Word: abramoff
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...word, it was Abramoff," says Emory University political scientist Alan Abramowitz. "This finishes Reed as a candidate for public office. He might be able to go back to working behind the scenes or in connection with some lobbying organization...
...this year's race for Georgia Lieutenant Governor, Reed's squeaky clean, boy-next-door image came back to haunt him. After he started out a year ago with a huge lead in both the polls and fundraising over his relatively unknown opponent, Reed's connection to the Jack Abramoff congressional lobbying scandal unmasked the candidate who built his career on the issue of values as one who apparently had his own questionable values. And so it was that Tuesday Reed lost both his party and his religious conservative base in a humbling Republican primary defeat, losing by nearly...
...voters punished Reed for the same kind of duplicitious political behavior he used to build campaigns against. As revelations from the Abramoff case slowly leaked out, it appeared that as a lobbyist and consultant, Reed had urged his base to fight tribal casino gambling and state lotteries with the help of $5 million from competing gaming interests in four southern states. "I would have voted for Reed, but it really bothered me that he took that money for casinos. I gave Cagle a chance," said Mike Craig, 46, a voter in Cobb County...
...shifting explanations didn't help his cause. Reed first denied he used gambling funds for his lobbying efforts, then stated he didn't know the source of the funds, then said had he known he would not have accepted them, which ran counter to e-mails between him and Abramoff released by the U.S. Senate's Indian Affairs Committee. Then a week before the election, a tribe in Texas filed a federal lawsuit alleging fraud against the pair. In TV ads Reed continued to blame the "liberal media," but for long stretches in the campaign he held no events...
...hung out to dry by his former friends. "I believe there's a real tight network with the Senators," said Stan Coates, 52, of Marietta in Cobb County, referring to the nearly two dozen GOP lawmakers who had publicly urged Reed to step down during the campaign. Referrring to Abramoff, he added: "To be guilty by association, people listen to those lies and hang onto them," said Coates...