Campaign Investigation
The Tape Tale Gets More Tangled
By James Carney
Long before she became the focus of an FBI investigation into
the mysterious mailing of GEORGE W. BUSH's confidential debate
materials, YVETTE LOZANO knew her job working for the Bush
campaign might raise a few eyebrows. "It's kind of weird," she
told an acquaintance as she drove down a street in Austin,
Texas, a few months ago, "because we're all Democrats." For that
reason and others, Lozano, an assistant to MARK MCKINNON, Bush's
chief media adviser, was under a cloud of suspicion last week in
a scandal that has become a major distraction for the Bush
campaign less than six weeks before Election Day.
Like McKinnon, Lozano is a lifelong Democrat, who once worked for
Ann Richards, the Democratic Governor Bush ousted from office in
1994. After falling hard for Bush, McKinnon helped re-elect the
Republican Governor in 1998, becoming one of his closest
advisers. Then, in 1999, McKinnon set up a company, Maverick
Media, dedicated solely to Bush's presidential campaign. And when
he needed someone to answer the phones and handle administrative
work, he turned to Lozano, 30, a friend since 1990 who had become
close to his family. Although Lozano had worked for a Democratic
state legislator as recently as 1997 (a job from which, the
legislator says, she was fired for lying), McKinnon never doubted
her loyalty--to him or to Bush. "I trusted this woman with my
children," McKinnon told TIME.
That faith was placed under severe strain last week as FBI agents
concentrated on Lozano and Maverick Media in their investigation
of how a videotape and briefing book of Bush's debate
preparations were mailed from Austin to an AL GORE confidant on
Sept. 13. The confidant, TOM DOWNEY, turned the package over to
the FBI immediately. Last week officials revealed that an Austin
post-office security camera showed Lozano mailing a package two
days before the debate materials arrived at Downey's office. The
time of Lozano's visit corresponds to the postage stamp on the
package sent to Downey. Lozano denied involvement, saying she had
been returning a pair of her boss's khakis to the Gap, an alibi
McKinnon backed up.
Agents took Lozano's fingerprints--twice--as well as those of the
other five employees at Maverick. And they shipped two computers
Lozano had used to the FBI labs in Washington. They interrogated
McKinnon and other top Bush officials and suggested in those
sessions that the sender of the package might have been working
for Bush rather than against him, as part of a conspiracy to
sabotage debate negotiations between the Gore and Bush campaigns.
"They have a number of theories," said an exasperated McKinnon,
"and that's one of them."
As all this swirled around them last Saturday, Bush and his top
aides huddled at the Governor's ranch outside Waco trying to
prepare for Tuesday's first debate. Spokeswoman Karen Hughes
attempted to distance Lozano from Bush, saying she worked for
Maverick Media and not the Governor. Bush said he would fire
anyone caught "stealing from my campaign." And McKinnon, while
still insisting he was "confident" of Lozano's innocence, spoke
in a voice laced with uncertainty: "I don't know what to think."
--By James Carney. With reporting by John F. Dickerson/Austin
and Elaine Shannon and Mark Thompson/Washington
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