In reviewing the accusations of Jack Abramoff ties coming from both sides of Colorado’s U.S. Senate race, voters will have to determine what constitutes a true tie to Abramoff as opposed to an association with an Abramoff affiliate.
This week, the campaigns of Democrat Mark Udall and Republican Bob Schaffer have traded charges that each had lobbying or campaign relationships with the imprisoned lobbyist.
Thursday, it was Udall’s turn as his campaign cataloged what it called “$33,000 in contributions from groups and PACs directed and influenced by Jack Abramoff,” to Schaffer.
But Abramoff personally never gave any money to either Senate candidate. And there is also not any solid evidence that Abramoff ever directed any money to either of the candidates.
“Abramoff never gave a dime out of his own pocket to a Democrat; all of his money was directed to Republicans,” said Massie Ritsch, spokesman for the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics, a group that studied Abramoff’s influence-peddling in deep detail in 2006.
“But he never gave a dime to Bob Schaffer, either.”
A day after Udall promised to donate to charity up to $1,500 in political donations he received in 2000 and 2002 from law firms where Abramoff once worked, Udall’s campaign released its list of alleged Schaffer connections to Abramoff.
They include a nearly $13,000 trip to the Mariana Islands paid for by the Traditional Values Coalition, which was linked to several Abramoff causes. There’s also $9,000 in contributions to Schaffer from Mariana Islands residents, including $2,500 from an Abramoff client on the island, Jerry Tan.
Schaffer spokesman and campaign manager Dick Wadhams said that the law firm contributions to Udall were the only real contributions from Abramoff and that Schaffer never even knew the lobbyist.
“(Udall) didn’t return any of that money until his hand was caught in the cookie jar, so he returned the cookies,” Wadhams said.
Not so, said Udall spokeswoman Taylor West.
“Trying to compare these two things is a smoke screen to distract from the truth — and that’s the extent to which Bob Schaffer carried water for these guys,” West said.
Joey Bunch: 303-954-1174 or jbunch@denverpost.com
