The Arizona Democratic Party is calling on U.S. Rep. John Shadegg to return campaign contributions from the Scottsdale lobbyist who worked for the military junta in Myanmar and who resigned from running the Republican National Convention.

John McCain's campaign hand-picked Doug Goodyear to be coordinator of the convention. Goodyear resigned this weekend.

According to Newsweek, the firm:

was paid $348,000 in 2002 to represent Burma's military junta, which had been strongly condemned by the State Department for its human-rights record and remains in power today. Justice Department lobbying records show DCI pushed to "begin a dialogue of political reconciliation" with the regime. It also led a PR campaign to burnish the junta's image, drafting releases praising Burma's efforts to curb the drug trade and denouncing "falsehoods" by the Bush administration that the regime engaged in rape and other abuses.

"It seems like every day we hear another story of a lobbyist who's close to John McCain and who lobbies for the worst of the worst," said Emily Bittner, spokeswoman for the Arizona Democratic Party. "Not only that, today we also learned that Goodyear is a major campaign contributor for John Shadegg, who's gotten himself in plenty of hot water for his fundraising practices."

Goodyear and other employees of the lobbying firm have contributed the maximum legal amounts to Shadegg.

Records of his contributions are available at the following links:

• http://images.nictusa.com/cgi-bin/fecimg/?28990261396
• http://images.nictusa.com/cgi-bin/fecimg/?27930916577

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