Teamsters money supported medicalmarijuana campaign

PROBE: The $195,000 donation came from an alleged contribution swap scheme
that helped Ron Carey's reelection campaign.

WASHINGTONLast year's drive in California to legalize marijuana for
medical use received a $195,000 boost from an unlikely source: the
International Brotherhood of Teamsters.

The money came from a contributionswap scheme that illegally bolstered
union President Ron Carey's reelection campaign, according to government
documents and interviews with people familiar with the case.

As part of the swap, the Teamsters also sent funds to Project Vote, active
in Rep. Loretta Sanchez's race to unseat Republican Bob Dornan. Dornan's
charges that voter fraud was responsible for the 984vote margin enjoyed by
Sanchez, DGarden Grove, have sparked a Washington investigation.

Carey's December 1996 victory over James P. Hoffa was annulled, and a
federal grandjury probe is continuing after three former Carey campaign
advisers confessed to the conspiracy Sept. 18.

According to their testimony and the written decision overturning Carey's
election, consultants Michael Ansara and Martin Davis got wealthy donors to
give to Carey by arranging for the union to donate to causes they supported.

Ansara enlisted West Coast fundraiser Charles Blitz, court records show,
and told him the Teamsters would match or double amounts he raised for
Carey with contributions to causes of his choice.

Jere Nash, Carey's former campaign manager, admitted in court that he
participated in the scheme and alleged that Teamsters politicalaffairs
director William Hamilton facilitated the union payments. Hamilton has
denied any wrongdoing.

But until now, it wasn't clear what was in the deal for Blitz.

"In return, he was going to get a piece of the action," said a source who
spoke on condition of anonymity. "And that was going to be used for the
movement to legalize medical marijuana in California."