Abramoff Scandal Threatens Ralph Reed's Political Ambitions

[edbermac]

Sorry to the mods if this is long, but it's a good article...

By Kristin Jensen and Laurence Viele Davidson
Jan. 11 (Bloomberg) -- The Washington scandal over lobbyist Jack Abramoff may claim a casualty outside the nation's capital: Ralph Reed, a former presidential-campaign adviser who once headed one of the U.S.'s largest Christian activist groups.

Disclosures that Reed once ran an anti-gambling campaign that was secretly financed by casino-owning clients of his friend Abramoff have damaged his ability to raise funds for a bid to become Georgia's next lieutenant governor, other Republicans say. That may undercut his chances of winning an office that he could use as a steppingstone to national political ambitions, they say.

Campaign-finance reports filed this week show that Reed, 44, lagged behind opponent Casey Cagle in fundraising for the July 18 Republican primary during the past six months, after collecting more than twice as much money as his rival before that. Cagle raised $667,000 from June 30 to Dec. 31 to Reed's $404,000.

``A lot of those big corporate donors are now hedging their bets,'' said Matt Towery, the 1990 Republican candidate for lieutenant governor, who was once a colleague of Reed's on Capitol Hill. ``Ralph faces a very difficult and now problematic candidacy.''

Reed's fund-raising slowdown in the past six months coincided with the drumbeat of news about Abramoff and Reed's connections to him. Those ties are gaining more attention in the aftermath of Abramoff's Jan. 3 guilty plea and the widening probe into the potential bribery of lawmakers.

``There are concerns as to whether Ralph will continue to make headlines that are harmful to the party,'' said Eric Johnson, who as the Georgia Senate's president pro tem is a top Republican. Johnson said he's staying neutral in the primary election.

Reed's image as someone more interested in Christian causes than his own financial well-being has been tarnished by a stream of e-mails released by a Senate committee that investigated Abramoff's bilking of Indian-tribe clients.

``I need to start humping in corporate accounts,'' Reed wrote to Abramoff in 1998. ``I'm counting on you to help me with some contacts.''

In 2001 alone, he received more than $2.5 million from entities connected with Abramoff and partner Michael Scanlon, according to documents released by the Senate Indian Affairs Committee.

Abramoff and Scanlon used the organizations so Reed wouldn't be paid directly by their clients, who wanted to block new gambling competition. The e-mails show that Reed knew casino-owning tribes were the ultimate clients, though he says he wasn't paid with gambling proceeds.

``Had I known then what I know now, I would not have undertaken that work,'' Reed said in the text of a Dec. 9 speech to a Georgia youth group. ``On reflection and with the benefit of hindsight, it is clear it associated my longstanding opposition to gambling with those who did not share it and has caused difficulty for the faith community with whom I worked.''

Reed and Abramoff have known each other since the early 1980s, when they were leaders of the College Republicans along with another now-powerful Washington player, anti-tax activist Grover Norquist. They made an odd trio: Abramoff, an orthodox Jew who went to high school in Beverly Hills, California; Reed, a Christian southerner with boyish looks; and Norquist, a Massachusetts native with a penchant for dramatic monologues in his tax-cut crusade.

The three continued to work together until word broke that Abramoff may have defrauded his tribal clients. One, the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians, in 1999 donated money to Norquist's Americans for Tax Reform, which then wrote checks to Reed's anti-gambling coalition.

Reed also depended on Abramoff to help his political campaigns. In one e-mail exchange in 2001, he asked Abramoff to contribute to his successful bid to become state Republican chairman in Georgia. When Abramoff asked where to send the donation, Reed joked, ``The actual committee is `The Reed Family Retirement and Educational Foundation.' The address is 200 Bay Drive, Grand Cayman, BCI, R59876.''

The young Republicans following in Reed's footsteps -- students, budding activists and campaign managers -- now don't want him to run, said Charles Bullock, a political scientist at the University of Georgia in Athens.

``Without exception, they are hoping he's not on the ticket,'' Bullock said. One concern is ``that he gets the nomination, and then sometime in the fall the smoking gun shows up and he brings down Republicans,'' he said. ``The drumbeat is going to be playing throughout the year.''

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=washingtonstory&sid=aG6gHO3vwYZQ

[RubyDuby in GA]

1. What goes up must come down Ralphie boy

``Without exception, they are hoping he's not on the ticket,'' Bullock said. One concern is ``that he gets the nomination, and then sometime in the fall the smoking gun shows up and he brings down Republicans,'' he said. ``The drumbeat is going to be playing throughout the year.''


This is precisely why ever Democrat in GA is suddenly finding religion and praying like there's no tomorrow that he is on the ticket. :evilgrin: