And the outcome of these elections will determine the future of such critical issues as healthcare, stem cell research, Medicare, and abortion rights.
Here’s a look at Republican candidates for the House and Senate, through the lens of their public actions and words. Each article about these men and women is previewed; to see the entire article just click on their name.
–AZ-Sen: Jon Kyl - “Yes, he is powerful, but he is powerful because he has spent his time in Washington kowtowing to the Bush administration and the radical right, very often to the detriment of Arizonans.”
–AZ-01: Rick Renzi - In September 2006, Renzi was named one of the “20 Most Corrupt Members of Congress” in a report by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington; he was also listed in the first report by the organization in January 2006, when he was one of 13 named members. The organization said “His ethics issues stem from the outside income earned by his administrative assistant and from legislation he sponsored that benefitted his father.”
–AZ-05: J.D. Hayworth - Usually when you see voters leaving a candidate forum early these days, it’s because they want to be home in time to catch Grey’s Anatomy. But the scores of people fleeing Temple Beth Israel in northeast Phoenix last week had an unusual reason for their flight. They had just been deeply insulted, they said, by a man representing a candidate hoping to win their votes. “It was just such hatred,” said Linda Bliss, a Phoenix resident who attended the Tuesday event. “It was so disgusting.” The offending remarks came from Jonathan Tratt, who was chosen by the campaign of J.D. Hayworth to represent Hayworth at a forum sponsored by the National Council of Jewish Women.
–CA-04: John Doolittle – On September 20, 2006, the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) a group headed by former Democratic Congressional staffer Melanie Sloan, released its second annual report on the most corrupt members of Congress, titled “Beyond DeLay: The 20 Most Corrupt Members of Congress (and five to watch)”. Doolittle was one of the 20. The organization said “His ethics issues stem from his wife’s relationship to his campaign and political action committees, as well as
campaign contributions and personal financial benefits he accepted from those who sought his legislative assistance.”
–CA-11: Richard Pombo – Pombo and hispolitical action committee RICH PAC are among a dozen leaders in the House of Representatives reportedly under investigation as part of the corruption and influence-peddling scandal centered around confessed felon Jack Abramoff, a Republican lobbyist, and policy issues including Indian gaming. Fundraisers organized by Indian gaming interests and tied to the 2005 MLB All-Star Game are among those activities under scrutiny.
–CA-50: Brian Bilbray – Bilbray’s Residency Status Called Into Question — Democratic congressional candidate Francine Busby and her top aide alleged Thursday that representative Brian Bilbray is the target of a criminal investigation. Rumors of a county grand jury investigation into Bilbray’s residency status have circulated in recent weeks. Busby’s campaign manager Ray Drew said that several people claiming to be neighbor’s of Bilbray’s mother contacted him saying that Bilbray does not live at her Carlsbad residence he calls home. Bilbray calls the rumored investigation as being “totally manufactured.”
–CO-04: Marilyn Musgrave – Musgrave has made regulating the bedroom behavior of her fellow Americans the focus of her entire career. An evangelical Christian who married her Bible-camp sweetheart, Musgrave does not believe in the separation of church and state. She entered politics in 1990, running for her local school board on a crusade to end sex education as part of the curriculum. By the time her tenure was over, the schools taught “abstinence only” — and offending passages in health textbooks had been blacked out. During her eight years in the Colorado legislature, Musgrave continued her moralizing, overcoming two vetoes by the governor to pass a state ban on gay marriage.
–CO-05: Doug Lamborn – To be clear, Congressman Joel Hefley does not endorse Democrat Jay Fawcett in the 5th Congressional District. Nor does he endorse “people who I feel run sleazy campaigns,” words he’s previously used to describe Republican hopeful Doug Lamborn. Hefley issued the statement Friday in response to a Fawcett ad in Thursday’s Colorado Springs Independent that lists Hefley with other Republicans who don’t support Lamborn. It quotes Hefley as saying, “I feel that (Lamborn) ran the most sleazy, dishonest campaign I’ve seen in a long, long time, and I cannot support him.”
