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Tangled Web Of Jobs, Money, Illicit Sex Links Ensign, Former Staffers
Since Sen. John Ensign confessed to an affair yesterday afternoon, a web of financial and professional ties linking Ensign to his girlfriend, Cynthia Hampton, and to her husband, Doug Hampton, has emerged.
Politico reports that the affair took place from December 2007 until May 2008. Cynthia Hampton was employed last year as the treasurer of Ensign's Senate reelection campaign. And in February, 2008, Ensign made her treasurer of his Battle Born Political Action Committee, when Christopher Ward, who had held the job, was ousted amid a fiscal scandal. The same day, Hampton also took over from Ward as treasurer of the Senate Majority Committee, a joint fundraising committee for six GOP senators, including Ensign, who faced reelection that year. This move, too, appears to have been instigated by Ensign. When Hampton left the campaign in May 2008, Ensign gave her a severance package of an unknown amount.
But it's Ensign's ties to Cynthia's husband Doug that may be more interesting. According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Ensign and Hampton are old friends. When the senator gave Hampton a top staff position in 2006, "it was as if Ensign had put his brother on staff," a former Ensign staffer told the paper. "[Hampton] had a lot of sway with the senator." Hampton's formal title was "administrative assistant," the former staffer described the job as a sort of "co-chief of staff." Hampton's financial disclosure form shows that he made around $101,000 in 2008 and $144,000 in 2007.
Then, after both Hamptons abruptly stopped working for Ensign in May 2008, reports the Review-Journal, Doug Hampton went to work for Allegiant Air, a Las Vegas-based travel company, and for November Inc., the political consulting firm that runs Ensign's campaigns and employs several former Ensign staffers. According to FEC records examined by TPMmuckraker, Allegiant Air's CEO, Maurice Gallagher, contributed over $46,000 to the Ensign-affiliated Senate Majority Committee between 2005 and 2007, as well as smaller amounts to Ensign's Senate campaign and the Battle Born PAC. And Gallagher's wife Marcia gave another $20,000 to Senate Majority Committee during the same period, as well as $6200 to the Ensign campaign. Ensign touted Allegiant in an interview earlier this year.
Even the Hamptons' son has gotten into the act. Politico reports that 19-year old Brandon was paid by the National Republican Senatorial Committee in 2008 -- when Ensign was NRSC chairman -- to do "research policy consulting." He made a total of $5,400, up through August 2008.
Meanwhile, it looks like the money from these various jobs would have come in handy for the Hamptons. Politico adds that in 2006, the couple took out a $1.2 million mortgage on their Las Vegas home, with an interest rate of 8 percent. The house is now valued at around $862,000, according to the website Zillow.com, which analyzes real estate.
There are indications that Ensign decided to announce the affair because Doug Hampton was trying to blackmail him for a "substantial" amount of money. But whether or not that's true, there's abundant evidence that before, during, and after the affair, Ensign was of enormous help to the Hamptons.
So did he take action on their behalf in order to keep the affair secret? That could be where this story goes next...
Josh
Zachary
I think a little more scrutiny needs to be paid to convicted embezzler Chris Ward and his proximity to the GOP and Senator Ensign.
Ward was treasurer for many, many GOP members' campaigns and personal PAC's. He was also the treasurer for the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC). He held this position for 10 years. And he skimmed millions of dollars. And he was never asked for an independently audited financial report, up 'till the end.
Ward was treasurer of Ensign's PAC, as well as treasurer of the election year Senate Majority Fund (Chaired by Ensign).
Surely they weren't trusting Ward by reputation alone. What was he kicking back to the PAC's and campaigns that he was serving as treasurer for (while looting)?
Ward was a small fish and a fall guy for a much bigger $$ game.
June 17, 2009 5:59 PM | Reply | Permalink
This is beginning to sound far worse than either the John Edwards or the Eliot Spitzer scandals...but its a Republican scandal..so there will be little scrutiny by the Corporate MSM and I'm fairly sure Senator Ensign will be allowed to keep his seat ....(even as the "morally superior Republicans" force the Senate Democrats to cower and continue to deny Franken his rightful place in the Senate)
June 17, 2009 6:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
Is it possible Ensign had an arrangement with both Hamptons? Sex with the wife so long as both would get the cushy jobs working for him and his affiliates? And oh yeah, the internship for the son. Classy touch by Ensign. Then the wifey finds out and says they go or she goes? They go, Ensign hooks them up with the private sector jobs but the damn real estate market is killer so they go to Ensign. He tells them he will admit to the affair and pay them some cash to not mention the arrangement. It looks like all he did was cheat on his wife with his best buddy's wife but at least he gave the boy a summer job. IS THAT POSSIBLE? Yeah, I think so.
June 17, 2009 7:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
It couldn't be true: the alleged affair appears to be normal and heterosexusal, which is not the norm for Republicans.
June 17, 2009 6:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
Ahh, just wait. The really juicy bits haven't come to light yet.
June 18, 2009 1:20 AM | Reply | Permalink
Well, yeah but normal doesn't usually include being good pals with the husband of the woman you are having the affair with, does it? I'd say that bleeds over into either, really really backstabbing sneaky, or even, if it was somehow vaguely consensual between them all (unlikely, but who knows?) kinda creepy incestuous.
'course it could've all been just a health polyamory thing inexplicably gone bad..., but I don't think their kind does that kind.
June 18, 2009 1:51 AM | Reply | Permalink
No, it doesn't, because, as said, it would violate the Republican norm by having a similarity, a correspondence, however remote or distant, to that which is normal.
