This district’s congressman, Vern Buchanan, achieved a dubious distinction in his first term in the U.S. House of Representatives: He was named one of the "Twenty Most Corrupt Members of Congress" by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.

He is the only freshman on the list.

He joins Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y. (allegations: illegally using rent-controlled apartments as his office suite, failing to declare six years’ income from an island villa); Rep. William Jefferson, D-La. (indicted: bribery, fraud, racketeering); Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska (indicted: providing earmarks in exchange for gifts totaling more than $250,000); and fellow Floridian Tom Feeney, R-Oviedo (fourth year on the list; allegations: ethics violations in accepting vacation trips in the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal).

Buchanan, R-Longboat Key, was placed on CREW’s "Most Corrupt" list based on information contained in a series of lawsuits alleging campaign and other ethical violations largely involving his businesses, and sworn affidavits filed in support of the lawsuits.

But in spite of the court actions and subsequent publicity, recent polls say the incumbent District 13 representative holds as much as a 16-point lead over his Democratic opponent, former bank president Christine Jennings, in her attempt to unseat him in a four-way race. The ballot will also include former Democratic challenger Jan Schneider, running this time as an independent, who is drawing 8 percent support – presumably from Jennings – and Don Baldauf, another independent, at 3 percent.

Buchanan’s campaign says CREW is not the nonpartisan group that it claims to be and that it receives substantial funding from Democratic-leaning groups, so "it is not surprising that they would join hands with Christine Jennings’ [campaign]," said Buchanan spokeswoman Sally Tibbets. Of the 20 congressional members on CREW’s list, 14 are Republicans.

The lawsuits filed with local courts allege that Buchanan’s campaign pressured top employees of his automobile dealerships in Venice and Sarasota to write checks to the campaign in the fall of 2006 and then reimbursed the employees with company cash, CREW says, thereby violating laws limiting corporate contributions.

On its Website, CREW references both the lawsuits and newspaper accounts of them, including the Sarasota Herald-Tribune’s. Buchanan has recently refused to participate in the only scheduled local televised debate to have been broadcast by the newspaper’s cable TV news channel, SNN 6.

Most of the questioned checks were written during one seven-day period in which Buchanan’s campaign recorded $110,000 in donations from employees of his various dealerships and other business interests, the CREW report says. Buchanan aides use the statement of a current employ to bolster a claim that at least one of the plaintiffs first consulted with Jennings’ staff, which she denies

CREW also used the lawsuit affidavits in support of a complaint its lawyers have filed with the Federal Elections Commission.

Top-ranking former Buchanan auto dealership employees have also alleged patterns of fraudulent consumer and financing practices in other lawsuits. Still other suits filed this fall by Richard Thomas and Melissa Hacker allege that Buchanan employed illegal aliens at his dealerships and at his Longboat Key residence, which the campaign denies.

Buchanan spent $5 million of his own money in his successful $8-million campaign to defeat Jennings in the infamous November 2006 general election in which 18,000 allegedly went unrecorded in the race. He won that election by 369 votes. It was the most money spent by any congressional campaign in the country that year.

Still, he lost to Jennings in his home county despite a media-saturating campaign featuring thousands of controversial "robo-calls" at all hours that opened with the line, "Let me tell you about Christine Jennings .…"

Many recipients of the calls believed their days were being disrupted by Jennings, and they slammed down their phones. In actuality the calls were placed by Buchanan’s campaign with the required disclaimer – at the very end of the call. A lot of people didn’t listen that long.

CREW notes that in sworn affidavits, Buchanan dealership employees Carlo Bell and David J. Padilla said that employees of Buchanan’s Automobile Holdings Inc., including Venice Nissan Dodge and Sarasota Ford, "were either reimbursed with corporate funds for making $1,000 campaign donations to Rep. Buchanan’s 2006 congressional campaign, or were coerced into making contributions" with accusations of disloyalty if they refused.

Few, if any, had made political contributions before or since.

Buchanan spokeswoman Tibbets said the employees referenced in the complaint have since denied they were pressured or reimbursed, saying they donated willingly to their employer’s campaign.

Joseph Kezer, the former finance director of Sarasota Ford, has said he personally observed campaign finance violations and that some of the millions spent on the campaign "was laundered corporate cash funneled through higher-ups at Buchanan’s numerous dealerships," CREW states on its Website, www.citizensforethics.org (click on CREW Reports). The campaign denies Kezer’s allegations.

Buchanan has said that since turning his focus on his congressional career he has stepped back and is now a "silent partner" in his former businesses, including the automobile dealerships. Tibbets said, "The campaign’s policy is to comply fully with all FEC regulations."

CREW notes that the Federal Employees Compensation Act and Federal Elections Commission regulations both prohibit the making of contributions in the name of a person other than the true source of the contribution.

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, D.C., is a four-year-old nonprofit, 501(c)(3) organization that, according to its mission statement, is "dedicated to promoting ethics and accountability in government and public life by targeting government officials -- regardless of party affiliation -- who sacrifice the common good to special interests."

Buchanan made another list during his first term as well, "Congress’s 20 Wealthiest Members," coming in at No. 6. He was reported to be worth an estimated $65.5 million. John Kerry, D-Mass., was first on the list with $231 million, according to the list compiled by Roll Call, a congressional newspaper and Website.