Adrian Haywood In Ga

The King of Campaign Cash

Last summer, Jeffrey Thompson , a politically connected accountant whose Medicaid-managed care firm holds one of the District’s largest contracts, had a short meeting with a councilmember up for re-election.

After some chit-chat, the two talked turkey.

“He said, ‘How much do you need,’ and I came up with a number, and he said he would raise it,” says the councilmember, who asked to remain anonymous while discussing private conversations about political contributions. “Campaign fundraising is messy.”

Not in this case. A week or so later, the money arrived all at once in a bundle of checks, the councilmember said. Each donation was for the maximum $1,000. The donations mostly came from various LLCs owned by Thompson, as well as from some employees of his accounting firm, Thompson, Cobb, Bazilio & Associates Inc.

Judging from campaign records of the last decade, Thompson’s conversation with the councilmember was not a rare occurrence.

A review of campaign records shows that Thompson, his companies, employees at his companies, companies that do business with companies he owns, and others with some sort of link to Thompson have given about $630,000 in direct campaign contributions over the last 10 years. Add in contributions from Thompson and his companies to political action committees and elected officials’ constituent services funds, and the total shoots past $730,000.

That money puts Thompson in a rarified world of the District’s top political donors, with a good chance of being the top individual money man. (Thompson didn’t respond to multiple requests for comment from LL.) Over the time Thompson has been pumping cash into politicians’ campaigns, he’s enjoyed a type of most-favored contractor status with the District. His various companies have lengthy and large city contracts, including a more than $320 million-a-year deal for his Medicaid-managed care provider, DC Chartered Health Plan Inc.

Thompson’s campaign donations are worth a closer look not simply because he makes a lot of money off District taxpayers, but also because no one else seems to be looking. There’s no good-government watchdog group in D.C. keeping close tabs on who is funneling large amounts of money to District pols, in part because it’s not easy. It took a lot of detective work to track the perfectly legal ways Thompson directs money to campaigns, and even more hours of tedious data entry by LL and his interns to compile the Thompson money list.

