Arlington fraud widow and gun control leader support Democrats
Arlington fraud widow and gun control leader support Democrats
Sun Tzu's Newswire (STN 2000-005)
by Tristan St. John-Smith
Sunday February 6, 2000 -- 00:25 AM U.S. Pacific Time
Two members of San Diego's elite society circles gave more than $100,000 to Democratic Party causes and federal candidates in election cycles for 1994-1999.
Shelia Lawrence, widow of Arlington Cemetery scandal figure M. Larry Lawrence donated $67,855 and Stanley Foster, former head of Hang Ten, Inc. donated $37,500, according to figures supplied by the Federal Election Commission.
Foster's donations included $10,000 to the Democratic National Committee and $5,000 to Handgun Control, Inc., both in 1999. Four California members of congress that are also strong supporters of gun control garnered $14,000 from Lawrence and Foster. Senators Diane Feinstein and Barbara Boxer raked in $3,000 and $2,000 respectively, all from Foster.
San Diego area Congressman Bob Filner received $7,000 from Foster and Lawrence, and area Congresswoman Lynn Schenk received $2,000 from Foster. Other beneficiaries of partisan financial support from Foster and Lawrence included Senator Joseph Biden (MD, $1,000) from Shelia Lawrence and Senator Bill Bradley (NJ, $1,000) from Stanley Foster. Lawrence gave $1,000 to Senator Bob Kerrey and $2,000 to Senator John Kerry. Senators Chris Dodd and Max Cleland also received $1,000 each from Lawrence. Soft money from Shelia Lawrence accounted for almost half of the duo's $100,000+ cash flowing to the Democrats, a single donation of $50,856 to the Democratic National Committee added to the $10,000 from Foster. Lawrence also gave $5,000 to Emily's List and another $2,000 to the Democratic Majority Campaign Committee.
Three other prominent Democrats received support from Shelia Lawrence and her late husband, the former Ambassador to Switzerland, M. Larry Lawrence. Shelia Lawrence gave $500 to Joseph P. Kennedy II and Kennedy received $1,000 from Mr. Lawrence. Senator Joseph Lieberman received $500 from each of the Lawrences. Former Senator George Mitchell received $1,000 from M. Larry Lawrence. Larry Lawrence contributed $200,000 to Democrats in 1992 and was fined $7,179 in 1994 for exceeding a $25,000 limit that an individual can give to help finance an election campaign in one year.
The U.S. State Department concluded that M. Larry Lawrence had lied about his war record and was not rescued from a torpedoed cargo ship as he said, but was instead a full-time student at Wilbur Wright College in Chicago from September 1944 to June 1945. Burial at Arlington National Cemetery is normally reserved for military veterans with distinguished and heroic records. During the Vietnam War, anti-war activists often turned to Larry Lawrence for financial assistance.
Columnist Arianna Huffington has written that Shelia Lawrence had a sexual dalliance with President Bill Clinton. Lawrence denied the allegation along with suggestions that her husband's appointment as Ambassador resulted from such a relationship. M. Larry Lawrence died in 1996 and after a flurry of negative news stories in 1997, President Clinton claimed that Mrs. Lawrence had requested her husband be exhumed from Arlington and returned to San Diego.
Shelia Lawrence continues to support Democratic party causes and candidates and controls her late husband's fortune including $330,000,000 from proceeds of the sale of Hotel del Coronado. Financier Richard Silberman, convicted for money laundering before his divorce from ex-wife San Diego Mayor Susan Golding was one of Larry Lawrence's many business partners and friends in San Diego's Jewish community, including gun control financing expert and organizer Stanley Foster.
Related Links
# Political Notes on M. Larry Lawrence, Sun Tzu's Newswire Background Brief, Dec. 5, 1997
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