” Abbitt said. “I don’t think they’re huge trips.”

In addition to the hunting trip, Abbitt and his wife, Madeline, spent three days and two nights in Paradise Island, Bahamas, where Abbitt was asked to be a speaker at the Virginia Auto Dealers Association’s annual conference.

The auto association paid $1,983.83 for Abbitt’s tropical trip.

In 2002, the auto association paid $3,087.33 to fly Abbitt and his wife to their conference in Bermuda.

“I talked about the upcoming General Assembly and what they can expect,” he said. “It was nice. I enjoyed it.”

I am sure it was nice, there in Bermuda, partially on someone else’s dime. And the same with the bear hunting trip, the duck hunting trip and the flounder fishing trip.

Donations in connections with the sponsors of these trips:

Virginia Auto Dealers Association - $16,100 - 1997 to Present
Virginia Sheriff’s Association - $5598 - 1997 - Present

Source: VPAP

In this case, the truth will set you free to know Watkins Abbitt’s true record in Richmond as our Delegate. Despite all his attempts at trying to portray himself as someone who is looking out for the little guy, his record of taking money from lobbyists and corporations is there for all to see. We will also look at the record of bills he has sponsored over the years.

One need only look at the advertisements sent through the mail to see that Watkins is a man without a party, without the cache of a party organization, without technological prowess and without much of a message. The points he tries to make are all Republican ones. He endorses Republican ideology and principles. What has he done for you lately?

In this examination of his record, it will become clear that Watkins Abbitt has not done much in Richmond. As an Independent, he is ineffective at best, and looking out for his cherished interests at every turn. He changed to an Independent when it became clear he would lose his seat in the redistricting process several years ago, so he literally owes his job to the Republicans. As you will see, the record tells the story.

Stay tuned.