Kantor Says Trade Trips, Big Donations Unrelated

WASHINGTON —  As the controversy over campaign donations continued to expand, former Commerce Secretary Mickey Kantor said Wednesday that there was no connection between firms giving large donations to the Democratic Party and their selection to join two overseas trade missions that he led last year.

A study by the Boston Globe of campaign donations showed that six firms which were represented on Kantor trips to the former Yugoslavia and a group of Asian countries contributed $100,000 or more apiece around the time the trips occurred. In all, the firms contributed $669,789 in the weeks before and after the trips, according to the study published Wednesday.

Kantor’s trade missions followed larger ones led by his predecessor, the late Ronald H. Brown, which were sharply criticized by Republican lawmakers and some public watchdog groups for allegedly mixing government business with political fund-raising.

Kantor, who served as Commerce secretary for nine months, said that political donations were not sought or even hinted at from companies considered for participation on his trips.

“I had nothing to do with the selection of the 25 companies represented on those trips,” Kantor said. “I had no idea who contributed and I couldn’t care less.”

Skeptics, however, scoffed at the suggestion that the donations were a coincidence.

“Mickey Kantor is one of the smoothest politicians, short of the president, in this administration,” said Larry Klayman, director of the conservative Judicial Watch group, which has been critical of the missions. “For him to claim that he didn’t know about [the contributions] is inconceivable.”

Clinton administration officials have defended the series of trade missions, which included top Commerce officials and delegations of businessmen, as valuable tools for increasing American access to overseas markets and for helping U.S. firms compete for international business. Those participating could meet with top government and industry officials in the host nations. Many major corporate executives angled for the chance to go and Commerce officials have cited a succession of multimillion-dollar agreements and contracts that they said were brought to fruition by the missions.

Executives reached for comment about the Kantor missions said the timing of the political donations their companies made was a coincidence and they noted that often they had given to Republicans also.

Larry Hamilton, a spokesman for Northrop Grumman, said there was “absolutely no connection” between Northrop’s participation in a Commerce Department trip to Bosnia and Croatia last July and the firm’s $100,000 donation to the Democratic Party seven weeks later.

“We support the political process under current law and believe the amount contributed was proper for a company of our size,” Hamilton said.

Klayman said that the pattern of giving to both Democrats and Republicans did not suggest that motives were pure.

“Obviously they’re trying to influence both sides,” he said of the companies.

Bill Hogan, director of investigative projects for the Center for Public Integrity, also expressed skepticism. “I don’t think it could be coincidental,” he said.

Companies that made donations around the time of a trade mission included the Fluor Daniel Corp., which was represented on a Kantor-led June 25 trip to South Korea, Thailand and Indonesia. The company sent a $100,000 check to the Democratic National Committee on May 3, just before the invitations were extended.

Other firms represented on one or both of Kantor’s trade missions who made Democratic contributions about the same time were United Technologies ($140,000), Bechtel Corp. ($125,000), Sprint Corp. ($104,789) and Enron Development Corp. ($100,000).

Betty Bowers, Washington vice president of Fluor Daniel, said that her company was chosen for the South Korea-Thailand-Indonesia mission because a top executive belonged to the Commerce Department’s Pacific Business Forum “and they [administration officials] were aware of our interest and our experience in the area.”

The timing of the company’s donation was “pure coincidence,” Bowers said.

Kantor provided a copy of a memo dated June 27 from Peter Scher, his chief of staff, to another department official which reported that the Democratic National Committee “is advocating” inclusion of a particular executive “to participate in the secretary’s trip to Bosnia and Croatia.”

Scher’s memo went on to say, “I would like to make it clear that the Department of Commerce mission does not allow for this type of intervention and therefore we cannot include” that participant.

According to Kantor and other Commerce officials, companies taken on the trade missions generally manufactured products considered marketable in the host countries or belonged to advisory committees that the department had established for those regions.

Northrop Grumman manufactures and sells air traffic control systems deemed suitable for Bosnia “but we made no sale as a result of that trip,” Hamilton said.

Kantor, who has relinquished the Commerce post to incoming Secretary Bill Daley, said he agrees that “we need to change the [campaign finance] system but it’s also unfair to excoriate folks at Commerce who are trying to do their jobs promoting trade and bettering our country.”

Press reports suggesting links between campaign gifts and trade missions or other administration benefits create “a public perception” of abuse that is misleading, he said.

“As a former board member of Common Cause, I care deeply about campaign finance reform.”

Times staff writer Art Pine contributed to this story.