Thompson advisor steps down

A top fundraiser with a criminal record for selling drugs resigned from the campaign of presidential hopeful Fred Thompson on Monday, and a spokesman for the candidate said Thompson would stop using the man’s private jet for campaign travel.

Philip J. Martin’s resignation as chairman of Thompson’s “First Day Founders” team of fundraisers came as the former Tennessee senator adopted a newly combative tone toward GOP rival Mike Huckabee during a New Hampshire campaign swing.

“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,” Martin, an Alabama developer, said in a statement released by Thompson’s campaign. “I deeply regret any embarrassment this has caused.”

Thompson has been a friend of Martin’s since the mid-1990s, aides said.

Martin pleaded guilty to the sale of 11 pounds of marijuana in 1979, the Washington Post reported Sunday. In 1983, Martin was charged with cocaine trafficking and conspiracy stemming from a plan to sell $30,000 worth of the drug, the newspaper reported. He pleaded no contest.

Thompson said Sunday that he would not “throw my friend under the bus for something he did, you know, 25 years ago, if he’s OK now.”

Thompson expressed concern Monday about his friend’s welfare amid the publicity about his criminal record.

“I have not personally talked to him yet, but mutual friends have talked to him,” Thompson told Fox News in an interview here after a breakfast speech. “I wanted to make sure that he was OK, primarily, so it’s more of a personal thing right now.”

Thompson’s campaign has paid Martin more than $100,000 for flights on the jet, records show.

“To say because he had these problems in his 20s, 25 years ago, that I’ve got to pay somebody else instead of paying him, we’ll see,” Thompson said in the interview. “We’ll address it.”

Hours later, Thompson spokesman Todd Harris said the candidate would no longer fly on Martin’s plane.

Democrats mocked the former “Law and Order” star Monday for his ties to Martin. In a statement titled “Fred Thompson’s Judgment on the Wrong Side of Law & Order,” the Democratic National Committee questioned the credibility of the candidate’s statement that he first learned of Martin’s criminal past over the weekend.

“Is this the type of vetting process we’d see in a Thompson White House?” DNC Press Secretary Stacie Paxton asked.

Amid the controversy over Martin, Thompson slammed Huckabee, the former governor of Arkansas, for questioning his commitment to fighting abortion and same-sex marriage.

“Gov. Huckabee talks about this, I suppose, because it’s the only conservative position he’s got,” Thompson said, noting his longtime opposition to abortion and same-sex marriage.

Thompson’s opposition to constitutional amendments to bar abortion and same-sex marriage has irked some conservatives.

Abortion restrictions should be left up to states, Thompson said.

Thompson also called Huckabee “very weak on immigration policy” and “one of the highest-taxing governors that we had in this country.”

Huckabee campaign manager John “Chip” Saltsman said Thompson’s remarks were absurd. “Clearly he must be misinformed,” Saltsman said.

Huckabee’s support for steps to legalize undocumented immigrants has raised concerns among some conservatives, and his mixed record in Arkansas on taxes has drawn fierce criticism from the Club for Growth, an anti-tax group.

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michael.finnegan@latimes.com