Who is Andrew M. Saul (R) NY Congressional Candidate

[Braveheart]

Andrew M. Saul is a Republican candidate in the 2008 congressional elections for the 19th Congressional District (map) of New York.

Bio

Andrew Saul, candidate for Congress in New York’s 19th District, is a successful family man and businessman who has spent his career building businesses and giving back to the community as a dedicated public servant and caring philanthropist.
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Andrew's Experience

After graduating from the Wharton School of Finance in 1968, Andrew served as Vice President of Store Operations for Brooks Fashions Stores. In return for Andrew’s hard work and innovative leadership he was named President of the company. As President, Andrew created over 4,000 good paying jobs and grew the company into a successful multi-million dollar corporation listed on the New York Stock Exchange.
After successfully building Brooks Fashions, Andrew and his family purchased Cache, Inc., a then bankrupt women’s apparel company based regionally in Florida. As Cache’s Chairman of the Board, Andrew successfully turned the company into a national chain that now has more than 300 stores, is a member of the Russell Index, and is publicly traded on NASDAQ. During the time that Andrew was rebuilding Cache he founded Saul Partners, a successful investment company, which he still manages.
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Andrew's Public Service

Andrew’s dedication to public service is like that of his good friend Congressman Hamilton Fish. With a strong desire to give back, Andrew made a decision to dedicate his free time to his community. Andrew served for ten years as the Westchester Representative to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) and maintains a leadership role there, where he currently serves as the Vice Chairman of the Board and Chairman of the Finance Committee. His accomplishments include increasing the efficiency of the MTA, bringing Metro North to more New Yorkers by extending the Harlem line to Wassaic, and securing the funding that allowed Bee-Line Bus riders to use Metro Cards.
Andrew, after U.S. Senate confirmation in 2002, serves as Chairman of the Federal Thrift Investment Board. As Chairman, Andrew manages the retirement funds for most federal employees, including Military Personnel and Postal Service employees. Andrew’s accomplishments with the Federal Thrift Investment Board include cutting operating expenses by over $20 million while helping to grow the plan by over $2.5 billion a month. When Andrew began as Chairman, the fund was valued at $98 million, under his leadership he has grown the fund to $225 billion. It is the largest retirement fund in the United States of America, providing retirement security for more than 3.7 million participants.
Andrew’s dedication to New York includes his work with Mt. Sinai Medical Center, where he serves as Vice Chairman of the Board and Chairman of the Audit Committee; he also serves as Vice Chairman of the Mt. Sinai School of Medicine. He is a member of the Advisory Board at the John Jay Homestead. Andrew is a frequent supporter of the Dia Foundation in Beacon and the Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts in Katonah, where his wife Denise is a Trustee. Andrew is on the Trustee’s Council of the National Gallery and serves on the boards of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Sarah Neuman Nursing Home in Westchester.
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Andrew's Family

Born in 1946, Republican candidate for Congress Andrew Saul has been a resident of the 19th Congressional District for more than 20 years and is a lifelong resident of New York. He has been happily married to his wife Denise for almost 40 years and together they have two daughters; Jennifer and Kimberly, and two beautiful grandchildren; Caroline and William.

 

[Braveheart]

Saul was a Bush pioneer in 2000 and 2004, raising over $100,000 for the Bush-Cheney campaign, and has contributed to numerous Republican candidates and served on the National Republican Senatorial Committee.[55] Along with Bill Kristol and Peggy Noonan, Saul is a trustee of the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, a prominent conservative think-tank which promotes limited government and free-market principles whose mission is to "develop and disseminate new ideas that foster greater economic choice and individual responsibility" and has hosted policy speeches by then-National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice in 2002 and both President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney in 2006.[56][57] His daughter, Jennifer Saul Yaffa, is the National Committeewoman of the Republican National Committee from the New York Republican State Committee.[58] She is also head of the Manhattan GOP.[59]
In 2007, Saul was for several months a candidate for the Republican nomination to run against U.S. Representative John Hall in the 2008 election. Saul had been eyeing the seat for New York's 19th congressional district since 1993, when Sue Kelly won a crowded primary.[30] She won the seat and held it until being defeated by Hall in 2006.
Saul's 2007 campaign began well when he raised more money than Hall in the second quarter of 2007, although Hall had more total money on hand.[60][61] A spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee described Saul as a "top recruit".[62]. Another Republican candidate, Iraq War veteran Kieran Lalor, criticized Saul as being too liberal, saying he was "Sue Kelly all over again".[63]
On November 20, 2007, Saul announced that he was dropping out of the race because of unspecified "personal reasons".[64]

 

[Braveheart]

As Chairman of the Thrift Investment Board, he is responsible for managing the Thrift Savings Plan (TSP) which is the retirement savings account for employees of the Federal Government and soldiers of the armed services.[4] The TSP is known to reap higher returns for their retirement than comparable private-sector workers, and is immune from many of the problems that plague mutual funds.[5] During Saul's tenure, the TSP was grown to over $200 billion in assets by 2007, making it twice as large as when he began in 2003.[6] He also cut operating expenses by over $20 million.[7][8] The TSP is the largest defined contribution plan in the world with over 3.7 million participants and assets worth over $210 billion.[4] The plan is expected to grow to at least $300 billion by 2010.[9]
:suspicious:His largest accomplishment with the Thrift Savings Board was to eliminate open enrollment periods, which allows eligible participants to enroll year-round, and the launch of lifecycle funds, which automatically allocate investments to minimize risk as a federal employee nears retirement.[10][11] During monthly FRTIB board meetings, Saul pushed for improvements in technology and customer service, and was instrumental in having the board hire an outside auditor to review TSP financial statements and bring any concerns directly to the board rather than to TSP staff.[12] He is required by law to be independent and act in the best interests of plan participants.[13][14] As chairman, Saul has urged the board to send a signal to Congress that the Thrift Savings Plan cannot be drawn into social or political debates, even for good causes.[15] :suspicious:He also opposes so-called "terror-free" investments which would divest the plan from holdings in any government designated by the State Department as a terrorist-sponsoring state, or in businesses with substantial investments in those nations.[16][17] He is a major advocate for ensuring that its computer systems and offerings keep pace with the program's expanding size.[18]
Saul has been active in Republican Party politics. In 2007 he began a campaign for the Republican nomination to run against U.S. Representative John Hall in the 2008 election, but withdrew from the race in November 2007.

 

[Braveheart]

During his confirmation hearing, Senator Daniel Akaka told Saul he would be facing a difficult situation, as the outgoing Executive Director had taken a number of actions before his sudden departure which led to "demoralization of the TSP staff, expensive lawsuits, investigations, rancorous battles with other agencies, along with the costs of a failed record keeping system project" that were all eventually dealt with by the FRTIB.[40] Shortly after Saul assumed office, TSP Executive Director James Petrick resigned.[41] It has been alleged by former FRTIB Chairman and Executive Director Roger Mehle that this occurred when Petrick wished to pursue a lawsuit against the contractor for the record keeping system which led to a conflict with the Justice Department over whether the board had standing to sue.[41] Saul pursued a settlement and dropped the lawsuit.[42] In 2007, Mehle launched his own lawsuit against Saul and the board which alleges that the board violated its fiduciary duty to TSP participants by forcing out Petrick in order to settle the lawsuit against the contractor.[41][43]
Saul and his executive director Gary Amelio inherited a mishandled computer project for a new record-keeping system, which had been started in 1997 and wasted $36 million.[44] The system was eventually brought online in 2003. Under the direction of Saul and Amelio, a new mainframe computer was installed that runs ten times faster than the old system, with an emergency backup computer that can be used in the event of a disaster in the Washington DC area.[44] The agency also acquired its first toll-free line, opened two new call centers, and extended hours for customer service.[44] On May 3, 2007, President George W. Bush renominated Saul to two more consecutive terms on the board expiring September 25, 2012.[45] :suspicious:Following the resignation of Gary Amelio in 2007, Saul appointed Gregory T. Long as executive director for the Thrift Savings Plan, who was previously the director of product development for the TSP.:suspicious:[46]

 

[Braveheart]

