When Republican Senate candidate Bob Schaffer freely offered earlier this week that the Northern Mariana Islands, notorious for human rights abuses and sweatshops, were a great model for a nationwide guest worker program, it seemed to be coming out of the blue. But a look at Schaffer's time in the House (where he represented Colorado's 4th District from 1997 through 2003) shows that he was one of the most reliable allies for the islands, which were represented for most of that time by lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

The Denver Post reported today on a trip Schaffer took to the islands in August of 1999. The trip was nominally funded by the Traditional Values Coalition, though like all the other junkets to the islands, it was really organized by Abramoff.

Schaffer's spokesman Dick Wadhams told the paper that Schaffer has never met Abramoff or spoken to Abramoff. But Schaffer was a remarkable ally for the islands nonetheless, especially for a lawmaker from Colorado. My call to the Schaffer campaign this afternoon was not returned.

In October of 1999, for instance, Schaffer wrote a letter to Ben Fitial praising him and endorsing him for election into the commonwealth's legislature. The letter, written on Congressional letterhead, was published in the islands' newspaper The Saipan Tribune alongside two other endorsements from Reps. John Doolittle (R-CA) and Don Young (R-AK) four days before the election. You can see those here. Doolittle is under investigation for his ties to Abramoff, and one of Young's former aides on the House transportation committee has pleaded guilty to taking bribes from Abramoff.

As has been reported, Fitial's election was crucial for Abramoff, who had recently lost the lobbying contract for the islands. After Fitial was elected, Abramoff sent two associates of then-Rep. Tom DeLay (R-TX) to the islands in order to make sure that Fitial was elected Speaker. The Los Angeles Times reported in 2005 that Delay aide Michael Scanlon (who's since pleaded guilty as part of the Abramoff investigation) and former Delay aide-turned-lobbyist Ed Buckham (who remains under investigation for his ties to Abramoff) were able to convince two legislators to switch their votes to Fitial with promises of federal appropriations. Fitial subsequently led the effort to reinstate the contract with Abramoff.

Fitial had previously been vice president of Tan Holdings Group, the company that operated a number of garment plants on the Marianas. Two members of the Tan family contributed $1,000 each to Schaffer's campaign in 1997. Jack Abramoff himself never contributed to Schaffer's campaign.

Schaffer's relationship with Fitial spanned years. When a delegation from the Marianas visited Washington in April of 2000, Schaffer was among the small group of lawmakers to meet with them. In April of the following year, Fitial again met with Schaffer and announced that Schaffer had agreed to introduce legislation that would provide the islands with a nonvoting delegate. On May 23rd of that year, Schaffer followed through and cosponsored such a bill.

In August of 2001, Schaffer again publicly supported Fitial, this time in his run for governor, "because Ben is just that kind of leader who understands that the CNMI's most important investment is in today's youth."

In October of 2001, in the midst of Fitial's campaign for governor, he announced that he'd spoken to "my friend Cong. Bob Schaffer over the phone," and that Schaffer had promised that federal emergency funds were on the way to help the islands, which he said were hurting after the 9/11 attacks. Fitial went on to explain why he was such an advocate for keeping Abramoff on as a lobbyist, despite the cost to the islands: "With $300,000 for a lobbyist, we can retain $38 million. We need the services of a lobbyist, it's like an insurance."