–CO-07: Rick O’Donnell - Republican candidate Rick O’Donnell, who lists congressional ethics reform first among his priorities if elected, flew this year to Panama with his girlfriend on a weekend trip financed by a television network doing business with the state agency he headed. He also flew to Ireland and Israel on business while filling two of Gov. Bill Owens’ Cabinet posts, O’Donnell said Thursday.
–CT-04: Christopher Shays- During a debate last week, Shays drew strong criticism for a statement that seemed to minimize the abuses at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq by saying it was not torture but a sex scandal. “Now I’ve seen what happened in Abu Ghraib, and Abu Ghraib was not torture,” Shays said at a debate Wednesday in Bridgeport. “It was outrageous, outrageous involvement of National Guard troops from [Maryland] who were involved in a sex ring and they took pictures of soldiers who were naked. “And they did other things that were just outrageous. But it wasn’t torture.” The troops involved were, in fact, Army Reservists.
–FL-13: Vernon Buchanan – …[t]he lawsuit stems from Buchanan’s involvement in the development of the Sarasota Ritz-Carlton. Developers involved have alleged in court papers that Buchanan misrepresented his wealth in his dealings with them. The other parties to the suit have agreed to the release of the information, but Buchanan’s attorneys have blocked it. Buchanan, who is worth
about $50 million, has made his business success a central component of his campaign for Congress. One of his Republican opponents, Tramm Hudson, has attacked Buchanan’s record, saying he was at the helm of American Speedy Printing when it went bankrupt in the early 1990s. He has also attacked Buchanan for, among other things, fighting to keep the Ritz lawsuit sealed even though he says he has nothing to hide.
–FL-16: Joe Negron – In Florida, State Representative Joe Negron was picked to fill Foley’s spot in the November elections. The Democratic nominee for the seat isTim Mahoney. Florida law prohibited Foley’s name from being removed from the ballot at the time of his withdrawal from the race, but Republicans hope that voters will recognize that a vote for Foley will transfer to Negron as a substitute candidate. Nevertheless, Boehner noted that because of the procedures in Florida, “to vote for this candidate, you have to vote for Mark Foley. How many people are going to hold their nose to do that?”
–FL-22: Clay Shaw – Foley fallout is sending shockwaves through Florida politics. Rep. Clay Shaw, who’s fighting to keep his seat in one of the tightest and costliest re-election campaigns in the country, is now at risk because of his former colleague’s online behavior.
–ID-01: Bill Sali – …Bill Sali is too radical, and calls him “a mistake.” Sali, a state legislator for 16 years, won a six-way Republican primary with only 26 percent of the vote, defeating several moderate candidates, including one Nelson supported. Sali aligns himself with a hard-line national anti-tax group, the Club for Growth, which has given his campaign more than $300,000. He also pushes a right-wing form of Christianity, taking uncompromising positions on abortion and calling for the Ten Commandments to be displayed in a Boise park.
–IL-06: Peter Roskam – Peter Roskam plays follow-the-leader, in this case with indicted former Republican leader Tom DeLay, on nearly every issue. Not surprising considering Roskam was a part of DeLay’s farm system, having been a staffer for the corrupt congressman. Roskam has taken money and “behind-the-scenes” assistance from DeLay throughout his career — yet another sign that he will fight for Tom DeLay and the special interests before fighting for Illinois.
–IL-10: Mark Kirk – Kirk has received multiple donations from Altria, a major tobacco company formerly known as Phillip Morris. Altria also owns 87.6% of Kraft Foods, which is one of the largest employers in the 10th District of Illinois. Kirk received contributions from Halliburton, where Dick Cheney was previously the CEO. Kirk accepted donations from Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart is the largest employer in the United States; however, it provides health insurance to only 44% of its workforce. Kirk accepted multiple donations from Accenture, despite the GAO noting Accenture is incorporated in a tax haven country (Bermuda), thereby avoiding federal income tax. Accenture is one of the larger employers in the 10th District of Illinois.
