John Ensign speaks to reporters on Capitol Hill. NRSC paid son of woman in affair

The son of the couple at the center of the sex scandal that has engulfed Sen. John Ensign was being paid by National Republican Senatorial Committee in 2008 at the same time his mother was having an affair with the Nevada Republican.

Both Doug and Cynthia Hampton were already working in senior positions for Ensign when their son Brandon Hampton was hired to do “research policy consulting” for the NRSC in March 2008.


The younger Hampton, 19, was paid $5,400 before he left the Ensign office in August last year, Federal Election Commission records show.

That means during March and April 2008, three members of the Hampton family were working for Ensign. Both Doug and Cynthia Hampton stopped working for Ensign at the end of April 2008.

According to people familiar with the matter, Ensign’s affair with Hampton took place between December 2007 and August 2008.

A trusted political aide, Cynthia Hampton served as the treasurer for both Ensign’s reelection campaign and for his leadership fund, Battle Born PAC. She received $10,620 through the Battle Born PAC during January to April 2008 – a pay rate that was far higher during that four-month period than the $11,767 she received from the committee during all of 2007.

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Cynthia Hampton was also paid $11, 912 by Ensign’s reelection campaign between Jan. 2007 and April 2008, with her monthly salary doubling later in the year.

According to Senate payroll records, Doug Hampton served as Ensign’s administrative assistant in his personal office from November 2006 to May 2008, departing around the same time Cynthia Hampton left Ensign’s political committees. After leaving Ensign’s office, Doug Hampton went to work for a Las Vegas political consulting firm called November Inc. which is run by several former Ensign aides.

Doug Hampton was paid about $101,000 for seven months of work in fiscal 2008 – a higher monthly rate than he was previously paid. He made $144,000 in all of 2007.