Posted on 01/28/2010 11:06:57 AM PST by Maelstorm
Arizona's U.S. Rep. J.D. Hayworth, ranked as one of the top recipients of campaign contributions from interests enmeshed in a raging lobbying scandal, has no reason to return the money, his top aide says.
Moreover, the donors want Hayworth to keep the funds, chief of staff Joe Eule said.
With four other politicians returning more than $250,000 in recent days to Indian tribes and others connected with disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff, pressures have mounted for Hayworth and other recipients to follow suit.
Eule said that the Republican congressman has received campaign contributions totaling $150,000 from tribes affiliated at one time or another with the former lobbyist but that the donations had nothing to do with actions that have put Abramoff at the center of Senate and criminal investigations into possible influence-buying.
"The tribes have told us, 'We love you. We loved you before we met Jack Abramoff, we love you after Jack Abramoff, and we think it would be foolish of you to (give back) the money,' " Eule said.
Hayworth, now in his sixth term, has been deeply involved in Indian matters on several fronts and has received support from scores of tribes nationwide, Eule said.
In 1997, Hayworth joined U.S. Rep. Patrick Kennedy, D-R.I., to found and serve as co-chairman of the Congressional Native American Caucus, a pivotal group for legislation affecting tribes.
Kennedy aide Robin Costello said Thursday that the Democratic congressman has no intention of returning money received from tribes affiliated with Abramoff. Widely differing estimates of Kennedy's receipts range from $42,500 to $131,000.
"None of the political support has anything to do with Jack Abramoff," Costello said, "so, no, we have not considered returning the money."
Eule, in a point also emphasized by Costello on behalf of Kennedy, said Hayworth "had (his) own relationship with these tribes" and did not need Abramoff's intervention to attract political donations.
Campaign finance records for Hayworth and a political action committee he operates separately show that tribes have contributed a total of about $680,000 since 1999, Eule said.
Of that, 22 percent came from Abramoff-related tribes, and some of that was given before or after Abramoff served as the tribes' lobbyist.
Eule produced a letter from the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians, a former Abramoff client, saying that the tribe had long donated to causes on both sides of the political spectrum and that its decisions were not "coerced or controlled" by Abramoff.
"You should be proud of the widespread support you have earned throughout Indian country," the tribe wrote Hayworth. "You've been willing to stand up repeatedly for tribal self-determination even when it was not popular or easy to do so."
Eule said similar support has been expressed by other tribes, and several are writing letters to that effect.
Independently, the Tigua Tribe of El Paso told The Arizona Republic earlier this year that it didn't want Hayworth or anyone else to return the more than $300,000 in political contributions it made in 2002 during Abramoff's unsuccessful attempt to win legislation to allow the tribe's casino to reopen after a court-ordered closure.
In a series of Senate Indian Affairs Committee hearings led by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., Abramoff and partner Michael Scanlon have been accused of fraud and underhanded dealings in collecting about $82 million from six tribes for questionable lobbying services over three years.
Scanlon has pleaded guilty to fraud and agreed to help in the ongoing investigation of possible corruption involving high-level government officials and several members of Congress.
Abramoff is under a fraud indictment in an unrelated Florida case and reportedly is in plea negotiations.
Attempts to rank who received the most campaign contributions from Abramoff-related interests have had mixed results.
This month, the Washington Post placed Hayworth third, at $86,750.
But in a compilation posted by the watchdog Center for Responsive Politics and published Monday by the New York Times, Hayworth showed up in first place, with $101,620 received.
Eule said the total is $150,000 over a seven-year period, but wherever that places Hayworth in the rankings is immaterial.
"Because tribes were unfortunate enough to have Jack Abramoff as a lobbyist, people all of a sudden think it's dirty money," he said.
"Look, if you're giving the money back, you're admitting that either the tribes did something wrong in giving it to you, or you did something wrong in taking it.
"In our case, neither of those is true."
