All of Dengre's work has just paid off. The Albany Times Union just printed a big expose of Rep. John Sweeney being the salesman for Abramoff in 2001 on the Marianas.
Gillibrand is only 1 point behind, so this will really shake up the race and is great insurance for the Dems taking the House. Big news is that Tony Rudy himself flew with Sweeney to the Marianas to give his sales pitch for CNMI to pony up and hire a big DC lobbyist.
Sweeney trip in question
Visit to U.S. territory with Jack Abramoff associate possibly broke rules
By ELIZABETH BENJAMIN, Capitol bureau
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First published: Wednesday, October 18, 2006
ALBANY -- U.S. Rep. John Sweeney may have violated congressional ethics rules by failing to reveal who paid for a trip he took to a Pacific island with a lobbyist hired by convicted Washington influence peddler Jack Abramoff.
In January 2001, Sweeney traveled 8,000 miles to deliver a speech to the Saipan Chamber of Commerce in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, a U.S. territory infamous for its garment sweatshops and prostitution trade. He traveled with Tony Rudy, who had just left the staff of former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay to work for Abramoff.
The Saipan Chamber of Commerce says it paid for Sweeney's visit, but Sweeney never reported any privately funded travel as House rules require. Those rules prohibit lobbyist-paid travel.
Sweeney, a Clifton Park Republican, initially refused to answer questions for this story, speaking only through an aide. His deputy chief of staff, Melissa Carlson, said the congressman believed the Marianas government had paid for the trip.
Under House rules, U.S. government-paid travel, including travel financed by the island commonwealth, does not need to be disclosed. However, this week the Marianas government disputed Sweeney's assertion, saying it did not pay for the trip.
Tuesday, Sweeney said he will do whatever is necessary to comply with House ethics rules.
"It was our understanding that this was paid for by the Marianas government," the congressman said. "If it was based on misinformation that may have been given to us by a guy who's now an admitted felon, I will go to the Ethics Committee and ask what I should do."
Abramoff lobbied on and off for the Mariana Islands government from 1994 to early 2002, eventually earning more than $11 million.
Rudy, who met with Sweeney after the trip to lobby him on behalf of the territory, pleaded guilty in March to conspiracy charges connected to the cash laundering and political influence enterprise run by Abramoff.
Abramoff pleaded guilty in January to mail fraud, conspiracy and tax evasion charges. Both he and Rudy are cooperating with law enforcement officials in an ongoing investigation.
"If it indeed is true" that private money purchased his trip to the Pacific, Sweeney said, "I feel betrayed and misled."
http://www.timesunion.com/...