A former chief of staff to embattled House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) has been lobbying Congress on behalf of the National Indian Gaming Association, according to Dotty Lynch of CBS News.
Susan Hirschmann [Bio] joined the firm of Williams & Jensen as a partner in 2002. Before that, she worked for DeLay when he was Majority Whip.
As a top DeLay staffer, she went on an overseas trip to London and Scotland in 2000 that was arranged by disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff. The Washington Post reported that the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians partly funded the trip with a $50,000 donation to a conservative group. In a story where Hirschmann was a quoted source, The Post later reported that Abramoff used his credit card to buy airline tickets for DeLay.
Hirschmann also has ties to Ralph Reed, the conservative Christian activist who took $4.1 million from Abramoff and Abramoff's partner Michael Scanlon but claims he had no idea the money came from the Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana, a gaming tribe. Reed says he is opposed to all forms of gambling.
Hirschmann was on the host committee for a Reed fundraiser in Washington, D.C., last week, Dotty Lynch says in her column. Reed is running for lieutenant governor of Georgia and says his connections to Abramoff and gaming won't hurt his campaign.
Reed opposed Sen. John McCain (R-Arizona) when he sought the Republican nomination for president in 2000. As chairman of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, McCain has since subpoenaed Reed's Century Strategies group and another GOP group.
According to Senate lobbying records [Image], Hirschmann represented NIGA in 2004 on an Internet tobacco bill that was opposed by tribes. Her firm was paid $80,000 that year.
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