Utah Congressman Chris Cannon lost it on Friday when his democratic opponent mentioned Jack Abramoff and Cannon's ethics problems during a
telephone debate on Friday.
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For those of you who don’t know, David Safavian was Cannon’s Chief of staff in 2001.
Granted Safavian has done some bad things, and Cannon has been in the top of the top five most corrupt to watch, but Safavian worked for Cannon before he did the bad things we know about.
Meanwhile we’ve go the best (Mormon) candidate one could ask for in Christian Burridge who against all odds is doing quite well.
If anyone has some serious dirt on Cannon, now would be the time to let us know.
Brief summary below the fold.
Here what we do know:
In September, the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington released its 2006 edition of its Most Corrupt Members of Congress Report. Although Cannon did not crack the top twenty, he was listed as "one to watch," and given a dishonorable mention by the media. But his ascension amongst the ranks of corrupt Congress members is not just attributed to having done political favors for his brother. Cannon is also one of the many legislators who have found themselves in the dark penumbra of the Jack Abramoff scandal. In 2001, Cannon hired David Safavian, a lobbyist and lawyer at Preston, Gates & Ellis, as his new chief of staff.
Safavian left Preston, Gates & Ellis along with his mentor, Jack Abramoff, to co-found lobbying firm Janus Merritt with Abramoff's college roommate and noted conservative Grover Norquist. At Janus, Safavian represented a number of Internet gambling firms, handling over $2.5 million dollars in gambling accounts. He later quit the firm, however, to take the job with Cannon. The same month, another Abramoff crony, Neil Volz, went to work as Republican Representative Bob Ney of Ohio's chief of staff.
Since hiring Safavian in 2001, Cannon received more than $30,000 in political contributions from Indian tribes with casinos and lobbyists for Internet gambling companies, not to mention thousands of dollars from Abramoff himself. Additionally, Canon received more than $10,000 from Representative Tom DeLay's ARM PAC, to which Abramoff and his wife had personally contributed more than $40,000. Abramoff, Safavian, Volz, and Ney have each pleaded guilty to various criminal charges including bribery, corruption, and obstruction of justice, and DeLay is under indictment. According to Volz's testimony, the Abramoff team referred to Safavian as one of their "champions" inside government, who could give them insider information they couldn't get elsewhere.