DENVER—U.S. Senate candidate Bob Schaffer battled a report Thursday that a trip he took to the Northern Mariana Islands as a congressman was partly arranged by the firm of the now-jailed lobbyist Jack Abramoff.
Schaffer, a Republican, was a congressman from Colorado’s 4th District when he traveled to the South Pacific archipelago in 1999 to look into allegations of labor abuse in the textile industry in the U.S. territory. Before he left, his staff let him know that the travel arrangements had been made by a lobbying firm and they were looking into what role the firm had in the trip, according to a memo from Schaffer’s congressional archive first reported in The Denver Post.
The firm was Preston-Gates, Abramoff’s firm, and Schaffer’s staff noted that the schedule for the trip included a lunch with current and former Preston-Gates clients—including U.S. Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands government.
Abramoff pleaded guilty in January 2006 to mail fraud, wire fraud, conspiracy and tax evasion in connection with his lobbying activities and a business deal. He is serving a sentence of about six years.
Schaffer never met with Abramoff, his campaign said Thursday.
“Didn’t talk to him, didn’t know him, never has talked to him,” said Dick Wadhams, who heads Schaffer’s campaign and is the state Republican Party chair.
He added that Preston-Gates “was just another one of hundreds of law firms in Washington … There was no controversy associated with that law firm in 1999.”
The trip was paid for by the Traditional Values Coalition, Wadhams said.
But Schaffer’s opposition criticized the Abramoff connection.
“When you are talking about Preston-Gates and you are talking about the Mariana Islands, you are talking about Jack Abramoff,” said Taylor West, the spokeswoman for Democratic Rep. Mark Udall—Schaffer’s Senate campaign rival. “He was the Marianas guy at Preston-Gates.”
In the 1990s, allegations were raised that the workers suffered under abusive, sweatshop conditions. The islands’ garment factories made clothing with “made in U.S.A.” labels produced by foreign workers, often from China and the Philippines.
Abramoff, who was hired by the Northern Mariana Islands government, lobbied against attempts to crack down on the alleged abuses, and Congress voted down reform legislation.
Schaffer raised the issue of the Mariana Islands himself last week, holding up the islands’ guest-worker program as a potential model for the mainland in an interview with The Post.
“The concept of prequalifying foreign workers in their home country under private-sector management is a system that works very well in one place in America,” Schaffer said, referencing the islands.
The reference raised concerns because of the Abramoff connection and labor issues, but the 1999 memo linking Schaffer’s trip to Abramoff’s firm aggravated the criticism.
“Jack Abramoff is in jail for exactly this kind of influence peddling with other congressmen,” West said. “This is exactly the kind of corruption that really made people feel like the country had been taken off on the wrong path.”
Wadhams called the story “a classic hit piece” and pointed to a Democrat with ties to Abramoff.
“We do look forward to when Boulder liberal Udall has Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to Colorado for Boulder liberal Udall to defend Sen. Reid’s involvement with Abramoff,” he said.
Reid received nearly $68,000 in donations from Abramoff’s firm, lobbying partners and clients at a time when Reid was fighting legislation opposed by some of Abramoff’s clients.