In a major embarrassment involving Abramoff, however, Hayworth acknowledged a year ago that he had held campaign fund-raisers five times from 1999 to 2001 in sports skyboxes provided through the lobbyist but failed to report the value of the accommodations as required by federal campaign finance laws.
His campaign committee amended its Federal Election Commission reports and refunded nearly $13,000 to two tribes for use of the suites.
I recall reading that Hayworth eventually donated the Abramoff-related funds in question to charity.
And who got the 2nd most in donations from AIG?
It is an interesting read. The tribes were scammed by Abramoff. (Like Bush said he was) The tribes had always contributed to J.D. They insisted he keep the contribution.
Hayworth is cleared on this.
The article is from 2005!
Its only of interest to McCainiacs.
Hayworth was not found guilty of anything.
GO JD!
What is the difference between bribes, gifts and campaign contributions?
I hope that McCain and Hayworth destroy each other and John Shadegg steps in at the last minute to sweep the primary and the election.
Unless JD Hayworth fathered love-children with Abramhoff....his involvement with Abrahamoff is piddly compared to John Sidney McCain authoring legislation that would “give Amnesty to Illegal Alien gang members, if they renounce their gang membership” (this was in the McCain-Kennedy Illegal Alien Amnesty bill).
Marco Rubio has more political baggage than JD Hayworth. Rubio did not even to bother to run again for his State House seat (not after his Illegal Alien Amnesty nonsense he pulled)
The pro-Illegal Alien/Anti-American element will obviously be relentless in their support of John Sidney McCain.
>> “Look, if you’re giving the money back, you’re admitting...”
Was Hayworth charged with any crimes?
Your one-man anti-Hayworth vendetta is very suspicious.
One candidate who fights for American Indian rights opposing a candidate who fights for illegal aliens who have broken a long string of U. S. laws and have no respect whatsoever for the US or her laws. Juan McCain has been about the biggest champion in Congress for millions of lawbreakers who strain state and federal budgets and suppress the incomes of U. S. Citizens.
And, is Juan just a Dim plant trying to increase their voter roles for the future, or is he just a born halfwit?
A champion of citizen American Indians and a champion of non-citizen, illegal aliens who have nothing but contempt for U. S. laws.
Duh, now which one might make the best Senator, and support the rule of law in the USA?
Are you going to be posting more of this garbage on a daily basis to shill for the man who deliberately threw the Presidential election to Zero ? No Republican opponent of McCain’s could surpass his treachery. None.
“Interesting read” only to you RINO lovers and McCainiacs...
Everything you post is refuted and discredited as crap.
All I have to do is look beneath the title and see your name and know it is more of the same...begone ye troll!!!
You are so far up MCain a**, that you had to go to the archives to find this anti-Hayworth article from 2005?
Pathetic.
Did McCain ever give back the money he received from Charlie Keating? I know he was always taking the McCains on expensive jaunts to various islands. I dont’ know he value of what all he recieved but talk about tainted money. We KNOW Charlie got his money’s worth from McCain.
You are using a very bad and unreliable source here. She worked for John Conyers, LOL.
CREW
http://www.citizensforethics.org/about/staff
Melanie Sloan, Executive Director
Melanie Sloan serves as CREW’s Executive Director... Prior to starting CREW, she...served as Minority Counsel for the House Judiciary Committee, working on criminal justice issues for then-Ranking Member John Conyers (D-MI)
I get junkmail from CREW all the time.
I like using their pre-paid envelopes to send donations to Michlle Bachmann. Makes me giggle.
Has Hayworth ever co-authored a bill against free speech like McCain-Feingold?
So why not mention that Hayworth was completely exonerated by the United States Department of Justice and was NEVER the subject of an investigation?
The fact is, Hayworth’s assistance and cooperation with the USDOJ may well have been instrumental in helping send Abramoff away to prison.
But you’re a McCainiac troll, you have no interest in the truth any more than your brain-addled master.
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