Foley Scandal Resonates in Close Congressional Campaigns

By Silla Brush

Posted 10/4/06

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.

Florida 22: Rep. Clay Shaw vs. state Sen. Ron Klein

The Foley fallout is sending shockwaves through Florida politics. Rep. Clay Shaw, who's fighting to keep his seat in one of the tightest and costliest re-election campaigns in the country, is now at risk because of his former colleague's online behavior.

The two have been closely tied in politics since Foley entered the House during the 1994 Republican Revolution. Socially conservative Republicans with high ratings from the American Conservative Union, Foley and Shaw represented neighboring districts that share swaths of Florida's eastern Gold Coast. When Shaw faced his strongest challenge to date, in 2000, Foley's camp donated $1,000 to Shaw. And after Shaw's narrow victory, Republicans redistricted portions of Foley's safely Republican 16th District into Shaw's 22nd District, which allowed Shaw to enjoy smooth victories in 2002 and 2004.

Before Foley's resignation last week, they both sat on the House Ways and Means Committee; they also own homes in Washington just a few doors apart. Former Florida Rep. Porter Goss also owned a nearby home, earning the street the nickname "Florida Row." When Shaw battled lung cancer in 2003, Foley told the Sun-Sentinel newspaper that Shaw was "a dear friend of mine" and a "close colleague." But the two have had their disagreements as well. Amid the reapportionment of Florida's districts – necessitated, in part, by Shaw's own turf becoming increasingly Democratic – the two entered a territorial spat that resulted in Foley's threatening to run against Shaw if necessary. They eventually divided heavily Republican Palm Beach County. Foley was willing to compromise because "Florida benefits from [Shaw's] seniority," he said. "To make things a little better for him, I was willing to sacrifice some of my personal agenda." And they seem to have smoothed out their differences: Foley's leadership political action committee gave another $1,000 to Shaw in March for his re-election campaign.

After last week's revelations, Shaw distanced himself from Foley. Gail Gitcho, a spokesperson for Shaw, said, "They're neighboring congressmen; that's it." Shaw's office quickly released a statement condemning Foley and supporting a full investigation.

Nevertheless, Democrats are betting that the Foley scandal will depress Republican turnout in a state that has become a bitter battleground for the two parties.

"This story has a net negative effect on Republicans running for office right now," says Brian Smoot, who is steering the campaign of Shaw's challenger, state Sen. Ron Klein. Smoot won't say whether he thinks Klein will see a boost because of Foley, but he does attempt to tie Shaw to Republican leaders, some of whom received early indications that Foley's behavior was questionable.

"It seems to me it was a problem that House leadership perpetuated," Smoot says. "[Shaw] likes to tout that he is [House leadership]" – a reference to Shaw's frequent suggestion that he is likely to ascend to chair of the House Ways and Means Committee if Republicans retain the majority. Shaw has not been implicated in any of the media accounts as having any prior knowledge of Foley's E-mails to congressional pages. Gitcho says Shaw learned of the scandal "when the story broke, like everybody else."

Pennsylvania 6: Rep. Jim Gerlach vs. Lois Murphy

Republican Rep. Jim Gerlach donated the $1,000 he received from Foley's leadership political action committee to Crime Victims Center of Chester County and also canceled a fundraiser with Boehner this week.

"This kind of action deserves a zero-tolerance policy," said Gerlach spokesman John Gentzel. Opponent Lois Murphy used the situation to call on Gerlach to return campaign contributions former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay had made.

Montana Senate: Sen. Conrad Burns vs. Jon Tester

The Burns campaign has been silent about the Foley scandal, but Montana Democrats have been on the attack. Tester spokesman Matt McKenna says, "Burns was working hand in hand with known predator Mark Foley long after Republican leaders were made aware of his behavior. Montanans deserve to know what Burns knew and when he knew it about Mr. Foley's relationship with the young page."

And the Montana Democratic Party is calling attention to Burns and Foley having worked together on Internet safety legislation that took aim at sexual predators online. Burns sponsored the Senate version of Foley's House bill. The state Democratic Party is highlighting a photo still (from CNN B-roll footage from 2004) that shows Burns and Foley in front of a banner that reads, "Making the Web a Safer Place for Children."

In a story in the Great Falls Tribune, Burns spokesman Jason Klindt did not dispute the senator's earlier cooperation with Foley but noted: "Conrad's been working to stop people like Mark Foley."

West Virginia 1: Rep. Alan Mollohan vs. Chris Wakim

Nick Casey, chairman of the West Virginia State Democratic Executive Committee, is calling for Chris Wakim to return $15,000 in campaign donations he received from Hastert and Boehner.

Both Hastert and Boehner have come to West Virginia in recent months to stump for Wakim.

"For weeks, West Virginians have been subjected to hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth of smears distorting Alan Mollohan's record funded by Chris Wakim's friends in Texas and California," says Casey. "Now we learn that it is the Republican Party that chose to look the other way when one of its own congressmen was sending inappropriate E-mails to a 16-year-old congressional page."

Gerry Griffith, campaign manager for Mollohan, adds: "The irony is that Boehner and Hastert give big donations to finance that kind of nasty effort [against Mollohan] at the same time they remain silent over Mr. Foley's problems." When asked to comment on this, the campaign to elect Wakim said: "The attorney general has opened an investigation into what Mark Foley did and anyone involved should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law."

