http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/10/03/politics/main2059264.shtmlAP) Republicans in tight re-election contests were unloading contributions they received over the years from Mark Foley, the former congressman ensnared in an e-mail sex scandal.
But the National Republican Congressional Committee, which has received $550,000 from Foley since 1996, will keep its money, committee spokesman Carl Forti said.
"We will be using the money like every other contribution — to help elect Republicans across the country," Forti said.
In Buffalo, N.Y., the Republican chairman of the committee, Tom Reynolds, dismissed the notion that the committee give up or donate the $100,000 it received from Foley last summer. He spoke at a news conference in which he also defended himself against suggestions that he didn't act appropriately when he learned of Foley's contact with a Louisiana teenager.
"It's astounding to me as a parent or a grandparent that anyone would insinuate that I would seek to cover up inappropriate conduct between an adult and a child,"
Reynolds said, flanked by about 30 children and as many parents.Among Republicans disposing of Foley money were Virginia Sen. George Allen, who plans to give the $2,000 his campaign received to a charitable cause, and Rep. Heather Wilson of New Mexico, who plans to give away $8,000 she received between 1998 and 2002. Rep. Clay Shaw, R-Fla., already donated $2,000 to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, and Rep. Nancy Johnson, R-Conn., returned $1,000 she had received from Foley's political action committee.
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