Thompson Adviser Has Criminal Past

The Web site JetTrip.com estimates that the hourly charter rate for use of a plane similar to Martin's would be between $1,500 and $2,400, which means these flights would normally cost at least $220,000, more than double what Thompson paid.

Several other presidential candidates use private aircraft supplied by key political supporters. Former New York mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, for instance, has paid $279,000 to Elliott Asset Management, a firm headed by campaign adviser and New York financier Paul Singer, to reimburse the firm for using an airplane. Democrat John Edwards has paid $628,052 to longtime backer Fred Baron, a Dallas lawyer, for the use of his plane.

Martin's criminal history has not previously surfaced in news accounts mentioning his role as a Thompson supporter. The Chattanooga Times Free Press referred to him recently as Thompson's "mystery man."

Archived Florida court records provide details of the various cases against Martin, including alleged sports-betting activity, a cocaine deal he arranged with an undercover sheriff's deputy and carried out through a middleman, and the sale of 11 pounds of marijuana to an undercover detective for $3,400. Martin produced the marijuana from the trunk of his 1973 Cadillac as he and the detective were parked behind a Tampa area department store, according to the arrest report.

According to court records, close friends and an ex-wife, Martin arrived in Tennessee from Tampa about 1985 while serving probation for his various offenses. He set up a series of businesses, starting with the Puzzle's Pizza parlor. He opened a hardware store, and friends say he began trying to recruit business partners for more ambitious real estate ventures.

The fledgling developer also started to get involved in local and state politics. Rep. Zach Wamp (R-Tenn.), a close friend of both Martin and Thompson who was then a commercial real estate broker in Chattanooga, said he and Martin met through their work and became friends because of a mutual interest in Republican politics. "He always has been a mover and shaker from the first time I knew him," Wamp said.

He and others said Martin, a gregarious and charismatic man, was a natural in the world of political cocktail chatter and back-slapping. Martin's first wife, Renee Whitfield, recalled that he and Wamp campaigned together for a GOP gubernatorial candidate in 1994. "We rode the bus to a county fair, all of us wearing our [campaign] T-shirts and passing out literature," Whitfield recalled.

Martin began spending significant time with Thompson at fundraisers for Wamp at a farm owned by one of Martin's close friends, Delwin L. Huggins, according to Huggins's ex-wife, Badia McKee. After making small donations to Wamp in 1992 and 1993, he sent his first substantial check -- $1,000 -- to Thompson in 1994.

Another $4,000 followed for Thompson's 1994 Senate bid, during which a private jet owned by a wealthy Tennessee businessman, Steven A. McKenzie, flew Martin, Thompson and others around the state, according to a source with direct knowledge of the trips. McKenzie did not respond to multiple telephone calls.

Martin "was always wanting to help candidates," Wamp said. "I assume through 10 years of political involvement, when Fred came on the scene, they immediately saw eye to eye." Martin and Thompson both stand well over 6 feet and have outsize personalities. "Hail fellows well met," is how David Copeland, a longtime local legislator from the Chattanooga area, described Martin and Thompson. "They just stood out, and people gravitated to them."

From 1992 to 2002, Martin donated more than $75,000 to GOP candidates and committees, according to FEC records. By 2000, he had become a major political player in Tennessee Republican circles.

For much of his work, Martin partnered with Huggins, whose in-laws played a key role in the Chattanooga area's commercial life. McKee is the daughter of one of the area's wealthiest residents, Ellsworth McKee. The family founded McKee Foods in 1934, and Badia McKee's sister Debbie was the namesake of its most successful product, Little Debbie snack cakes.