Xanadu exec says company was asked for Menendez contribution after key federal permit was issued
FEBRUARY 3, 2015, 4:40 PM LAST UPDATED: TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 2015, 4:47 PM
BY HERB JACKSON AND JEFF PILLETS
STAFF WRITERS |
THE RECORD
A top executive from the Virginia company that first proposed the failed Xanadu project in the Meadowlands said the firm was asked to raise $50,000 in 2005 for then-Rep. Bob Menendez after it received a critical permit from the Army Corps of Engineers, court documents show.
Jim Dausch said in testimony in 2008 he believed Menendez’s efforts led the Army Corps’ top manager in the New York area to hand-deliver the permit in March 2005, and within two months Menendez telephoned him — a call he assumed was about the contributions.
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Dausch said he could not remember if the initial request to raise $50,000 came directly from Menendez, or from two others working with the Mills Corp. on the project, Teaneck attorney Bob DeCotiis or lobbyist Kay LiCausi, who is a former member of Menendez’s staff.
“But one way or the other, it was clear that the request was coming from Menendez and, and it was in anticipation, we understood, of a run that he was planning to make for the Senate in 2006,” Dausch said.
I’ve been waiting for years to ski my ass down that slope…….can we open this place already?