–IL-14: Dennis Hastert - The House ethics committee Thursday questioned ex-Rep. Mark Foley’s one-time chief of staff, who challenged Speaker Dennis Hastert’s account of his office’s first notification of Foley’s conduct toward male pages. Kirk Fordham testified in private as investigators sought to learn who is telling the truth. Fordham said he gave the information to Hastert chief of staff Scott Palmer in 2002 or 2003, but Palmer has disputed Fordham’s account. Hastert’s office said his staff was first told about Foley last fall.
–IN-02: Chris Chocola – U.S. Rep. Chris Chocola’s former company, CTB Inc., failed to pay its spring property taxes on time in 2000 and had to pay substantial penalties at the same time Chocola was serving as chairman of the company board. Ironically, the information comes to light as Chocola’s campaign television commercials are criticizing Democratic rival Joe Donnelly for being late in paying property taxes on his Granger home and on a vacation home in Michigan City.
–IN-08: John Hostettler – U.S. Rep. John Hostettler, an Indiana Republican, was detained yesterday at Louisville International Airport when security personnel found a loaded handgun in his briefcase as he was going through a screening checkpoint, according to the congressman’s office. Airport spokeswoman Rande Swann said Hostettler was issued a citation by airport police for carrying a concealed deadly weapon and then was released. The misdemeanor has a maximum sentence of a year in jail.
–IA-01: Mike Whalen – Nine days ago, Republican congressional candidate Brian Kennedy filed a complaint with the federal government, accusing an opponent (Mike Whalen) of illegally using corporate money to boost his campaign.
–KS-02: Jim Ryun -Worried about winning a sixth term in Congress, U.S. Rep. Jim Ryun said this month he didn’t know until recently that he lived across the street from disgraced Rep. Mark Foley, R-Fla. — whom many Republicans are trying to keep at a safe distance. Then, when faced with questions about how that could be the case considering Ryun in May hosted a fundraiser alongside Foley on D Street in Washington, D.C., Ryun’s campaign said the events weren’t jointly planned. However, neither of those statements was completely accurate, Ryun’s campaign admitted last week.
–KY-03: Anne Northup – U.S. Rep. Anne Northup asked for help from the Federal Communications Commission this summer to resolve a licensing problem for radios sold by her husband’s multi-million dollar Jefferson County company. Northup, R-3rd District, did not reveal her personal connection to the firm, Radio Sound, in her June 21 letter to the FCC. Her financial disclosure statement filed in May lists the company as an asset, with shares of stock owned by her husband worth at least $5 million and producing income of at least $1 million annually.
–KY-04: Geoff Davis – Rep. Geoff Davis, R-Ky., is fighting a proposal to cap high interest rates for short-term payday loans to military service members at 36 percent, drawing protests from consumer watchdogs and military groups. The Pentagon has accused payday lenders of surrounding its military posts and exploiting troops, leading to bankruptcies, divorces and ruined careers. “It would be interesting to know why Congressman Davis is working against the protection of servicemen that no less than the Department of Defense wants from Congress,” said Jean Ann Fox, consumer-protection director for the Consumer Federation of America.
–MD-Sen: Michael Steele – Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele, under heavy criticism from Jewish leaders and a key Democratic opponent in the race for U.S. Senate…for comparing embryonic stem cell research to Nazi experiments during the Holocaust.
–MN-01: Gil Gutknecht – It appeared that the campaign for the First District congressional seat would never get more interesting than last month when U.S. Rep. Gil Gutknecht made a sudden turnabout on his view of Iraq, describing the situation in Iraq as much worse than he had been led to believe and calling for a partial withdrawal of American troops. The incumbent seems to have such an advantage in campaigns for the House; prior races that Gutknecht has been involved in were rather dull as the expected happened – Gutknecht, the incumbent, won by a significant margin. Last week, two new developments added even more intrigue to this election. A lawsuit was filed to try to remove the six-term Republican congressman’s name from the ballot. Then it was discovered that his staff was trying to remove online autobiography references to a pledge he made not to run for a seventh term.
