LuAnn Bennett Scrubs Phony Charity from Campaign Biography

With campaign season not yet fully underway, Tenth District Congressional candidate LuAnn Bennett has quietly scrubbed her campaign biography of any reference to Bennett’s leadership of a phony charity which Bearing Drift first exposed back in May.

Before the edit, Bennett’s campaign biography (screenshot below) touted her position as a board member of the New Jersey & H Educational Foundation, an association also listed in her financial disclosure statement filed with the House Clerk.

The edited biography now omits any mention of the sham foundation, which according to public IRS filings, never submitted the Form 990 required of nonprofits, in any year of its existence. Furthermore, according to DC’s Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs, the foundation’s status is currently listed as “Revoked,” having not filed any required report since March of 2012 – over three years before she declared her candidacy and listed it in her campaign biography.

Bennett originally founded the phony charity back in 2011 to smooth over a politically-controversial real estate deal in which she and her business partners, acting through her development firm The Bennett Group, brought the first Wal-Mart to the nation’s capital, over objections of local DC Democrats, who have criticized the retailer for its lack of unionization and not paying employees a $15 minimum wage, an issue on which Bennett is currently campaigning with much hypocrisy.

Bearing Drift has been unable to find any evidence that the phony charity Bennett claimed in her campaign biography and federal filings ever provided any program services to anyone, despite Bennett’s promises to re-invest in the community in connection with winning approval for the real estate deal.

Despite objections from DC Democrats, Bennett was able to close the deal in large part through her business partnership with Washington, DC “super-lobbyist” David Wilmot, who served both as Wal-Mart’s lobbyist within the district, as well as a partner of Bennett’s in the real estate deal.

According to FEC records, Wilmot has contributed $2000 to Bennett’s Congressional campaign.

Bennett is facing an uphill challenge against Tenth District Congresswoman Barbara Comstock, whose campaign is already vigorously working in the district. Comstock currently maintains a financial edge over Bennett, and is expected to report a second quarter fundraising total of $737,000 compared to Bennett’s $507,000. The recent haul leaves Comstock cash-flush with $2.3 million on hand – $1.5 million more than Bennett’s $871,000, according to preliminary numbers published by the Loudoun Times-Mirror.

On the political front, Comstock is picking up key endorsements, recently earning the coveted endorsement of the Firefighters Local 2068, which represents nearly two thousand active and retired members.

“Picking up a labor endorsement – arguably, the most sought after labor endorsement in Fairfax – is an additional sign that Congresswoman Comstock is actually doing her job, as opposed to simply going through the motions,” explained Bearing Drift’s Brian Schoeneman.

“That Bennett has already lost, in July, one of the handful of premiere labor endorsements in the 10th District does not bode well for her future efforts. Labor provides a significant amount of grassroots support for their endorsed candidates, and this fall Firefighters will be knocking doors for Barbara Comstock, not LuAnn Bennett.”

Revelations of LuAnn Bennett’s phony charity will not help her intensely negative campaign, which has been attempting to tear down her opponent from the outset, rather than rolling out substantive policy and explaining, in detailed and specific plans, what she intends to do in Congress on behalf of the district.

LuAnn Bennett’s career as a politically-entangled real estate developer will surely raise many questions as the race progresses, particularly in light of her firm’s two-decade entanglement with the federal government, whose budget she now seeks to oversee.

As Bearing Drift explained back in May:

“As a member of Congress, she would be in a position to directly influence the amounts federal agencies may spend, and how they may spend it – such as on appropriations governing their office space. Worse yet, outside special interests may attempt to curry favor with LuAnn by giving the Bennett Group favorable terms on real estate deals – much like how many political scandals have unfolded in years past, where lobbyists have bought property from a politician or family member for substantially more than it is worth.”

Another Bennett deal likely to raise eyebrows is her company’s rental of DC-owned land to the federal government for use as a parking lot – a deal which has brought in $5 million since 2001. Although Bennett’s agreement with the District called for millions in rent to be paid to DC, her firm was able to get out of making millions in required payments due to her close ties with local influence brokers, all to the detriment of the DC taxpayer.

With a record like this, it’s no wonder why Bennett’s campaign is attacking Comstock with the usual debunked partisan falsehoods to distract from her own tarnished biography and lack of substantive policy specifics. Although Bennett was hardly the Democrats’ first choice of candidates, the lack of interest by others in running against Comstock has left DCCC with no choice but to bet on Bennett – though it’s hard to imagine they had any idea their poorly-vetted candidate would be this vulnerable.

Bennett moved from DC to Virginia to run for Congress, an action which prompted much criticism and ultimately spurred a tax evasion complaint from the non-partisan Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust.

From now until November, LuAnn Bennett will have to answer to voters on a variety of issues – including why she felt trumpeting her leadership of a phony charity in her campaign biography was an appropriate choice for an aspiring public leader.

Bearing Drift will continue to cover this top-tier race, and in the months to come, will be bringing its readership news of a Bennett scandal far, FAR worse than anything yet published.

Screenshots are included below and preserved for the record.

 

LuAnn Bennett’s Original Campaign Biography:

 

LuAnn Bennett’s Scrubbed Campaign Biography: