Rep Jerry Lewis Retirement Report Off Base, Say Aides to Top House GOP Appropriator

[maddezmom]

Published: June 4, 2007
Aides to California Republican Jerry Lewis maintain he has not made a decision about his House campaign plans for 2008 — refuting a report by nationally syndicated columnist Robert Novak that the former chairman and current ranking Republican of the House Appropriations Committee will retire.

Novak reported Saturday, “Republican sources on Capitol Hill and in California” say Lewis, the representative of the 41st District east of Los Angeles, will not seek a 16th House term.

Novak’s column noted that Lewis, after avoiding major controversy over nearly three decades in Congress, has taken heat recently from Democrats and corruption watchdog groups that question his ties to a former California House Republican turned lobbyist.


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Lewis has denied wrongdoing in the face of critics who have called on him to surrender his Appropriations Committee post in light of ethics allegations that first arose last year. The charges are based on reports indicating that a federal grand jury is investigating Lewis’ professional relationship with former Rep. Bill Lowery, a lobbyist and close friend who hired several Lewis aides and their relatives while seeking favors in spending bills.

Allegations of ethical misconduct significantly hampered several California Republicans in their 2006 re-election contests. Democrat Jerry McNerney ousted Republican Richard W. Pombo in the 11th District last fall in a rematch of a 2004 contest that Pombo easily won; the incumbent was damaged by accusations that he had been too cozy with developers as chairman of the House Resources Committee, and also came under fire for campaign donations he received from later-convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff. Republican Rep. John T. Doolittle narrowly won re-election in the 4th District after Democrats questioned the extent of his confirmed friendship with Abramoff.



more:http://www.nytimes.com/cq/2007/06/04/cq_2831.html