–MN-06: Michele Bachmann – …[o]r maybe she and her strategists think that advertising the extent of her Christian political vision would prove divisive even in the conservative Sixth. “She is absolutely a cold, calculating person,” says Gary Laidig, the Republican she unseated en route to the state Senate in 2000. “It’s always the same with her on campaigns: Nobody really knows who she is, and she just comes across as this petite, attractive soccer mom. And that’s it. But the fact is, she’s part of a group that is absolutely determined to take over the Republican Party. It’s that wing of the party that’s very much in step with people like Norm Coleman and the Taxpayers League. And the fact is that they know how to run races. Good races, too. From getting delegates to hitting phone banks, they cover it, and Michele’s part of that. “At the end of the day, her politics are like this: Everyone will have a gun, nobody will have an abortion, no one will pay taxes, everyone will go to church, and there won’t be any more pinko liberal teachers in school.”
–MO-Sen: Jim Talent - It began with a Missouri Republican Party press release accusing Democrat Claire McCaskill of failing to file a routine campaign finance report on time. The release included an Internet link to a July 28 letter from the Federal Election Commission to McCaskill saying she “may have failed to file” the pre-primary finance report. Missouri GOP spokesman Paul Sloca said the FEC letter exposed McCaskill’s “incompetence and her willful disregard for the law.” McCaskill’s campaign denounced the Republican statement as inaccurate – and unprofessional, in light of the death Saturday of Melissa Berridge, the campaign’s compliance director.
–MT-Sen: Conrad Burns – U.S. Sen. Conrad Burns pointed across the Billings airport Sunday and accused a member of an elite firefighting team of not doing “a God damned thing” and charged that crew members just “sit around” on the job, the original version of a state report said.
–NV-03: Jon Porter - Rep. Jon Porter, R-Nev., made dozens of campaign fundraising phone calls last spring from his district and Washington, D.C., offices, according to a former Porter staffer and e-mails obtained by the Sun. The former staffer, Jim Shepard, a 10-year veteran of Capitol Hill who worked briefly for Porter this year, said he witnessed Porter making the calls on at least five different dates last spring. Such calls would violate federal election laws and House ethics rules.
–NH-02: Charlie Bass – A top aide to Rep. Charlie Bass resigned yesterday after admitting he used a government computer to post misleading messages on liberal Web sites. Tad Furtado agreed yesterday to resign as policy director, the number-two job in the Republican congressman’s office.
–NJ-07: Mike Ferguson – In his dark suit, knotted tie and official congressional ID pin on his lapel, Republican House member Mike Ferguson looked out of place at the Rhino Bar and Pumphouse, a Georgetown saloon popular with college kids. “He shouldn’t have even been at the bar,” 21-year-old Georgetown University junior Michelle Mezoe told us. “He and his group” – two unidentified staffers, also wearing suits – “stuck out like sore thumbs.” Yesterday Mezoe accused the congressman, a 32-year-old married father of three representing New Jersey’s 7th District, of grabbing her in the wee hours Wednesday morning. She said Ferguson removed his ID pin and handed it to her, saying she could keep it if she would “come back and have a drink with me.” Mezoe said she refused to return it unless Ferguson apologized for his “disrespectful” behavior. An apology was not forthcoming.
–NM-01: Heather Wilson – A file allegedly suppressed by Congresswoman Heather Wilson (R-NM) has been obtained by RAW STORY. In 1995, just three days into her tenure as Secretary of the New Mexico Children, Youth and Families Department, Wilson removed a routine working file alleging that her husband had engaged in inappropriate contact with a minor. The file was then transferred to the department’s attorney in her own Albuquerque office, where it soon went missing. At the time, a local investigative news team learned about the swap, but could not confirm certain details of the file. They were not able to recover the document itself.
–NY-03: Peter King – King, who has said that all Muslims aren’t terrorists but that all recent terrorists are Muslim, favors an ethnic and religious profiling scheme that would include foreign and American-born travelers. “I would give the investigators and screeners a lot of discretion as to where it ends,” he said. Despite King’s endorsement of such a process, it is a technique that has been
widely dismissed as a legitimate law enforcement tool.
