Friday, August 2, 1974

THE MICHIGAN DAILY

Page Nine


riday, Au..l __.aut2,194 TE'ICIGA DIL Pae.in

Mills' campaign
funds questioned

WASHINGTON (MP - Two top
executives of Texas billionaire
H. Ross Perot's computer firm
s e c r e t l y funnelled $100,000
through dummy committees into
the 1972 presidential campaign
of_.Rep. Wilbur Mills (D-Ark),
according to Watergate files.
The firm, Electronic Data
Systems, Inc. of Dallas, is a
major processor of health insur-
ance claims. Mills, head of the
House Ways and Means Com-
mittee, is expected to have a
guiding influence on any future
national health insurance plan.
The money was given by EDS
President Milledge Hart and a
regional vice president, Mervin
Stauffer, both of Dallas. Neither
were available for comment yes-
terday.
Mills told the Mutual Broad-
casting System, "All these rec-
ords have been turned in to the
Watergate people. Special Pros-
ecutor Leon Jaworski's got it.
No one's found anything wrong
with it."
Mills said he had not heard
about the contribution until
news reports of it came to his
attention, but that he apore-
ciated the donation. He said he
saw nothing the executives had
to gain because any health in-
sorance program would use bid-
ding for contracts.
The two men broke up the
gift into installments and passud
it out to 17 separate dummy
committees set up by the Mills
campaign, the records show.
The committees bore su.:h
names as "Citizens for a Sound
Nation in '72 Committee," "Cit-
izens for National Growth and
Development Committee," "Fis-
cal Sanity Committee," and
"Students for Better Govern-
ment Committee."
All the money was given on
March 30, 1972, about one week
before such secret donations
became illegal. On April 7,
1972, a new campaign finance
law took effect requiring fall
disclosure.
Unlike some other candidates
for the Democratic presidential
nomination in 1972, Mills re-

fused to make a voluntary lis-
closure of his pre-April 7 .on-
tributions.
The $100,000 donation ol-
stitutes the I a r g e s t single,
known gift to the Mills cam-
paign.
It was revealed in the open
files of the Senate Watergate
Committee which reviewed the
bank records of the dummy
committees set op by the cam-
paign.
Both Hart and Stauffer gave
equal installments of $3,000 to
each of the 17 committees, ex-
cept that Stauffer gave only
$111000 to one of them. Thus Hart
-n'-e X51.000 and Stauffer gave
$49,000. for a total of exactly
$100,000.
The sometims finciful names
given to the committees by the
Mills campaign resembled some
of those given to the many dum-
my committees used by three
big dairy cooperatives to funnel
$232,000 into President Nixon's
1972 camoaign during the period
of legal secrecy.
Listed as "acting secretary"
for each of the committees was
Terry Shea, a former employe
of the largest of the dairy co-
oneratives, Associated M i 1 k
Producers, Inc.
Shea was one of the milk pro-
dicer employes who allegedly
assisted the early Mills cam-
paign while drawing a corpo-
rate salary. The first of the
committees was set up by Shea
on Dec. 3, 1971, more than a
month before the cooperative
cut off the corporate salaries
for Mills workers.
All the committees had bank
accounts at the National Sav-
ings and Trust Co., Washington,
D.C. Records in the Watergate
Committee files show that four
of them were set up in Decem-
ber of 1971, seven in January of
1972, four in February and the
last six on one day, March 6,
1972. In the midst of this pro-
cess, on Feb. 11, 1972, Mills
announced his active candidacy..

AP Photo
Down and out
A Louisiana state trooper overlooks a collapsed section of a 24-mile bridge yesterday. A tugboat
crashed into the pillars and at least two cars plunged into the lake.
r SHIRLEY BURGOYNE will
handle each case fairly
Honesty, realism, and individual treatment will
encourage offenders to seek legal solutions to
their problems. All persons in my court will be
treated fairly with reason and without fovorit-
ism based on race, sex, or any other irrelevant
difference.'
. Shirley BURGOYNE Is the Best Qualified
Candidate for District Court Judge
Burgoyne for 15th District Judge
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