BY MIKE CETERA
Lynn Sweet this morning reported on her blog that former House Speaker Dennis Hastert has a campaign warchest of just $75,000. His coffers are nearly empty, in part, Sweet writes, because of legal expenses associated with the Mark Foley congressional page scandal.
Ouch.
Hastert ended up testifying before a House ethics panel probing what House leaders knew when about warnings over Foley's conduct.The Hastert committee paid $59,884 to the law firm of McKenna Long & Aldridge for legal services during the second quarter this year.The Atlanta firm has long represented Hastert. Hastert's committee paid $35,388 in April and $24,497 in May.
A year ago at this time, as Hastert was trying to save his party's grip on the House, the Plano Republican raised more than $3 million. As Sweet pointed out, it appears to be much more difficult for Hastert to raise funds now that he's not Congress' top dog.
The numbers Sweet reported do not include Hastert's Farmers' Picnic fundraiser last week.
But do they give us another clue that perhaps Hastert is getting ready to call it quits? At the picnic, he wasn't ready to show his hand: "As far as I'm concerned right now, I'm running," he said Friday.
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