–NY-20: John Sweeney – As The Daily Politics has noted, Union College’s newspaper, The Concordiensis (affectionately known around campus as “The Concordy“) reports on its front page today that U.S. Rep. John Sweeney, R-Clifton Park, attended a registered, on-campus frat party on April 22. The paper has a photo, which Ben Smith has posted. I’ve spoken to the student who took that shot, Kenneth Falcon, 19, of Long Island, who was kind enough to email it to me, along with some others. He said they were taken around 1 a.m.
–NY-26: Tom Reynolds – Fordham said today that Reynolds continued to back Foley’s re-election because he was unaware until Friday of a separate exchange of sexual explicit instant messages that Foley had sent to underage male pages. Reynolds said this week that he was told by fellow Congressman Rodney Alexander in the spring about some “overly friendly” e-mails between Foley and a page. And though he never saw the exchanges, Reynolds said he alerted his boss, House Speaker Dennis Hastert about the issue.
–NY-29: Randy Kuhl- In 1997, while a state senator, Kuhl was arrested for driving while intoxicated. He pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of having a blood alcohol content above 0.10 percent, was fined $590 and had his driver’s license revoked for six months. Kuhl divorced in 2000. During the 2004 campaign, several weblogs published Kuhl’s divorce records, which had formerly been sealed. In those records, Kuhl’s former wife alleged that he abused her emotionally; that he refused to seek counseling for a history of drinking to excess; that he solicited other women for sex; and that he threatened to murder her with two shotguns during a dinner party.
–NC-08: Robin Hayes – North Carolina Congressman Robin Hayes in recent weeks clearly staked out a position against the Central American Free Trade Agreement. “I am flat-out, completely, horizontally opposed to CAFTA,” Hayes said earlier this month. “It’s not in the best interests of the core constituency I represent,” he said another time. “Every time I drive through Kannapolis and I see those empty plants, I know there is no way I could vote for CAFTA,” he said on a third occasion. But shortly after midnight Wednesday, Hayes switched his vote from no to yes, allowing the House to pass the trade agreement 217-215 and handing President Bush a major victory. A tie would have defeated the bill.
–NC-11: Charles Taylor – In January 2005, Hayes Martin, who had been bank president as well as Taylor’s campaign treasurer, and Charles “Chig” Cagle, a former district Republican chairman who had taken out fraudulent loans from the bank, were sentenced for conspiracy to commit bank fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering. Martin had plead guilty in 2001. During the 2003 trial of attorney Thomas Jones, who handled the closing of the loans, Martin said that Taylor had first-hand knowledge of the loans. Cagle and Jones also said Taylor knew of the fraud. Taylor has refused to comment on the case. In September 2006, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington named Taylor one of the “20 most corrupt members of Congress.”
–OH-01: Steve Chabot – Several Cincinnati institutions with close ties to Rep. Steve Chabot’s (R-Ohio) top campaign supporters are in line to win $1.6 million in earmarks through the fiscal 2007 Labor-HHS-Education appropriations bill…“There’s not a connection” between the donations and the earmarks, said Gary Lindgren, Chabot’s chief of staff. Lindgren said the earmarks are for major institutions and that it stands to reason that board members would be politically active.
–OH-02: Jean Schmidt – Controversy has dogged Schmidt. She was reprimanded by the state election commission for claiming two college degrees when she only had one. Area newspaper editors said she misled them by claiming an editorial that was nearly identical to one that had been distributed by another congresswoman.
–OH-15: Deborah Pryce – Pryce, who called Foley a close friend in a magazine article published before the scandal broke, has maintained that she didn’t know Foley wrote lurid e-mails and instant messages to teenage pages until the story made the news last week.
–OH-18: Joy Padgett - A northern Ohio office supply company says in bankruptcy filings that a firm owned by a Republican congressional candidate sold it property without disclosing it was collateral for an unpaid loan. The office supply company, Graphic Enterprises Inc. of North Canton, will seek $129,250 from Don Padgett, the husband of congressional candidate Joy Padgett, if it is saddled with the lien.
–PA-04: Melissa Hart – “She was a partner with Ney in a joint fundraising committee exactly at the same time he was committing these campaign violations for which he has pled guilty,” Altmire said. Altmire said Ms. Hart needs to explain what her connection is to Ney. There’s a “clear difference,” he added, between English accepting money from Ney’s political action committee and Ms. Hart forming a political action committee with Ney and two others. “At the minimum she should give it back (to donors), but the bigger issue is to explain her relationship with a guy who just pled guilty,” Altmire said, adding he would also like to know where the money came from and if any of it’s connected with the scandal Ney was involved in.
