According to this Record-Eagle story Leelanau's US Congressman, Dave Camp, received some $35,000 from tribal clients of convicted felon and lobbyist Jack Abramoff. Only $500 came directly from Abramoff, while the balance came from the Saginaw Chippewa tribe, based in Camp's home district, as well tribes in Mississippi and Louisiana who had also retained the controversial lobbyist.

Camp represents a district which includes the Saginaw Chippewas, and so it is entirely appropriate that he be an advocate for their interests, and that they support him with campaign contributions. It's interesting, though, that he also received contributions from four other tribes who also were Abramoff clients. Insofar as he advocates for the Saginaw Chippewas, Camp is probably also advocating for the interest of Native American tribes across the country, and so it's not surprising that some might choose to support him. But it would be interesting to know how many tribes not associated with Abramoff also made donations to Camp? How would you find that out?

Update 1/8/06 10:47am: I just found this comment on blog devoted to New Jersey politics, wondering why Dave Camp voted an extraordinary 92% of the time with disgraced Majority Leader Tom DeLay, even though he received only a little over in $200 in direct contributions from the DeLay money machine. The blogger wonders if there is some other correlation of corporate or PAC contributions that would account for Camp's loyalty. I think we just found it. This is how the Abramoff / DeLay money machine worked: lobbyist contributions were steered via Abramoff to DeLay allies, who would then reliably vote the interests of the K Street lobbyists DeLay who DeLay served. I suspect a little digging would uncover similar connections. This was the DeLay innovation: in the past, lobbyists gave money directly to legislators whose votes they wanted to influence. DeLay and Abramoff in effect created a giant slush fund, which was channeled to legislators who reliably supported the DeLay agenda, voting for whatever DeLay told them to support. Kind of like a mutual fund.