Thompson Loses Fundraiser, and Plane

HAUNTED BY HISTORY

Thompson Loses Fundraiser, and Plane

The chairman of Fred Thompson's First Day Founders fundraising group has resigned after reports surfaced that he had been arrested on charges of cocaine trafficking and bookmaking in the 1980s.

Philip J. Martin, a longtime Thompson friend and owner of the private jet that the Republican presidential candidate has been using to crisscross the country to campaign events, issued a short statement yesterday that was released by the Thompson campaign.

"I have decided to resign my position as Chair of 'First Day Founders' of 'The Friends of Fred Thompson,' " Martin's statement said. "The focus of this campaign should be on Fred Thompson's positions on the issues and his outstanding leadership ability, not on mistakes I made some 24 years ago. I deeply regret any embarrassment this has caused."

In addition to the arrests, Martin also has faced a mountain of unpaid tax bills from businesses he previously owned or helped run, public records show.

Companies connected to Martin have owed more than $500,000 in taxes to various states and to the Internal Revenue Service, according to records of debts and tax liens posted online. Most of those debts were owed by Four Seasons Technologies, a company that Martin and a friend helped run during the 1990s. Martin left the firm in 2002. The tax troubles, first reported yesterday by ABC News, were the latest revelation about Thompson's longtime friend.

Martin's resignation means the former senator from Tennessee will find a new way to get to campaign events. "We will not use the plane," Todd Harris, Thompson's communication director, said when asked.

-- Matthew Mosk

WEB DONATIONS STREAM IN

Paul's One-Day Haul: More Than $4.2 Million

Rep. Ron Paul (R-Tex.), who's nowhere near the top of national polls but whose loyal, Web-savvy supporters have fueled his White House run, raised more than $4.2 million online yesterday, his campaign reported last night.