Face The State Fact Check
FTS' Brad Jones discusses this story
on 1310 KFKA's "Amy Oliver Show" [Streaming Audio]
A Face The State Fact Check has revealed that U.S. Senate candidate and Rep. Mark Udall, D-Eldorado Springs, accepted campaign contributions from jailed lobbyist Jack Abramoff – contributions that correspond to Udall’s change in position on Internet gambling legislation.
Abramoff's lobbying firm, Preston-Gates, gave Udall $500 for his reelection campaign in 2000. Then Udall voted against a resolution that would restrict Internet gambling, a measure which Abramoff lobbied heavily to kill.
This correlation is seen a second time when Abramoff’s new lobbying firm, Greenberg Traurig, gave Udall $1,000 for his reelection in 2002. Again, Udall voted against a resolution that would inhibit Internet gambling.
A shift can be seen in 2006 when Udall didn’t receive any further Abramoff-related contributions because the lobbyist had been jailed for fraud and corruption. Udall’s position on Internet gambling restrictions changes when he votes to support prohibitive legislation.
According to Taylor West, Udall’s communications director, “At no time was there any indication that these two contributions were connected to Jack Abramoff’s operations.” West says that Udall will be donating that $1,500 to Karidat, a Saipan-based nonprofit organization that helps victims of human trafficking.
This revelation comes on the heels of a series of Denver Post articles that attacked Udall’s rival for Senate, Republican candidate Bob Schaffer, for his loose ties to the disgraced lobbyist.
Dick Wadhams, Schaffer’s campaign manager, called the Denver Post stories “insidious innuendo” that failed to provide any real connection. Wadhams says that Schaffer spent two hours on the phone with a Denver Post reporter, yet very little of what he told them was used in the story.
“Bob Schaffer has never meet Jack Abramoff and never been involved with him,” said Wadhams.
Typical liberal insanity...
On April 18th, 2008 Maximonious says:
Hypocrisy... that's all the libs know... that's the insanity of it...
They don't know right from wrong...
How can anyone from Eldorado Springs... living in some sort of mansion... one who has always had the silver spoon life... have any sort of opinions based in reality????????
Watching
On April 17th, 2008 cologeek says:
the lefties on other sites spinning this as "no big deal" is pretty funny. They have had such a hard-on about the Schaffer/Abramoff story line that they can't back out on it now. They have painted anyone who's associated with Abramoff at the remotest connections as the worst kind of person. And now there is St. Mark the Pure, right in there with all the other sinners.
Your Udahl fact check
On April 17th, 2008 goldenassess@ho... says:
Congratulations. I plan to blog about this later tonight. I look forward to meeting you Saturday.