NATIONAL REVIEW4 Hours Ago

Perez Donated to Menendez

Thomas Perez meeting with Senator Bob Menendez (via Menendez's press office)

Unsurprisingly, Obama labor-secretary nominee Tom Perez has a track record of donating to liberal Democrats, including scandal-plagued senator Bob Menendez of New Jersey.

According to the Center for Responsive Politics' OpenSecrets.org, in 2006 a Thomas Perez of Takoma Park, Md., donated $500 to John Kerry, $250 to the DNC Services Corporation, and $250 to Menendez, who is currently embattled in a potential ethics scandal over allegations that he provided political favors to a donor, Salomon Melgen.

Menendez met with Perez two weeks ago, and warmly praised him in a statement issued after the meeting, calling Perez "a remarkable candidate" and "incredibly knowledgeable."

A Thomas Perez of Takoma Park, Md., also donated $250 in 2008 to Judith Feder, a Democratic congressional candidate who lost to Republican representative Frank Wolf in Virginia's tenth district.

Department of Labor spokesman Carl Fillichio declined to confirm or deny that Perez had made the donations.