Foley Scandal Resonates in Close Congressional Campaigns
With less than five weeks to go before Election Day, the Mark Foley scandal is dramatically reshaping the political world, spreading worry among GOP leaders not just in Washington but across the country over whether the party can win in November.
In the Capitol, as details continue to emerge about the sexually explicit E-mails and instant messages Foley sent to a House page under the age of 18, Republican leaders are in backroom discussions about whether top party leaders should step aside now to lessen the damage.
House Speaker Dennis Hastert, fighting to save his political life this week, turned to conservative talk radio shows to shore up support. Some conservatives, including direct-mail pioneer Richard Viguerie and activist Paul Weyrich, have called on Hastert to resign his post for failing to press for a more thorough investigation of Foley after learning of some of the then Florida congressman's less lurid E-mails sent to former pages. House Majority Leader John Boehner and Rep. Tom Reynolds, head of the National Republican Congressional Committee–both of whom learned of some of the E-mails within the past year–have tried to distance themselves from the speaker this week as the fallout continues.
President Bush made his first public comments, saying he was "disgusted" by the Foley case but was standing by Hastert. What had been an upbeat September for Bush and the GOP with a media campaign to link Iraq to the broader war on terrorism now appears to have been blunted. According to a new Wall Street Journal/NBC poll, the president's public approval has slipped to below 40 percent and Americans are less favorable to Republicans controlling Congress.
The scandal is quickly playing out in congressional and Senate races across the country, with Democrats pouncing on their opponents for failing to hold party leaders accountable and demanding that Republicans return campaign contributions from Foley and other party leaders. Democrats have taken several tacks:
- Democrat Patty Wetterling, a national child safety advocate and candidate for Congress in Minnesota, has already put out the first television ad attacking Republicans over the scandal and calling for a thorough investigation by Congress.
- Jay Fawcett, a Democrat campaigning in an increasingly close race for a House seat in Colorado Springs, says: "I'm not saying he needs to resign his seat in Congress but needs to step aside from his leadership position and appoint an impartial investigation."
- Mary Jo Kilroy, a highly touted Democratic prospect this year against the House's fourth-ranking Republican, Deborah Pryce of Ohio, adds: "I would second those calls by other Democrats for Speaker Hastert to step down or for a broader investigation with an independent party doing the investigating. Deb Pryce needs to come clean with the voters and investigators about what she knew and when she knew it."
With the Democrats needing a net gain of only 15 seats to retake the House majority, the Foley scandal could prove the last-minute fumble that sends the GOP to the minority sidelines. Here is a snapshot of how the Foley scandal is playing out in some of the closest congressional and Senate races across the country.
advertisement