In June 2007, the Federal Thrift Retirement Investment Board approved a resolution to prohibit Congress from proposing that companies that do business in Iran or Sudan be removed from the Thrift Savings Plan, in order to reduce support for Iran's oil and gas industry or to reprimand the Sudanese government for its role in the Darfur conflict.[15] Saul said such changes would not be in the TSP participants' best interest since the changes would go against past precedent that the TSP not interfere in social or political matters.[15] Members of Congress including Reps. Tom Davis, Jon Porter, Henry Waxman, and Danny Davis, wrote Saul in July of 2005 claiming that they wanted to have an independent professional investment consultant examine whether new investment choices would benefit TSP participants, which led to a conflict between Congress and the board regarding Real estate investment trust funds.[47]
Saul and other board members have discussed several future options for the TSP, including asking Congress to require automatic enrollment in the TSP for new hires, as Government employees now must sign up for a payroll deduction.[48] Other proposals have included asking Congress whether to designate a new default fund for FERS employees who do not enroll but receive a mandatory agency contribution of 1 percent of salary, since that money now goes into the government securities fund, but TSP officials think the L Funds would be a more appropriate, long-term investment.[48] Saul has also suggested adding Roth 401(k)-style feature to the TSP that is similar to Roth individual savings accounts, by allowing participants to make contributions with money that has been taxed, with the contributions growing tax-free and account balances being withdrawn tax-free.[48] Employees now contribute pre-tax dollars to the TSP and pay taxes when they withdraw their savings.[44] President Bush likened his social security privatization plan to the TSP, although it was never adopted.[49] Bush believed that the TSP could serve as a model for his proposed personal accounts.[49][50][51]
Under the Saul's stewardship, the board tightened the rules for the TSP loan program in 2004, imposing a waiting period for new loans and charging a loan-processing fee, which dropped the number of loans issued from about 1,800 loans per day to an average of 534 per day.[52] Currently, TSP participants may hold two loans at the same time and pay them back through payroll deductions, and may pay off a loan early and immediately request a new loan.[53][54] The board felt the loan program was partially responsible for the slowdown during the launch of the new-record keeping system.[52] The board also felt that participants are asked to absorb the cost of a loan program that they rarely use use, and that the borrowers were also tying up the TSP's limited staff resources, leading to the changes.[54] During a 2005 audit called for by Saul, representatives of Deloitte & Touche gave the TSP a clean audit and said they found no major problems with TSP's internal financial controls.[38]

 

[Braveheart]

Candidate Drops Bid for Congress

Published: November 21, 2007
A vice chairman of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, who was expected to pour his own money into a bid for Congress, abruptly dropped out of the running yesterday.


The candidate, Andrew M. Saul, issued a statement saying that he was stepping down as a candidate in the 19th District “due to personal reasons.”
Mr. Saul, a Katonah millionaire, had been seeking the Republican nomination to run against the Democratic incumbent, John Hall, who was elected to his first term last year.
Mr. Saul’s campaign had raised $782,000 through Sept. 30, according to federal election filings. That amount included $100,000 of his own money. A spokesman for Mr. Saul’s campaign did not return calls last night.
The New York Times reported on Saturday that Mr. Saul’s campaign had received donations from real estate executives involved in the bidding for the development rights to the M.T.A.’s West Side railyards in Manhattan.

 

[James48843]

Braveheart-

Everything you wrote above has been previously posted, back in November, when all of this started.

In fact, the reason Mr. Saul dropped out of the Congressional Race is because we, here in TSPTALK, pointed out that it was a violation of the Hatch Act for Mr. Saul to run and collect money for his campaign, and we were talking here about reporting it to the Office of Special Counsel. Federal employees - even those who are part-time, as Mr. Saul is, are prohibited by law from solicating campaing contributions. We wrote extensively about this in November.

The next day, after we wrote nearly identical information to what you wrote above, and posted the Hatch Act violation information, he withdrew from the race.

One doesn't have to wonder to far about the distance from a computer screen in TSP HQ's, and a hotline to Mr. Saul's office.

 

[Braveheart]

Braveheart-

Everything you wrote above has been previously posted, back in November, when all of this started.

In fact, the reason Mr. Saul dropped out of the Congressional Race is because we, here in TSPTALK, pointed out that it was a violation of the Hatch Act for Mr. Saul to run and collect money for his campaign, and we were talking here about reporting it to the Office of Special Counsel. Federal employees - even those who are part-time, as Mr. Saul is, are prohibited by law from solicating campaing contributions. We wrote extensively about this in November.

The next day, after we wrote nearly identical information to what you wrote above, and posted the Hatch Act violation information, he withdrew from the race.

One doesn't have to wonder to far about the distance from a computer screen in TSP HQ's, and a hotline to Mr. Saul's office.

Wow you guys are good so do you think he is getting revenge now by allowing this to happen on his watch. He hand selected Mr. Long and there is the "W" connection. Sorry for putting up old news but for me this was new and I am trying to connect the dots as to who has the agenda and why. There is much more behind the IFT limit than has been revealed in my opinion. So what I am trying to do is maybe there are newer members like myself who didn't know what went on in November and they may see something with a fresh set of eyes or connect the companies etc.

I once had a case and won it on and old newpaper article where someone claimed they were some place when the front page had them in another. That case went to court and exhibit A was the Newspaper being public information. Cases are won on the little things that may be over looked. I know because I did my homework and took on an entire Federal Agency with all their Lawyers and Won !!!