December 31, 2008 07:04 PM UTC

2008 Top Ten #3: The Schaffer/Abramoff Disaster

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• by: Colorado Pols

Then-Rep. Bob Schaffer parasails off the Northern Mariana Islands

Photo credit: CSU Library

Democrats and their allies went into 2008 with a thick notebook of opposition research against GOP Senate candidate Bob Schaffer.

One of the chief sources of this wealth of damaging information was Schaffer’s own congressional archives, donated to the CSU Library after he left Congress in 2002. Teams of researchers made regular trips to Fort Collins in mid to late 2007, compiling a detailed record of everything unsavory Schaffer had ever been party to in Congress–from efforts to kill environmental protections at drilling sites to his unusual interest in labor and immigration policies in a small Pacific Ocean U.S. territory.

As our astute readers know, timing is everything in politics. Democratic strategists had determined well before this year began that Schaffer’s connections to convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff and human rights abuses in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands would be one of the most devastating attacks on his character available. The question became one of delivery: how best to introduce Colorado voters to this horrifying narrative? It’s so bad that if not presented the right way, people might have trouble believing it.

Fortunately for Democrats, the all-important matter of timing was settled by Bob Schaffer himself, as the Denver Post reported in early April:

He pointed to the Northern Mariana Islands, a U.S. protectorate that imports tens of thousands of foreign textile workers, as a successful model for a guest-worker program that could be adapted nationally.

“The concept of prequalifying foreign workers in their home country under private- sector management is a system that works very well in one place in America,” he said of the islands’ program…

It’s difficult to describe the experience of reading those words, with thoughts instantly turning to the volume of information about Schaffer’s trip to Saipan, paid for by a “nonprofit” later identified as a principal Abramoff front group. The subsequent hearings in Congress where Schaffer bullied and disrupted the testimony of labor rights activists. The long and copiously-documented history of immigrant worker abuses, up to and including mandatory abortions for textile workers, flying in the face of Schaffer’s assessment of these practices as a “model.” It was absolutely stunning, and all questions about when or how to use the Abramoff scandal against Schaffer were instantly settled. As we expressed:

We can’t believe he brought up the Northern Marianas experience with immigrant labor as a good thing. Seriously, we’re floored by this. You may not understand exactly what we’re talking about yet, but by the time Democrats get through reminding you of the whole sordid story featuring Jack Abramoff, Tom DeLay, and forced abortions (you read that correctly) you will–everybody will.

Three days later, the first in a series of devastating articles about Schaffer’s dealings with the CNMI and Abramoff by Denver Post reporter Michael Riley hit newsstands.

A class-action lawsuit filed the year Schaffer toured the islands alleged that many of those workers lived in slum conditions, housed seven to a room in barracks surrounded by barbed wire designed to keep the workers in. Workers in some factories labored 12 hours a day, seven days a week, the suit alleged – without pay if they fell behind set quotas.

A U.S. Interior Department investigation found that pregnant workers were forced to get illegal abortions or lose their jobs. Some were recruited for factories but forced into the sex trade instead…

Over the next few days, Riley revealed details about Schaffer’s contributions from Saipan political and business leaders, and how Abramoff’s stated goal of stalling reform in the Mariana Islands was furthered with every appearance of coordination by Rep. Schaffer’s actions on the investigating committee. Within a couple of weeks, anti-abortion zealots were denouncing Schaffer for being “at least negligent” in investigating the situation. Schaffer’s regrettable answer to Colorado Right to Life might go down as the most hilarious quote of the 2008 elections:

I did not observe a forced abortion…

There remains debate about how many swing votes the Schaffer/Abramoff debacle actually peeled off, how well the story was disseminated by the campaign and external groups to low-information voters, etc. But one thing is certain: in the battle for establishing one’s brand as a candidate, this scandal put the Schaffer campaign on a defensive footing that they were never really able to recover from–a little cheap trickery notwithstanding. Though other Schaffer scandals were waiting in the wings, Schaffer/Abramoff marked, as clearly as any single event could, the beginning of the end.