Dodd giving contributions to charity

Hartford (WTNH) - Connecticut's Senator Chris Dodd has another public relations disaster on his hands as another allegedly crooked banker has turned out to be a Dodd campaign contributor.

ABC News Chief Investigative Correspondent Brian Ross has broken the story that there is now another big ponzi scheme like the one involving Bernie Madoff. And this time the guy appears to be someone who was helping Connecticut's senior senator along the campaign trail.

Senator Dodd became the fourth U.S. Senator to announce that his campaign committee would be sending a check to charity for the thousands of dollars he received from the Stanford Financial Group. This comes after federal fraud charges that were lodged against the head of that firm R. Allen Stanford; the list of those he gave to includes prominent Republicans as well as Democrats.

Senator Dodd said he's not sure just how much is involved.

"All of it's going to charity, going through and trying to determine the exact amount, goes back to some events back in 2001 and 2002, maybe others," Senator Dodd said. "I want to be careful about telling an exact amount because we're still trying to go through and determine what it is."

"Another swindler gets caught, another ponzi scheme guy gets caught who gave to Chris Dodd," State Republican Party Chairman Chris Healy said. "I'm happy that he's going to give the money to charity."

Sensing Dodd's vulnerability, and his plunging popularity numbers, Chairman Healy is quick to criticize.

"Senator Dodd has accepted hundreds and hundreds and million of dollars from financial interests over the last several years, both for his presidential and senate campaigns," Chairman Healy said. "And that influence of buying kept Senator Dodd from doing his job along with him running for President."

Senator Dodd vigorously denies the implication reminding he has always supported public financing. He said that because he's not a wealthy man, he has no choice but to solicit campaign funds just like other Senators.

"I'm not clairvoyant," Senator Dodd said. "In some cases you receive money and support from people who turnout to be people you wouldn't want to be associated with as is the case with Stanford. What you do in those cases, in my view, is immediately find out what the resources are [and] either return them to them or, in this case, not but to charity."

ABC News also reported the amount of contributions is about $27,000. Chairman Healy admitted today that he is actively attempting to recruit former Republican Congressmen Chris Shays and Rob Simmons to run against Senator Dodd next year, as well as former Ambassador/businessman Tom Foley of Greenwich.