A name now coming

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A name now coming up more and more frequently in Abramoff investigation news is that of Rep. Richard Pombo (R-CA), Chairman of the House Committee on Resources.

That was prime territory for Jack Abramoff, seeing as the Resources Committee has jurisdiction over Indian tribal affairs, Pacific island territories as well as environment and natural resources — pretty much one-stop shopping for a guy like Jack.

So I went back through our stack of unpublished Team Abramoff emails to see how often folks from Pombo’s office showed up on the Abramoff skybox freebie list.

Pretty often, it turns out.

Here’s what we found for the year 2000, with the event in question, the Pombo staffer and the number of skybox seats they bagged.

February 15th, 2000, Capitals/Avalanche Hockey Game
Todd Willens, Legislative Director, 4 tickets

March 24th, 2000, Circus
Douge Heye, Press Secretary, 2 tickets

April 30th, 2000, WWF Backlash Live
Doug Heye, Press Secretary, 2 tickets

August 6th 2000, WWF Attitude (with appearances by The Rock, Triple H, The Big Show, Chyna, Chris Jericho and the Undertaker), MCI Center.
Doug Heye, Press Secretary, 2 tickets

October 2nd, 2000 WWF Raw Is War, MCI Center.
Doug Heye, Press Secretary, 2 tickets.

Bear in mind that in 2000, Pombo wasn’t chairman, but only a junior member of the committee. After the 2002 election, Tom DeLay stunned fellow committee members by promoting Pombo to Chairman, despite the fact that he was only the 10th most senior member of the committee.

“The vote came down to Pombo and [Rep. Elton] Gallegly,” wrote a local paper at the time, “but in the end, Pombo was buoyed by strong support from House Republican Leader Tom DeLay and others, said several Republicans involved in the selection process.”

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