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July 29, 2005
Ensign explains money accepted from Southwest
Southwest Chairman Herb Kelleher contributed $2,000 to Ensign's re-election campaign on May 16, according to Federal Election Commission reports. On the same day, Southwest Airlines Co. Freedom Fund PAC gave Ensign $2,500. The contributions came at a time when Ensign was weighing whether to get involved in legislation affecting the airline. Ensign spokesman Jack Finn told a reporter on May 2 the senator was undecided. Ensign declined an interview Friday. Finn said the contributions "played no role whatsoever" in the senator's legislation benefiting Southwest. On Thursday, a scheduled conference call with rural Nevada reporters was canceled. Ensign, R-Nev., introduced a bill Tuesday to repeal a 26-year-old restriction, known as the Wright amendment, on flights from Dallas Love Field, Southwest's base of operations. Lifting the restriction would allow Southwest to add nonstop flights from Dallas to all states and Puerto Rico. This would include direct flights between Dallas and Las Vega. "Senator Ensign's interest in seeing the Wright amendment restrictions repealed is, to him, strictly a passengers' rights and free-market issue," Finn said in an e-mail to the Review-Journal. "He does not believe the federal government should be restricting or otherwise managing competition among business interests." The Wright amendment was designed to protect Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, the base for American Airlines. |
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