WASHINGTON — House Republicans, fearing a voter backlash over the influence-peddling and campaign finance investigations that knocked Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Texas) from his leadership post, are hoping that whomever they choose as a replacement will help distance them from the scandals.
But they are running into a problem. The people competing to succeed DeLay have links to some of the same lobbyists and fundraising machinery that have put him, and the Republican Party, in political peril.
Anxiety over the scandals -- which center around a federal investigation of former lobbyist Jack Abramoff and his ties to lawmakers and some of their senior staffers -- has turned what is usually an insular race for the post of House majority leader into something much more: a test of how far Republicans are willing to go in clamping down on the lobbying and fundraising practices that have helped the party maintain its dominant position in Washington.
The leading candidate, Rep. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), has strong ties to some of corporate America's most powerful lobbyists and is married to a lobbyist for the parent company of Philip Morris USA and Kraft Foods Inc. His political action committee received $8,500 from Abramoff and his wife, although Blunt announced this month that he would donate that amount to charity.
Blunt's leading rival, Rep. John A. Boehner (R-Ohio), played a key role in the party's effort to build stronger ties to the business and lobbying community.
On Friday, a third candidate entered the race, positioning himself as free of the lobbying ties that are so identified with Blunt and Boehner. "I believe that we need a clean break from the scandals of the recent past," Rep. John Shadegg (R-Ariz.) said in announcing his intention to vie for the leadership post.
But Shadegg, a fiscal conservative, has his own ties to clients and associates of Abramoff, who pleaded guilty this month to federal charges of fraud, tax evasion and conspiracy to bribe public officials. Abramoff has agreed to cooperate with a Justice Department investigation into his ties to lawmakers and staffers, raising fears in Congress that more Capitol Hill figures could face charges.
The day before Shadegg entered the race, the Arizona Republic revealed that in December, he had given back or donated to charity more than $6,900 in campaign contributions from Abramoff's clients and associates; one of the contributions, the newspaper said, had been undisclosed for five years -- in violation of federal campaign finance rules.