–PA-07: Curt Weldon – The FBI raided the homes of Rep. Curt Weldon’s daughter and a close friend Monday in an investigation of whether the congressman improperly helped the pair win lobbying and consulting contracts.
–PA-08: Mike Fitzpatrick – Bucks County Congressman Mike Fitzpatrick has raised more than $200,000 in campaign contributions from political action committees linked to convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff and his Native American tribal clients, according to a Courier Times analysis of his campaign finances.
–PA-10: Don Sherwood – Sherwood, who is married, was sued last year by Cynthia Ore, who claimed he repeatedly assaulted her during their five-year relationship. The 65-year-old congressman, who admitted to the affair but denied the assaults, agreed to a confidential, out-of-court settlement last November.
–RI-Sen: Lincoln Chafee – Interesting fact: In its latest filing to the Federal Election Commission, the campaign of Sen. Lincoln D. Chafee (R-R.I.) lists $386,000 in payments for “consulting services” to a firm called Northeast Strategies LLC, listed on Kenduskeag Avenue in Bangor, Maine. Tantalizing fact: The same Kenduskeag Avenue address is home to James Tobin, a former regional official of the Republican National Committee. Eyebrow-raising fact: James Tobin was found guilty last year of criminally violating federal elections law, having participated in a scheme by New Hampshire Republicans to jam Democratic get-out-the-vote phone lines on Election Day 2002.
–TN-Sen: Bob Corker – As a private investor, Bob Corker lost more than $1 million in a speculative Internet venture he shared with Delta Capital Management, a Memphis investment firm. Undeterred, Corker courted Delta when he became Chattanooga’s mayor, opening a door that allowed the firm to get $1 million in Chattanooga city employee pension funds in 2004 to invest in startup companies.
–VA-Sen: George Allen - A noted political scientist joined one of Sen. George Allen’s former college football teammates in claiming the senator used a racial slur to refer to blacks in the early 1970s, a claim Allen dismisses as “ludicrously false.” Larry J. Sabato, one of Virginia’s most-quoted political science professors and a classmate of Allen’s in the early 1970s, said in a televised interview Monday that Allen used the epithet.
–VA-10: Frank Wolf - “Frank Wolf is the chief House sponsor of the Journey Through Hallowed Ground National Heritage Area Act,” said David Ridenour, vice president of the National Center for Public Policy Research. “If he was instrumental in securing federal funds for the principal organization pushing for his initiative, he has a conflict of interest and is, a minimum, ethically-challenged.”
–WA-Sen: Mike McGavick – U.S. Senate candidate Mike McGavick ran a red light, reeked of alcohol, failed a roadside sobriety test and fell asleep during police processing on a 1993 drunken-driving charge, according to a Maryland police report. The report was obtained Friday from the Montgomery County, Md., Police Department. It suggests that McGavick, a Republican running against Democratic Sen. Maria Cantwell this fall, was less candid than he seemed when he disclosed the previously unknown arrest on his campaign Web site Aug. 24.
–WA-08: Dave Reichert – Dave Reichert knew for weeks in 1996 that a sergeant under his command was meddling in a felony arson investigation, but kept him on the job despite a policy that would have allowed Reichert to remove him, according to interviews and court documents. It was a bizarre case. The sergeant, Matt Bachmeier, had burned down his own Renton home to collect insurance, then a month later implicated an innocent man before killing him. From almost the beginning, Bachmeier made suspicious claims about the incident, but Reichert decided against informing Renton police investigators about them, one of his then-subordinates says.
So here I am in Thailand. Koh Samui, to be exact. Koh Samui is a beautiful little island located down south in the Gulf of Thailand. It is surrounded by warm, clear blue calm water and sandy beaches, dotted with coconut trees and filled to the brim with natural beauty. I have been here many times, and each time I have a very difficult time leaving.
