Saturday, October 28, 2006
Democrat William Conner said yesterday that a Wall Street Journal story detailing free meals from government contractors accepted by Rep. David L. Hobson, R-Springfield, and other lawmakers while on official congressional trips to Europe portrays a "culture of corruption."
Conner, of Beavercreek, is challenging Hobson in the 7 th Congressional District race. The story yesterday said that congressional ethics experts think the free meals might have violated House rules and possibly federal law.
The story said that Hobson accepted free meals from contractors such as Northrop on official trips to France in 2004, when he led a delegation to a groundbreaking for a new center at the Normandy cemetery, and in 2005, on a visit to nuclear-fuel processing plants in France. Hobson is a senior member of the House Appropriations Committee.
"When you have a culture of corruption, it is just one thing after another," Conner said. "I concentrate on my issues as opposed to getting into that. It is something people know. It is just a matter of whether they put a priority on it, whether they think that integrity in Congress is important. I do think it is very important."
Hobson said through a spokesman, "We believe that we have complied with all of the rules of the House of Representatives." His office noted that Democratic Rep. John Murtha of Pennsylvania, the top Democrat on the appropriation committee’s defense subcommittee, also was on the Normandy trip.
— Jonathan Riskind