Adviser to McMahon's Senate campaign faces subpoena

Hartford - A Senate Ethics Committee investigating U.S. Sen. John Ensign, R-Nevada, has subpoenaed the documents and records of Mike Slanker, a Republican political consultant and paid adviser to Linda McMahon's Senate campaign in Connecticut, the McMahon campaign confirmed Friday.

The ethics committee is investigating whether Ensign broke any laws in helping to find consulting work for or advocating on behalf of any of the clients of Douglas Hampton, a disgruntled former aide. Ensign has admitted to an extramarital affair with Hampton's wife, his former campaign treasurer.

Slanker, a prominent Republican campaign operative who runs the Nevada-based consulting firm November Inc., is a former close associate of Ensign's, running his campaigns for the Senate and following the senator to the National Republican Senatorial Committee in 2006. When Ensign was made chairman of the committee, Slanker became the committee's political director.

According to previously published reports, Hampton went to work at November Inc. after the affair between Ensign and Cindy Hampton was revealed to the two couples and their circle of friends, at which point both Hamptons left Ensign's staff.

Earlier this year, the Las Vegas Sun published a pair of 2008 e-mail exchanges between Slanker and Doug Hampton and Slanker's wife, Lindsey, and Cindy Hampton, that documented some of the fallout of the affair, which was occurring behind closed doors even as Ensign, a prominent social conservative, was continuing to lead the NRSC.

Ensign stepped down from his position as head of the NRSC this year, after disclosing his affair in a press conference. The senator made that move only after Doug Hampton approached TV and news outlets seeking call attention to Ensign's affair.

Slanker did not return a call to his office at November Inc. on Friday.

The ethics committee does not disclose details of ongoing inquiries, according to the committee's bylaws.

Slanker has been a successful consultant to a number of Republican campaigns, and was an early addition to McMahon's campaign team as she ramped up to seek the Republican nomination for 2010 earlier this year. In a biographical sketch posted on the November Inc. Web site, Slanker quotes an article in Roll Call that calls him "clearly the most feared consultant on the Republican side."

In a brief interview, a McMahon campaign spokesman confirmed that Slanker had received the committee's subpoena for documents related to the Ensign case. Slanker's involvement in the Ensign episode did not raise questions about his fitness as an adviser to McMahon, said the spokesman, Ed Patru.

"This campaign is obviously about Linda, about her leadership and her ability to contribute to make the kind of contributions to U.S. Senate that are going to put people back to work and help the economy," Patru said.

A spokesman for the campaign of former Rep. Rob Simmons, McMahon's main challenger for the Republican nomination, declined to comment.

Ensign said earlier this week that he did not intend to resign from the Senate.

t.mann@theday.com