IT'S DOOR-TO-DOOR IN TEAMSTER PROBE
By Stephen Franklin, Tribune Staff Writer
January 16, 1998
Government investigators probing the Teamsters' botched 1996
election have been going door-to-door in Chicago, quizzing rank-and-file
members who gave money to James P. Hoffa's losing campaign.
The investigators appear to be trying to match contributors with
their recorded donations as well as to see if individuals were used to cover up larger
donations.
"They were asked, `Did you contribute? How much? And were you
forced to?' " said Dane Passo, who runs Hoffa's Midwest campaign office in suburban
Berwyn.
"They are just looking at another way to
stop us from raising money," claimed Passo, who said he hears daily from Hoffa
supporters who have been questioned by investigators in the last week.
The focus on Hoffa, a Detroit attorney and son of the late
Teamsters leader, is part of a broadening federal investigation of the scandal-ridden--and
subsequently voided--campaign within the giant 1.4-million member union, organized labor's
largest.
Hoffa supporters in New York, Los Angeles and Ohio have similarly
been questioned recently by investigators, but Chicago appears to play a
key role in the probe, since it has been a major source of Hoffa's funds and political
support.
Jeff O'Mara, a spokesman for Michael Cherkasky, the
government-appointed election monitor, declined to comment on the latest inquiry, saying
only that the probe "is being conducted in a professional manner to discover the
relevant facts."
The government was urged to investigate Hoffa's campaign last
November, when Kenneth Conboy, another government-appointed elections
monitor, barred union President Ron Carey last November from running for office again in a
re-run election, because of Carey's role in campaign finance wrongdoing.
Judge David Edelstein of U.S. District Court in New York, who has
monitored the union since it agreed to government oversight in 1989, last month upheld
Conboy's decision to bar Carey from running again.
He pointed to Carey's knowledge of illegal fundraising schemes by
aides and the transfer of $735,000 of union funds to his own campaign.
The International Brotherhood of Teamsters reached the deal with
the government to stave off a government takeover because of what federal officials have
described as the union's long-term corruption and control by organized
crime.
As the campaign fundraising scandal began
encircling Carey last year, he urged government officials to look into Hoffa's campaign,
saying Hoffa had skirted union campaign fundraising laws.
But officials initially put off an investigation,
explaining that Hoffa had lost the election, making any wrongdoing beside the point.
At issue now is where Hoffa's campaign money came
from.
Hoffa campaign officials say there are no records for most of the
funds since they were raised at rallies and sales of campaign items such as T-shirts and
jackets. Under the union's rules at the time, records were not needed for donations under
$100.
Rich Leebove, a spokesman for Hoffa in suburban Detroit, said
Hoffa is being unfairly targeted "because Ron Carey got up and said they (Hoffa)
couldn't have raised $1.8 million this way; it must be dirty."
How much money Hoffa raised is also unclear.
While Hoffa's campaign slate raised about $3.7 million, Leebove
insisted that Hoffa raised only about $400,000 and the rest of the funds
were generated and used by candidates who ran on his ticket. He said the $1.8 million
figure came from Carey.
The Carey campaign raised about $3.4 million;
his campaign reports did not separate out funds destined for Carey's re election bid from
funds for the rest of his slate.
Mike Melone , a member of Teamsters Local 726, who gave nearly
$1,000 to the Hoffa campaign, said he was surprised when investigators visited him at home
in Elk Grove Village last Saturday.
"They wanted to know where the money came from. I work hard
for my money. I don't know why they would bother a working stiff like me," Melone
remarked.
The union's flawed election was the most costly in the history of
organized labor. Besides the funds raised by Hoffa and Carey, the
government spent nearly $20 million to monitor the election.
© 1997 Chicago Tribune