Reid faces scrutiny on Senate rules

Benjamin Grove

Friday, Aug. 5, 2005 | 10:49 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., is under scrutiny for accepting $3,000 from a lobbyist in 1999 for his legal expense fund, which is against Senate rules. Reid aides said it was an honest mistake.

The lobbyist was Democrat Ben Barnes, a long-time Reid friend and a John Kerry fundraiser, who surfaced in the news during the 2004 presidential campaign. During the campaign Barnes told CBS' "60 Minutes" that in 1968 when he was Texas Speaker of the House he had helped George W. Bush get into the National Guard. The Bush campaign denied the story.

Reid had established the fund in November 1998 when he was facing legal expenses arising from a razor-thin victory over now-Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., and a vote recount. The fund's last transactions were in 2001 and it has been closed, according to records in the Senate. In all, Reid had raised about $238,000, according to records.

Reid was among five lawmakers who have broken rules by accepting lobbyist money for legal expense funds, according to a study by the Center for Public Integrity, a nonprofit, nonpartisan research group. The other four were House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Wash., Rep. Henry Hyde, R-Ill., and Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah.

"You would expect your elected officials to follow the rules that are on the books," said Celia Viggo Wexler, spokewoman for Common Cause, a campaign money watchdog group, who is quoted in the report. "The reason lobbyists give is because they want to get close to the people in power. And most of the people who have these funds have a lot of power."

Barnes gave Reid $3,000 during the period between April 1, 1999, and June 30, 1999, according to Reid documents on file with Senate clerks.

Barnes had registered as a lobbyist on Nov. 6, 1998, according to Senate lobbying records, so his gift to Reid was against Senate rules that ban lobbyists from giving lawmakers money for a legal expense fund.

Barnes, an Austin, Texas consultant, was traveling Thursday and could not be reached.

Barnes did not know at the time that he was breaking a Senate rule, Barnes spokesman Wyeth Wiedeman said today. It was a simple mistake, he said. Barnes made the donation out of friendship for Reid, Wiedeman said.

Reid knew Barnes had given him money, but Reid did not know that Barnes had become a registered lobbyist months before, Reid spokeswoman Tessa Hafen said. Reid's office referred the matter to the Senate Ethics Committee for review.

"It was overlooked, and Sen. Reid will do whatever the Ethics Committee recommends," Hafen said.

Reid's friendship with Barnes goes back more than 30 years to when they were both lieutenant governors of their states.