Reed regrets work for lobbyist | ajc.com

Candidate says Abramoff work was a mistake
Jim Galloway - Staff
Friday, December 16, 2005

Ralph Reed, the political strategist and candidate for lieutenant governor, said recently that his work for disgraced Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff was a mistake that --- if given the chance --- he wouldn't repeat.

"Had I known then what I know now, I would not have undertaken that work," Reed said, according to the text of a speech posted on his campaign Web site this week.

Campaign manager Jared Thomas said Reed, a Republican and former Christian Coalition leader, made the speech last Friday before a Christian youth group at a home in Alpharetta.

The teenagers were members of TeenPact, a group that introduces Christian teens to government and politics, often through internships.

Reed's remarks, posted at www.ralphreed.com under "speeches," are his most extensive yet on his relationship with Abramoff --- whom Reed did not name.

In his speech, Reed predicted his work for the lobbyist would become fodder for next year's election campaign. Two rivals, Republican Casey Cagle and Democrat Greg Hecht, have already established Web sites focusing on Reed's ties to Abramoff, a long-time friend now the subject of several federal investigations.

But Reed's remarks to the youth group may also be a reaction to rising Christian concerns about his connections to the Abramoff scandal.

Last month, the evangelical weekly World, with a national circulation of 140,000, published a critical piece about Reed that portrayed the former head of the Christian Coalition as a "shrewd businessman who has spent years leveraging his evangelical and conservative contacts."

For three years, Reed conducted anti-gambling campaigns in Texas, Louisiana and Alabama, on behalf of Abramoff. Two of Abramoff's tribal clients, eager to preserve their casino markets, funneled Reed more than $5 million toward his efforts.

"In 1999 I was building my small business, Century Strategies," Reed said in the speech.

"A friend of almost 20 years, then working at one of the most prestigious law firms in the nation, came to me and offered the opportunity to serve as a grassroots subcontractor to the firm."

"I knew the law firm had tribal clients who had their own reasons for opposing new casinos. I was assured by the law firm at the outset of the work that the funds contributed to our efforts would not derive from gambling activity," Reed said.

The speech does not address the fact that in several e-mails between Reed and Abramoff, made public by the U.S. Senate Indian Affairs Committee, the tribal sources of some of the money were discussed. Reed never disclosed the origin of the cash to his religious allies.

Reed pointed to the good he said his work had accomplished: "We will never know how many marriages and lives were saved, or how many children were spared the consequences of compulsive gambling."

But the fact that his campaigns were secretly fueled with gambling funds has raised the ire of many religious groups, which Reed said he regrets.

"I cannot change the past, but I can certainly learn from it," Reed said. "I am a better man and a better leader as a result."

A spokesman for Cagle, Reed's Republican rival, said more penance is required.

"If Ralph is serious about accepting responsibility for his choices, then he'll return the multi-million dollar fee he secretly received from the gambling industry," said Cagle spokesman Brad Alexander.