Reynolds Knew, But Gave?

By Ben Smith
The Daily Politics
Oct. 01, 2006

When it rains in politics, it pours, and the Foley scandal is spilling quickly over onto the House Republican Leadership -- particularly Tom Reynolds, the Erie County-based chairman of the National Republican Campaign Committee who faces his own, serious, challenge from a protectionist maverick Democrat, Jack Davis.

Reynolds is now in something approaching open war with the Speaker of the House amid recriminations over who know what when. (Josh Marshall has running, detailed, partisan-but-fair coverage.)

In that context, a reader emails a piece of information that strikes me as very bad news for Reynolds: He may have given Foley money after he was told of the allegations.

Reynolds's personal PAC, TOMPAC, wrote Foley a check for $5,000 on May 10, 2006. (You can see the filing here.)

According to the AP, Reynolds was told of the allegations against Foley "sometime this spring."

I put in a request to NRCC spokesman Carl Forti for a more precise date.

UPDATE: Also: On July 27, 2006, the NRCC, which Reynolds chairs, accepted an unusually large contribution of $100,000 from Foley. Hard to imagine something of that size just slipping past the chairman.

UPDATE UPDATE: It sure looks like Reynolds was aware of the issue by May.