More Problems for Bennie Thompson: Report that lobbyists paid Thompson staffer to do fundraisers for Thompson

Y'all Politics dug up another item breaking this week about Bennie Thompson. The website TPMMUckraker reports a Thompson staffer has been paid by lobbyists to conduct events honoring Thompson. The plots thicken...

A party planning side business run by three current and former congressional staffers raked in over $20,000 last year from lobbyists holding events to honor Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS) -- whose own communications director is co-founder of the firm.

The apparent arrangement between Thompson and the business, Chic Productions, at once allows private interests to get closer to the congressman's office and gives the staffers a way to dip a straw into the river of outside money flowing through Capitol Hill.

The three women who run Chic are: Dena Graziano, Thompson's communications director since 2006; Michone Johnson, chief counsel for the House Judiciary Commercial and Administrative Law Subcommittee; and Michelle Persaud, formerly of the House Judiciary Committee, now corporate counsel at T-Mobile.

Graziano's bio on Chic's Web site says she has "straddled the fine line between politics and entertainment as an event and communications strategist to some of the nation's most well known personalities."

A Chic floral display with the congressional seal at '07 Thompson eventThe extent of the business Chic has done for Thompson remains unclear because lobbyist disclosure statements that reveal the arrangement have only recently been required, and comprehensive data is available only for 2008. But besides the lobbyist receptions, Chic has put on at least six other Thompson-linked events.

Thompson at Chic "Chairman Reception" in 2007

In a six-week period in late 2008, four companies paid Chic $22,500 to plan events to honor Thompson, according to lobbying disclosures reviewed by TPMmuckraker. The companies were private prison contractor Corrections Corporation of America ($10,000), lobbying powerhouse Patton Boggs ($5,000), Pepsico ($5,000), and software giant Oracle ($2,500).

Chic's links with Thompson are not limited to the 2008 lobbyist receptions.

The congressman's campaign committee paid the firm $5,000 in December 2007 for a fundraising event, and Chic's Web site shows Thompson giving a toast at a "Chairman's Reception" that year. Chic also planned the Congressional Black Caucus Back to Blues event in 2006, 2007, 2008, and 2009. The invitation for the '06 party -- held at the landmark 101 Constitution Ave. -- identifies the host of the "celebration of Blues" as Thompson.

The spread at the 2007 "Back to Blues" party

And finally, Chic's Web site says the firm organized a 2008 CBC "policy conference" in Tunica, Mississippi -- Thompson's home state. The four-day conference featured a target shooting event, the Bennie G. Thompson Sporting Clays Challenge.

According to financial disclosure statements, Graziano, the Thompson staffer, claimed $12,000 income from Chic for 2006-2008. Johnson, of the Judiciary Committee, claimed $4,000 in 2008 and some amount over $5,000 in 2007.