Interior to probe on-job campaign

The Interior Department’s inspector general and special counsel are being called in to investigate whether former key insular affairs officials linked to on-job campaign against House Republicans broke the law, the Washington Times reported Wednesday.

The Times also disclosed that Allen P. Stayman, former director of OIA which oversees US territories, including the Northern Marianas, plotted to oust the CNMI’s Democratic governor, Froilan Tenorio, during the 1997 campaign.

Stayman, who now works at the State Department, is the latest ex-official of the agency to be linked to the on-job political campaign, which is now the subject of an investigation by the US House Resources Committee.

The Times mentioned a memo in which Stayman asked to “repudiate” Tenorio for “scorning” President Clinton and his efforts to federalize the islands.

OIA’s former policy director, David North, is now being probed by the committee for alleged illegal political campaign when he was still a federal employee.

According to the report, Interior Solicitor John Leshy also wrote the inspector general and OIA last month requesting they investigate possible violations of the Hatch Act, which limits political activities of federal employees.

The House Resources Committee began investigating Stayman and other Insular Affairs employees last month for conducting illegal on-the-job campaigns against House Majority Leader Dick Armey and Majority Whip Tom DeLay of Texas, as well as three other congressmen.

The Insular Affairs officials were at odds with the Republicans over President Clinton’s plan to federalize the CNMI’s immigration and wage laws.

Earlier reports by the Times mentioned documents that proved North drafted press releases for Democratic candidates, provided derogatory information about Republican members to campaigns and reporters, and wrote letters to the editor for constituents to submit to local papers.

As for the alleged plot to oust Tenorio, the Times mentioned a memo addressed to the director of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee in which Stayman asked him to “repudiate” Tenorio one month before Election Day.

“Largely out of sight, there is a nominal Democrat, a Governor running for re-election, who scorns our president, who is in Washington this week playing footsie with the Republican House leadership, and who should be repudiated — in writing — by the nation’s Democrats,” Stayman wrote.

“Those of us who are politicals here at Interior want the DNC to repudiate these scoundrels,” he said in the memo obtained by the Washington Times.

“We have sent along a draft press release which gives you some more information on this subject, and which would, I assure you, get some extensive coverage if released,” Stayman wrote.

The governor and the Clinton administration clashed over immigration and trade issues, and they suspected Stayman was working against the governor behind the scenes.