The Wakim campaign also argues that Mollohan voted against authorizing $2 million for task forces to investigate Internet crimes against children as well as other measures to protect children from sexual predators.

"Alan Mollohan needs to take a long, hard look in the mirror before he starts throwing stones on this matter," says Will Holley, spokesman for the Wakim campaign. The Mollohan campaign says this is again just smear tactics. Griffith didn't know the details of Mollohan's vote against the legislation. But he said Mollohan has a long history of supporting measures to protect children, including his securing a federal grant for the Justice Department to create the Amber View program, a database used to identify people who have been kidnapped.

Ohio Senate: Sen. Mike DeWine vs. Rep. Sherrod Brown

Asked about the fallout from the Foley scandal, Democratic Rep. Sherrod Brown's Senate campaign spokeswoman Joanna Kuebler says, "It's huge in Ohio–it's huge everywhere." Brown's campaign points out that the scandal may be especially potent in Ohio because the state is home to Boehner, who along with others in the House Republican leadership has come under fire for not acting earlier to address the E-mails from Foley to a former page.

"It seems to [fit] into a theme of Republicans protecting their own," says Kuebler. "Nancy Pelosi and the Democrat on the page committee were kept out of the loop. Boehner is a colleague of [Sen. Mike] DeWine, and it seems like time and again, Republicans from Ohio care more about electing Republicans in Washington than about Ohioans."

The issue surfaced in a Meet the Press debate on Sunday between DeWine and Brown, when host Tim Russert pressed the senator on whether House Republican leaders should resign over the Foley scandal. DeWine declined to call for resignations, saying, "I think you have to look and see what they knew and what they did about it. I would want to know what they did about it. And, you know, this is reprehensible. This is horrible, horrible."

When DeWine had finished his response, Brown pounced, going further than he had in answering an earlier question about what should be done in response to the Foley scandal.

"I think anyone should resign," Brown said. "Any leader that knew about this should resign, absolutely.

Connecticut 4: Rep. Christopher Shays vs. Dianne Farrell

Rep. Christopher Shays, a Republican moderate in a close congressional race, has called for the resignation of any congressional leader who had previously been aware of Foley's conduct. Democratic challenger Dianne Farrell, making no mention of Shays, used the Foley incident as an opportunity to call for a change in House leadership – one of her consistent campaign themes.

"This leadership, which has been so terribly wrong on so many policies," she said, "now seems willing to cover up events to protect its members."

It doesn't yet appear that the Foley scandal will have much effect in Connecticut's Fourth Congressional District, where a poll released this week shows Shays leading Farrell among likely voters by 4 percentage points.

Privately, Farrell campaign advisers say they don't want to make political hay out of a situation in which children appear to be victims. But with the new poll also showing 16 percent of district voters still undecided, the Foley scandal still expanding, and Farrell and Shays heading into a marathon of 11 debates in 15 days, expect the challenger to continue her strategy of aggressively linking Shays with the Republican leadership.

Illinois 1: David McSweeney vs. Rep. Melissa Bean

Illinois Republican David McSweeney suggested scrapping the congressional page program, citing Foley's lurid electronic messages with former pages along with other scandals in the past.

"Congress has obviously done a very poor job [of] maintaining oversight of this program, and it's time to eliminate it," McSweeney told U.S. News. "I don't want to put anyone else at risk."

McSweeney first made the suggestion in an informal debate Monday for the editorial board of the Chicago Tribune, where he also defended Republican House leaders as "men of integrity" and praised their push to have the Justice Department investigate Foley.

Democratic Rep. Melissa Bean disagrees that the program should be ended and instead blames GOP House leaders for the scandal.

"We need leadership that will not tolerate at any level a lack of oversight and protection for children," Bean said at the newspaper debate.

New Mexico 1: Patricia Madrid vs. Rep. Heather Wilson

Democratic Attorney General Patricia Madrid has continued hammering New Mexico Republican Rep. Heather Wilson over the Foley scandal, even after Wilson promised to donate any campaign contributions from Foley to charity.

Madrid's campaign was quick to pounce on donations made to Wilson by Foley's leadership political action committee, saying that Wilson "still had not returned" the donations. Within a few hours this weekend, Wilson became the first Republican to announce plans to donate the contributions, which she had received during previous congressional races between 1998 and 2002.

Madrid's campaign has accused Wilson of not doing enough to protect congressional pages from sexual advances when she served on the House Page Board from 2001 to 2004. During that time, according to news reports, pages were warned not to get too close to Foley.

"I don't know what she knew or didn't know, but she didn't do her job," Madrid told the Albuquerque Tribune. Wilson's campaign has maintained that the congresswoman was not aware of Foley's E-mail exchanges until last Friday, when she called for a criminal investigation into his behavior.

"Madrid's charges go well over the top and don't have any credibility, and she should be ashamed of herself [for] even suggesting such a malicious thing," Wilson spokesman Enrique Knell said.

With Will Sullivan, Liz Halloran, Bret Schulte, Danielle Knight, Dan Gilgoff, and Elizabeth Weiss Green

Politics

Foley Scandal Resonates in Close Congressional Campaigns