Questions Linger on McCain Campaign Manager Tied To Freddie MacLast night, The New York Times — followed by a slew of other outlets — reported that the lobbying firm of Rick Davis, John McCain’s campaign manager, has been collecting $15,000 from mortgage giant Freddie Mac. On Monday, The Times had reported that Davis had been paid to run Freddie Mac’s advocacy group, the Homeowner’s Alliance, until 2005.
But there’s a set of questions that still remain unanswered.
The McCain campaign told the Times that Davis had stopped taking a salary from the firm, Davis-Manafort, by the end of 2006. (Davis took a leave of absence from the firm to work on the campaign.) But the Times points out that, as an equity holder, Davis continues to benefit from his firm’s income.
But it’s unclear exactly what the Times means by that.
Let’s stipulate, first of all, that since Davis is an equity holder, he has a long-term interest in Davis-Manafort’s success. The McCain camp hasn’t disputed that.
But could Davis be benefiting in a more direct sense?
For instance, could Davis’ agreement with Davis-Manafort allow for his share of profits to simply be deferred until he rejoins the firm? Nothing that the McCain camp has said on the subject — including this lengthy response to the Times story from the campaign’s in-house blogger — has ruled that possibility out.
We also know that in 2007, the McCain campaign did not have Davis on the payroll, and was paying Davis Manafort for “consulting” services. Did none of that money make its way back to Davis?
It’s also worth noting that the McCain camp hasn’t offered any backing for its claim that Davis did indeed stop getting paid by his firm in 2006. The campaign declined a request from TPMmuckraker to provide such backing.
The bottom line is that none of the reports have fully fleshed out Davis’ relationship worth Davis Manafort, and how his compensation agreement actually works.
Seems like that might be worth looking into.