Hey y'all! I'm Greg from Carter for Nevada, a middlin' long-term Kostar (BiPM's term) giving up my pseudonym for campaign work; today I'm asking for your research help. If you don't know why a major U.S. Senate campaign is asking for research help from regular people here, check out
my first diary and others on my page. (Hint: it's because so many people here are smart, energetic, and informed.)
I know that some of you are Abramoff scholars and love frolicking in both Abramoff e-mails and records of what the Senate was voting on at any given time. So I just looked at John Ensign's donors list and found -- no surprise here -- three donations from Jack Abramoff. (Thanks to the Kostar who compiled the FEC data, who may identify him/herself if they'd like.) Now I'd like to go the next step, after the jump.
Jack Abramoff is listed as having given three donations to Sen. John Ensign in a brief period of time. A $1000 contribution on Feb. 6, 2003, and then both a $1000 and a $2000 contribution on March 14, 2003. (Why didn't he just write one check for $3000? I don't know; he's a smart guy, he must have had some reason. Maybe a limit on contributions that he very cleverly circumvented? Maybe he was down to his last two checks in the book and wanted to use one up? Anyone want to try to figure that one out?) I don't know if Sen. Ensign has given back these contributions, and I don't much care: if (and let me stress
if) there was a quid pro quo, giving back the quid doesn't get the country back the quo. (Actually, if someone's interested in looking into whether he gave back those contributions too, take it away. I will need references for everything, of course.)
Now, what I'd love to know from all of you people who are so well-versed in Abramoffiana is this: what was the Senate, or any committee or subcommittee on which Sen. Ensign served at the time, voting on in early February, mid-March, or around that time that would have prompted Jack Abramoff to dump all this money in Sen. John Ensign's lap? You can e-mail me your findings (again, ideally with URLs so everyone can check what you've done and fully enjoy your contribution) at greg@carterfornevada.com, or you can just post them here. If you do the latter, maybe we'll have some nice cross-pollenization of ideas among people.
Thank you in advance for your research assistance, or just for cheering on those who are willing to spend a little time trying to figure out the connection between John Ensign and Jack Abramoff -- and what it cost us all. I'm really curious, and I'm sure that the people of Nevada will be very interested in what we find.
This is the first of what might be many of these diaries asking for specific research help, and there are others projects (research and otherwise) going on with various Kostars behind the scenes. If you'd like to be part of these efforts -- if you're fluent in statistics or in Spanish, if you have creative campaign ideas, etc. -- please feel free to write me at greg@carterfornevada.com and we'll put you to work. I start full-time with the campaign on Monday, so those of you who have written me before can expect some e-mails soon. Thanks -- and we'll be talking more soon!