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Abramoff sets off a scramble

The taint of donations from the disgraced lobbyist sends Florida politicians scurrying to distance themselves and to shed the cash.

By ADAM C. SMITH and ANITA KUMAR
Published January 5, 2006

Republican Rep. Mark Foley says he only met Jack Abramoff a couple of times and never did a thing for him. Republican attorney general candidate Bill McCollum talked to Abramoff once about a prospective job, but said he knew nothing about campaign contributions from him. Democratic state Sen. Ron Klein never met Abramoff and until Wednesday had no idea he had ever received donations tied to the disgraced superlobbyist.

In the wake of the biggest congressional scandal to hit Congress in years, politicians across Florida and the country are facing uncomfortable questions about their ties to a man becoming synonymous with influence peddling in Washington. Eager to distance themselves from the scandal, several Florida politicians on Wednesday joined President Bush and House Speaker Dennis Hastert in promising to donate to charity any campaign contributions connected to Abramoff. In Florida, the list includes Republican Senate candidate Katherine Harris.

"Regrettably, there were a lot of people caught in his web, mostly unwittingly," said Foley, a former U.S. Senate candidate from Jupiter, who planned to donate $2,000 he received from Abramoff to charity. "I don't have any qualms because I didn't do anything for him. I wasn't socializing with him."

On Tuesday, Abramoff pleaded guilty to federal conspiracy, mail fraud and tax evasion charges in connection with a Justice Department corruption investigation that threatens to ensnare members of Congress and the Bush administration. On Wednesday, he pleaded guilty to conspiracy and wire fraud in connection with his $147.5-million purchase of the Broward County-based SunCruz Casino line. He and former partner Adam Kidan were indicted in August.

No Florida politician has been implicated in any wrongdoing. And while some congressional leaders have received tens of thousands of dollars in donations connected to Abramoff, no one from Florida reaches that level.

Still, at least nine members of Florida's congressional delegation have received contributions tied to Abramoff since 1999, according to a study by the Center for Responsive Politics, a Washington-based research group. Among the Floridians are Republican Reps. C.W. Bill Young of Indian Shores, who received $1,000 in 2002 from one of Abramoff's Indian tribe clients, the Mississippi Band of Choctow Indians, and Ginny Brown-Waite of Brooksville, who in 2002 received $500 from the Saginaw Chippewa Indian tribe.

Most members contacted by the St. Petersburg Times on Wednesday said they did not know Indian tribe money was connected to Abramoff. Still, several people acknowledged the potential fallout even from a peripheral tie to Abramoff.

John Fortier, a political scientist who studes Congress for the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank, predicted members would return money over time as the investigation continues, the trials begin and campaigns for this November heat up.

"None of this is good for anyone," said Fortier. "It's bad for the institution. The general atmosphere is not good for Republicans."

The controversial Dania-based gambling company Abramoff bought in 2000, SunCruz Casino, gave thousands of dollars in donations for state elections, including $5,000 to the Florida Republican Party in 2002 and $5,000 to the Florida Democratic Party just before Abramoff's purchase of SunCruz was completed.

State Sen. Ron Klein, a Boca Raton Democrat running to unseat U.S. Rep. Clay Shaw, in 2001, received $500 from SunCruz and $500 from Kidan, Abramoff's partner on the SunCruz deal who also pleaded guilty. On Wednesday, Klein said he had nothing to do with Abramoff or SunCruz but would donate those contributions to a hurricane relief charity.

No Florida politician is more bruised by the Abramoff scandal than Rep. Tom Feeney, the Orlando area Republican and former state House speaker.

Feeney took a trip with Abramoff to Scotland, where he golfed at the Royal & Ancient Golf Club at St. Andrews and attended the Edinburgh Military Tattoo, an annual parade of soldiers and bands.

Abramoff asked Feeney to join him on the trip in 2003, one year after a similar trip Abramoff took with Rep. Bob Ney, an Ohio Republican, which is now under investigation.

Feeney was on vacation and couldn't be reached Wednesday, but has said he thought a conservative think tank, the National Center for Public Policy Research, was footing the $5,643 cost but later learned Abramoff paid in violation of House rules that forbid members of Congress from taking free trips from lobbyists. "It's an embarrassment and we were misled" about who was actually paying for the trip, Feeney told the Orlando Sentinel earlier this year. "We were lied to."

With Abramoff cooperating with federal investigators, Washington is abuzz with speculation about how many House members and staffers might be implicated in wrongdoing.

"You are going to see members scrambling to disassociate themselves from Abramoff," said Thomas Mann, who studies Congress at the Brookings Institution, a liberal think tank.

Some observers are comparing the swirling controversy to the House Bank scandal of the early 1990s. Revelations about members of Congress with overdrafts on the taxpayer-subsidized bank accounts helped sweep Republicans to a majority in 1994.

Whether the fallout from this more-complicated scandal is as far-reaching remains to be seen. But on the heels of California Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham resigning in disgrace in a bribery scandal, plenty of Republicans are wary of the repercussions.

"The very fact that you are calling me to question me about (Abramoff-connected donations) tells me this is probably the broad-brush sort of thing where the public thinks everybody is bad even if you're barely associated with this individual," said former Rep. McCollum, who while running for the Senate in 2000 received $3,000 in Abramoff-connected donations.

McCollum said he was unaware of those contributions. The only time he spoke to Abramoff was after that race, when he was considering law firms where he might work and Abramoff talked to him about Miami-based Greenberg Traurig. Abramoff resigned from the politically connected firm in 2004.

Likewise, members of Florida's congressional delegation eagerly distanced themselves from Abramoff.

"Her comment to me was that she wouldn't know him if she tripped over him," Brown-Waite spokesman Charlie Keller said. "This story is a nonstarter where Ginny is concerned, especially when 300 other members have received more money from him or affiliates in Congress."

Harry Glenn, spokesman for Young, said his boss never met Abramoff and was unaware of any contributions connected to the lobbyist.

Rep. Ric Keller, R-Orlando, plans to donate the $2,000 he received from Abramoff-connected sources to the American Red Cross.

Harris received $3,000 from Indian tribes in 2001 and 2002 and plans to donate it to charity. Harris returned $1,000 from one of the tribes after it exceeded the legal limit allowed in a primary election.

"The contribution did not influence her," said Kara Borie, Harris spokeswoman. "They did not know each other. She has never been lobbied by him."

Former Rep. Peter Deutsch, D-Fort Lauderdale, who lost his bid for U.S. Senate in 2004, received the most money in Florida, $8,500, according to a Center for Responsive Politics analysis.

Deutsch, who is Jewish and now lives in Israel, said he knew Abramoff because he owned the only kosher restaurant in Washington and because he worked to enhance Jewish education in the nation's capital as president of a Jewish school and founder of another.

"I know him. He's like all people," Deutsch said. "He did some good things."

Times researchers Caryn Baird and Angie Drobnic Holan contributed to this report, which included information from the Center for Responsive Politics.

[Last modified January 5, 2006, 01:19:08]