By Andy Ostmeyer
aostmeyer@joplinglobe.com
Five months ago, the third-highest ranking Republican in the U.S. House gave U.S. Rep. Mark Foley nearly $5,000.
The contributions by U.S. Rep. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., were part of a nearly $48,000 blast of campaign money poured into Foley's re-election campaign by House Republicans through the summer - after some Republicans in Congress claim the two ranking House GOP leaders had been told of the problem that now has led to Foley's resignation.
Blunt, the House majority whip and one of the most lucrative fund-raisers in Congress, had no knowledge about Foley's alleged inappropriate messages with former congressional pages, or that other Republicans in the House knew about them, according to his spokeswoman.
Burson Taylor Snyder, communications director for Blunt, said the Southwest Missouri congressman learned of allegations that Foley sent suggestive e-mails, and later more graphic instant messages, to a 16-year-old male page only after the story became public last week. Foley, who was co-chairman of the House Caucus on Missing and Exploited Children, resigned Friday.
"He had no prior knowledge," Taylor Snyder said of Blunt. "He was not involved in any of the conversations (that took place before the news became public) with respect to the Foley matter."
Blunt contributions
House Speaker Dennis Hastert and House Majority Leader John Boehner, who beat Blunt for that position in February, have not said when they specifically learned of the allegations.
Hastert said Monday that he was not aware there had been a complaint against Foley until the news broke last week, but that his staff knew about the problem last fall.
But Boehner and U.S. Rep. Thomas Reynolds, R-N.Y., said they spoke with Hastert this past spring about the problem after learning about it from U.S. Rep. Rodney Alexander, R-La., who learned of Foley's messages from the page's parents nearly a year ago.
Reynolds is head of the House Republican election effort.
Whether Hastert or Boehner knew about the matter before April 28 is not clear.
That's when Blunt's Rely on Your Beliefs political action committee gave Foley two contributions totaling $4,999.
In all, Foley, who previously had collected only $5,000 from Republican leadership PACs in September 2005, received $42,999 in 13 donations from 11 GOP leadership PACs between April 19 and June 29. Reynolds' PAC, Together for Our Majority, gave Foley $5,000 on May 10.
The figures come from the Federal Election Commission and are contained in a database run by a nonpartisan Washington group, the Center for Responsive Politics.
According to the database, neither Hastert's nor Boehner's leadership PAC - Keep Our Majority and Freedom Project, respectively - ever gave money to Foley.
Blunt's PAC, on the other hand, gave $2,384 to Foley in the 2004 election cycle and $2,090 in the 2002 election cycle, for a total of $9,473 in the past three elections.
'Part of his role'
Blunt is one of the most prolific fund-raisers in Congress, with his political action committee giving away $791,511 for the 2006 election so far. Only two of 249 leadership PACs in the House and Senate for both parties reported making larger contributions for the 2006 election.
Taylor Snyder said giving away money to help keep his party in power is part of Blunt's job as majority whip, and that he has given to many candidates.
"That's part of his role as majority whip, to help his colleagues get re-elected," she said.
In fact, Blunt also has given money this year to U.S. Rep. Christopher Shays, R-Conn., who is calling for an investigation of the House Republican leadership. Shays has said that if House leaders knew, or should have known, about the problem with Foley, they should resign their leadership posts.
Others also are calling for resignations, including The Washington Times, which has a conservative editorial voice. Hastert has dismissed the call for his resignation.
Democrats have criticized Hastert and other Republicans, referring to the handling of the affair as a cover-up to protect their congressional power.
Questions left with Hastert's office Tuesday about whether Blunt was told about Foley before the news went public, and whether some Republicans were kept in the dark in order to keep money flowing into Foley's campaign, were not returned.
For his part, Blunt believes Hastert has been a strong and effective leader, said Taylor Snyder.
"He supports him," she said.
Last week, Hastert, Boehner and Blunt issued a joint statement saying, "The improper communications between Congressman Mark Foley and former House congressional pages is unacceptable and abhorrent. It is an obscene breach of trust."
"I can't say enough about how upset Congressman Blunt is," Taylor Snyder said.
'Red flags'
Douglas Brooks, of Joplin, a member of the Democratic National Committee, said that what Blunt knew might depend on how much a part of the leadership he remains after his defeat in February in the race for House majority leader.
"I think that what this shows is the hypocrisy of the Republican leadership and not just the congressman," Brooks said Tuesday.
He said Republicans have courted the religious right on social issues, including gay rights, but it now appears that they looked the other way when one of their own was involved.
"If family values, as they state it, are so important to them, they should be outraged on the part of the leadership," Brooks said.
Yet, he noted, nothing was done.
"Nobody acted on those red flags," he said.
Andy Ostmeyer is the assistant metro editor for The Joplin Globe
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Another contribution
In 2004, Friends of Mark Foley gave Matt Blunt, son of Roy Blunt, $1,000 in his successful bid to be the next governor of Missouri. Matt Blunt gave that money on Monday to Boys and Girls Town of Missouri.
Sources: The Institute on Money in State Politics; Missouri Gov. Matt Blunt's office