June 18, 2009 8:30 PM | Reply | Permalink
I can't imagine anyone fucking this guy. Eeeewww
June 17, 2009 6:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
Easy, just "do-it" on top of a big pile of money.
Money makes ugly, obnoxious guys handsome & graceful.
If not for this, the world would be a peaceful place,
June 18, 2009 6:16 AM | Reply | Permalink
Sometimes an "admitted affair" is nowhere near as vanilla as they'd have others believe.
There's a certain fragrance of kink about this whole thing... No proof or anything, but the motivations and behaviors simply don't add up.
June 17, 2009 8:05 PM | Reply | Permalink
The news today said the GOPers were shocked. Guess they were expecting to get caught themselves. Maybe next time...
June 17, 2009 8:06 PM | Reply | Permalink
Call me crazy, but I don't see the dark conspiracy angle on this one, just more of the grainy reality of life that Republicans don't like to acknowledge.
Presumably the Ensigns were having marital troubles, and if the Hamptons were upside down on their mortgage, they were having marital troubles as well. (Nothing like money troubles to sow the seeds of discontent.) The affair happened, probably with all the promises and excuses involved there, it blows up, arrangements are made in an effort to help everybody move on and save face.
Only trouble is, it doesn't work. The money still isn't covering the month. Maybe some unrelated person has found out about the affair, maybe the Hamptons think the best thing would be to get out of Vegas entirely. Hampton goes to Ensign and asks for something, we don't know what. Ensign, either figuring (correctly)that he'd better be the first person to come clean, or displaying what one poster called "a remnant of integrity," decides he'd best own up and at least have a little control over his downfall and (eventual) recovery.
My point is that none of this requires dark, nefarious conspiracy/payola scenarios. It all works most simply as a group of people who made marital, financial and ethical blunders, trying to keep it all together and come out alive, if not on top.
Maybe there's more, but so far I'm not seeing it. Just a lot of people who lost (or have nearly lost) some combination of their marriages, financial security, home, and social standing.
June 17, 2009 8:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
Be sure to check out the pics of the Hampton's McMansion in Vegas from the link on the front page. (Where did those pics come from?) Exterior and a bunch of interiors. See how people with a relatively big bunch of money and no taste live! Apparently they like to pretend they are French aristocracy or something. Before the guillotines and all that. Oh, right. Republicans.
June 17, 2009 8:47 PM | Reply | Permalink
What? You don't like it?
It's sort of a Romanesque Hacienda with some Vegas flair. I mean, without the artificial rock landscaping around the pool it would be just another McMansion.
June 17, 2009 9:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
Let's have a look at the links, 'cause, for sure, there gonna go away soon.
First, the Republican Renewal Project. This is a newly registered 527 that Ensign presently heads. It's run out of Vegas by November, Inc. So it's likely that Mr. Hampton is involved here.
http://www.republicanrenewalproject.com/
Pitty they had to cancel their BBQ.
June 17, 2009 11:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
The Republican Renewal Project takes us to a YouTube presence.
Lots of associated content on YouTube.
Subscribers include
-Autumn E-Media
-October Inc
-November Inc
and
-Battle Born PAC
Autumn, October and November are all associated media/pr/fundraising entities run out of Vegas by "former Ensign staffers."
June 17, 2009 11:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
All three of those media channels post RNCC crapola attack advertising. There's even one showing Chris Dodd as a leprechaun.
http://www.youtube.com/user/AutumnEmedia
June 17, 2009 11:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
Just brainstorming a bit: what if John and Doug were a little more than just good friends? What if Cynthia liked her mansion too much to really object too much? What if someone else was subject to John's desires, but wasn't happy about that, so he talked to John or Cynthia about how and if he should let others know about the triangle affair? Doesn't this explain things too?
I'm just speculating here, and wondering if I should try my hand at writing the script for the Made-for-TV version of the story.
June 18, 2009 12:18 AM | Reply | Permalink
My thoughts exactly. Threesome city? Maybe watching? Maybe wifey watching?
Boy, a blow job sounds pretty darned mainstream right about now.
June 18, 2009 12:45 AM | Reply | Permalink
First thing I thought of was Monica and Revlon. Cue the media onslaught in 5...4...3... oh, lookit the shiny ball!
June 18, 2009 12:27 AM | Reply | Permalink
"the couple took out a $1.2 million mortgage on their Las Vegas home, with an interest rate of 8 percent. The house is now valued at around $862,000"
Now THAT's underwater ... at 8%? Now I know what it's like to be waterboarded.
June 18, 2009 12:49 AM | Reply | Permalink
Oooo, that house!
I particularly liked the "bonus room" which has those "theater chairs" facing, what, a laptop computer? Where's the 42" flatscreen TV? And the finish on those cabinets? What was THAT!!!
But on the other hand, I must say, the furnishings, in general, are PURE Vegas.
Oh, and a closet a "wine cellar" is bourgie to the max.
June 18, 2009 12:56 AM | Reply | Permalink
Oops. I meant CALLING a closet a cellar is bougie to the max. Hands faster than brain yet again.
June 18, 2009 12:56 AM | Reply | Permalink
How does one obtain a 1.2 million mortgage on a 100K salary?
That would be an interesting angle.
June 18, 2009 6:57 AM | Reply | Permalink
Maybe it was a foursome with the banker? Just don't forget, we are talking about Republicans here, so your imagination may not be up to the task.
June 18, 2009 12:42 PM | Reply | Permalink
Flaunt it Baby! Flaunt it!
June 18, 2009 8:10 AM | Reply | Permalink