Nickles Tied to Questionable Video Event

Sen. Don Nickles, who criticized President Clinton’s White House events for Democratic donors, filmed a promotional video in his Senate office for a company that matches Republican donors with congressional races.

Brook Simmons, spokesman for the Oklahoma Republican, said: “It was a mistake. He’s not going to do it again.”

Senate and House rules prohibit lawmakers from using congressional facilities for non-official purposes, such as campaign fund-raising or profit-making activities.

Nickles, in a statement issued through Simmons, said, “I don’t know” whether the rules were violated. “I don’t think so. But if it’s a gray area, or even close, I don’t want to be doing it.”

Nickles, four House members and a former House member appeared on the promotional videotape for Triad Management, a political consulting company.

On the tape, made before last year’s general election, Nickles called Triad “a fantastic organization where it’s pulling people together that want to make a difference. And this is a very effective organization that’s going in and helping us, in those races that are close, those races that are targeted . . . “

Simmons said the filming “was not a solicitation for anything, so he didn’t do anything illegal.”

Federal law generally prohibits soliciting of campaign contributions from federal buildings, and congressional ethics rules clearly ban such activity even when the potential donor is not on government property.

Others on the promotional video are Reps. John T. Doolittle (R-Rocklin), George P. Radanovich (R-Mariposa), J.C. Watts (R-Okla.) and David M. McIntosh (R-Ind.). Spokesmen for all four said their segments were not filmed on government property.

Former GOP Rep. Randy Tate of Washington, now executive director of the Christian Coalition, participated in the filming while he was still in Congress. Coalition officials said Tate was not immediately available and it could not be learned where his segment was videotaped.

At hearings of the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee last month, Nickles was among the most vocal Republican critics of Clinton’s donor events and his invitations to contributors to sleep in the Lincoln Bedroom at the White House.

“As a matter of fact, this administration has broken all kinds of records of sleazy campaign practices,” Nickles said at a hearing that featured White House videotapes of donor events.