Filed under: 2008 Election, Conservatives, Corruption, Government, Scandal, Senate | Tags: Al Franken, Alaska, Corruption, Culture of Corruption, Elizabeth Dole, Gordon Smith, John Cornyn, John McCain, John Sununu, Mitch McConnell, Norm Coleman, Roger Wicker, Scandal, Shame, Susan Collins, Ted Stevens
Republicans who have returned Ted Stevens’ dirty money: Dole (NC), Coleman (MN), Sununu (NH), Smith (OR) and McCain (AZ).
Republicans who have kept Ted Stevens’ dirty money: Cornyn (TX), Collins (ME), McConnell (KY), Wicker (MS) and the NRSC.
Recently, I wrote about Republican Senator Elizabeth Dole (NC) returning $10,000 in contributions from indicted Republican Senator Ted Stevens.
On the heels of that, Republican Senators Gordon Smith (OR) and John Sununu (NH) have both announced that their campaigns are also dumping Stevens’ contributions.
Shortly after Democratic Senatorial candidate Al Franken ran a radio ad hitting him for taking Stevens’ money, Republican Senator Norm Coleman (MN) also agreed to give away $10,000 of Ted Stevens’ money.
On the other hand, Republicans John Cornyn (TX), Susan Collins (ME), Mitch McConnell (KY), Roger Wicker (MS) and John McCain have refused to give up Ted Stevens’ dirty money.
This begs the question, will these candidates campaign using tainted money? Are they so comfortable with corruption that they’ll keep tens of thousands of dollars from an indicted sitting Senator in their wallets?
It’s just sad to see that the Republican culture of corruption is still alive and well.
UPDATE: After two days, John McCain decides to return Ted Stevens’ tainted money:
The McCain campaign will be donating the $5,000 contribution it received in April from Ted Stevens’ Northern Light PAC to charity.
The graphic above has been updated to reflect this development.
UPDATE II: It turns out the National Republican Senatorial Committee has quite a bit of Stevens’ money in their coffers:
[T]he NRSC is sitting on around $725,000 in Ted Stevens money since 2000! Republican Senators are dumping Stevens contributions left and right. Meanwhile, the NRSC has almost three-quarters of a million bucks in their coffers courtesy of the indicted Ted Stevens and they seem to be sitting tight.
The NRSC has been added to the graphic above to reflect this development. The question is, will they keep Ted Stevens’ tainted contributions? And just how many Republican Senators will benefit from his dirty money?
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[...] addition, the NRSC is on this list for taking nearly a million dollars of Stevens’ tainted contributions since [...]
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