Cong OH-14: LaTourette Returns Tribe Donation

The Cleveland Plain Dealer reports that the Mississippi Choctaws gave $1,000 to the re-election campaign of Steven LaTourette (R-Concord Township) on October 29, 2005, and LaTourette returned the money on December 27, 2005. This donation is too late to have been at the direct request of indicted Republican activist and lobbyist Jack Abramoff, but Abramoff's former associate Neil Volz (also former chief of staff to Bob Ney) might have been involved. The revelation of LaTourette's receipt and return of the Indian tribe's money comes a week after news that he wrote two letters to the Bush administration seeking a favor for another Abramoff client in 2002. LaTourette denies any quid pro quo in that affair.