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SMU (February 28th, Dallas, TX, FieldTurf)... senior safety Joe Sturdivant ran between 4.60 and 4.72 in the 40... 4.39 short shuttle... 7.02 3-cone... 33" vertical... 9'4" broad jump and also did 14 reps of 225 pounds... weighed in at 6006, 216 pounds... in-the-box safety with average foot speed, but good intangibles and some special teams ability... seen as a priority free agent by several teams, but lacks the straight-line speed to excel at the next level... senior defensive end Justin Rogers ran between 4.72 and 4.80 in the 40... 4.28 short shuttle... 7.32 3-cone... 34" vertical... 9'8" broad jump and also did 18 reps of 225 pounds... weighed in at 6032, 252 pounds... did positional drills as both a DE and LB... little stiff in transition, but plays hard and led the team in sacks, and then recorded 1.5 sacks in the Texas vs. the Nation All-Star Challenge... priority free agent on most boards as he could land a practice squad spot thanks to his pass rush skills... senior offensive tackle Darrin Johnson ran between 5.10 and 5.22 in the 40... 4.92 short shuttle... 8.08 3-cone... 28" vertical... 8'8" broad jump and also did 14 reps of 225 pounds... weighed in at 6045, 290 pounds... played mostly on the left side at tackle... moves well for his size, but plays too upright and without great power or strength at the line of scrimmage... decent free agent without much upside... senior defensive tackle Adrian Haywood was unable to workout as he continues to rehab from a late-season shoulder injury... showed good ability as an attacking one-gap interior lineman... ran in the 5.00 range this past spring at roughly 6020, 288 pounds... the faster of the player times came with the wind, which was pretty good today; estimated at 10 MPH... a total of 11 NFL teams attended the workout. INDIANA STATE (March 4th, Indoors at Notre Dame)... senior wide receiver/return man Carl Berman ran between 4.29 and 4.33 in the 40-yard dash... some watches had him as fast as 4.26... 38.5" vertical... 4.21 short shuttle... 6.78 3-cone... 10'9" broad jump and also did 14 reps of 225 pounds... weighed in at 5091, 166 pounds... showed terrific straight-line speed... little stiff in some of the agility drills, but great leaper for his size and could provide some punch on special teams... training with Georgia Tech's Calvin Johnson in Orlando, Florida with Tom Shaw and has consistently been one of the fastest players in camp... he was allowed to workout with the Irish indoors as his school did not have a scheduled Pro Day and this allowed the numerous scouts in South Bend to run the small school speedster... may also try to workout at the local Pro Day held by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, since he is a native of St. Petersburg, FL. LANE, TN (March 5th, Outdoors, Grass)... senior wide receiver/return man Jacoby Jones ran between 4.47 and 4.50 in the 40-yard dash... some had him as fast as 4.44... also did very well during his positional workout catching the ball without incident in-spite of facing a pretty stiff cross-wind... weighed in at 6025, 208 pounds... ran better today outdoors on grass than he did indoors at the combine, but his game speed is unquestionable if you turn on any of his tapes... keep an eye on senior-to-be wide receiver Edward Williams, who has similar speed to Jones, but physically is even a little bit bigger. TOLEDO (March 5th, On-Campus)... senior defensive lineman J.P. Bekasiak ran between 5.02 and 5.10 in the 40-yard dash... 4.51 short shuttle... 7.76 3-cone... 27" vertical and 8'9" broad jump... also completed 32 reps of 225 pounds... weighed in at 6061, 296 pounds... he has also been invited to participate in this coming weekend's CFL Combine, which is scheduled to be held in Toronto... long-term that is probably the best option for the native of Windsor, Ontario... average athlete by NFL terms, but a Canadian native that can play DT or NT in the CFL is worth a high-round pick in this spring's CFL Draft... senior linebacker Mike Alston ran between 4.58 and 4.65 in the 40-yard dash... 4.26 short shuttle... 7.05 3-cone... 37" vertical and 9'10" broad jump... also did 13 reps of 225 pounds... weighed in at 6020, 231 pounds... has decent straight-line speed... will need to standout on all special teams, but gave a good account of himself here... should work on his upper-body strength between now and first rookie camp... all of the agility drills were done on a carpet surface that was laid down indoors. CAL-DAVIS (March 5th, On-Campus)... senior quarterback Jon Grant ran between 4.98 and 5.01 in the 40-yard dash... weighed in at 6016, 205 pounds... ran slower than expected (4.85), but did so while still recovering from a severely sprained ankle... showed very good accuracy on his throws, enough arm strength and looked good overall... smart kid with potential to develop into a steady #3, but would likely spend his rookie season on the practice squad before getting shipped over to NFL Europa in 2008... senior safety Jonathan Barsi ran between 4.51 and 4.55 in the 40-yard dash... 36.5" vertical and 10'1" broad jump... weighed in at 5114, 200 pounds... very productive defender who showed better all-around athleticism than most scouts had previously noted... a total of seven NFL teams were in attendance. SAM HOUSTON STATE (March 6th, On-Campus, Astroturf)... senior running back D.D. Terry ran between 4.40/4.42 and 4.37/4.38 in the 40-yard dash... 4.36 short shuttle and 7.38 3-cone; field surface was very slick and they used thigh-high sized cones so all players were slipping and unable to get ideal traction... 38.5" vertical and 10'1 1/2" broad jump... also did 12 reps of 225 pounds... weighed in at 6005, 196 pounds... 31" arm and 9 3/4" hand... remember twice in the past month we mentioned him as being a potential "Pro Day" Sleeper, well he turned on the jets today at his workout and sped across with 40-times that would have put him in the top group of RB's at the Combine... SHSU has an old turf surface so most teams disregarded the agility drills done as the kids could not keep their feet as traction was terrible... one scout said his kids don't play on a surface that bad in high school... went on to be worked out at RB, WR and even DB, since he was an outside linebacker until this past season... has great special teams potential early in his career...ran outside on an old Astroturf field inside their stadium, which is about to be replaced after track season, to go along with a bit of cross-wind (8-10 MPH)... did positional drills as a running back, wide receiver and even defensive back... the Willis, Texas native hopes to workout again at one of Houston, Texas Southern or Rice Pro Days later this month... both senior wide receivers Brandon Perry and Michael Malone also worked out and their verified numbers will be available shortly... a total of 16 NFL teams were in attendance; Houston, Green Bay and Kansas City seemed to pay close attention to Terry's workout.

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