Ensign targeted over WorldCom donation

Benjamin Grove

Thursday, April 24, 2003 | 9:57 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- A national activist group is targeting Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., for taking a $1,000 campaign contribution from troubled corporate communications giant WorldCom.

The Washington-based Gray Panthers bought full-page advertisements in the Las Vegas Sun and Las Vegas Review-Journal Wednesday challenging Ensign for taking money from a company charged with fraud that lost billions for its investors.

"Why isn't Congress prosecuting corporate criminals, instead of accepting their 'dirty money?' " the ad asks.

Lawmakers in Congress have returned about $42,000 in WorldCom donations that they received in 2002, said Gray Panthers spokesman Will Thomas. Ensign was one of four known lawmakers in Congress who has not sent back WorldCom money, so Gray Panthers bought advertisements in local newspapers scolding the four lawmakers, Thomas said.

"There seems to be a broad consensus that WorldCom money is tainted, but unfortunately that consensus is not universal," Thomas said. "It outraged us to find out that WorldCom's PAC was still active and that lawmakers were still taking money from it. It was outrageous even for this town (Washington)."

Ensign spokesman Jack Finn said the senator had no comment on the advertisement or the campaign donation.

Finn noted, however, that the donation Ensign received on Feb. 6 this year from the MCI Worldcom political action committee comes from a fund supported by employees, not corporate capital.

The Gray Panthers want Ensign to give the money back, but the group is also pushing for a another goal: more congressional scrutiny and much harsher fines from the Securities and Exchange Commission.