Ex-Director of Md. GOP Testified on Ties to Abramoff

By Matthew Mosk
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, December 22, 2005; Page B08

A former executive director of the Maryland Republican Party was brought before a U.S. Senate committee to testify about his ties to embattled lobbyist Jack Abramoff last month, making him the second local link to the unfolding scandal in Washington.

Christopher Cathcart, who served as the party's executive director for a year, was asked to testify Nov. 2 about his work for Michael Scanlon, Abramoff's former partner. Before working for the party, Cathcart was an assistant to Scanlon at the firm Capitol Campaign Strategies.


On Nov. 21, Scanlon pleaded guilty to conspiring to bribe a congressman and other public officials and agreed to pay back more than $19 million he fraudulently charged Indian tribal clients.

Cathcart left the state party in May to attend business school, said state GOP Chairman John Kane. Cathcart did not respond to an e-mail sent to his university account.

Kane said the Republican National Committee sent him Cathcart's name and those of two other candidates for the party job and that neither Scanlon nor Abramoff served as references. Kane said the young director was a consultant, never officially on the state party's payroll, but "did a good job. I'd hire him back."

His name has never surfaced as a Maryland link to the Abramoff affair, despite efforts by Maryland Democrats to find ties between the unfolding scandal and Republican Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., who served four terms in Congress.

Until now, that effort has focused on Ehrlich's deputy chief of staff, Edward B. Miller, who briefly owned a Silver Spring company named in disclosures about the federal investigation.

Miller's attorney said his client had not engaged in any wrongdoing.