Scrutinizing the Schaffer-Abramoff connection

The Denver Post today takes a look at Republican U.S. Senate candidate Bob Schaffer’s 1999 fact-finding trip to the Mariana Islands – a trip that was partly arranged by now-jailed lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who at the time was fighting congressional attempts to clean up the island’s labor practices.

“Nine years later, the trip has become a campaign issue: It has left Schaffer defending a guest- worker program criticized in more than a decade of government reports and journalistic exposés; and it links him to what Abramoff later boasted was an incredibly successful lobbying effort to quash reform by cashing in on ties to key House Republicans, including those on the House Resources Committee, on which Schaffer sat.”

Schaffer will face off against Democrat Mark Udall for the seat held by departing Republican Ken Allard.