We haven't been following the Westar energy company's fundraising controversy, but we're going to get on it now, as questions continue to mount about the company's campaign contributions and lobbying efforts--and its influence.

The Boston Globe today recaps the story, and explains how it may "touch" Attorney General John Ashcroft .

The controversy involving campaign contributions and lobbying practices of Kansas-based Westar Energy Inc. has seeped beyond the four Republican lawmakers cited in initial news accounts. It now touches, even if tangentially, Attorney General John Ashcroft and a gathering of energy company executives at a Virginia resort sponsored by House majority leader Tom DeLay, Republican from Texas.

....Ashcroft, meanwhile, is being asked by some liberal and Democratic groups to launch an investigation -- either by the Justice Department or a special counsel -- into possible connections between the Westar campaign contributions and legislative action on the energy bill. The groups say Ashcroft should recuse himself from the investigation, because his 2000 Senate campaign received $2,000 from former Westar executive Carl Koupal. Koupal also gave $1,000 to Ashcroft's Spirit of America PAC. Koupal managed two of Ashcroft's campaigns in Missouri and was Ashcroft's director of economic development in the late 1980s, when Ashcroft was Missouri governor.

Westar gave donations to seven Republicans in close re-election races last year. "The company wanted a change in regulations that could have saved the company billions of dollars."

Two consumer groups have called for investigations and the resignation of the three remaining Directors.

David Wittig, the former chief of Westar, goes on trial Monday for fraud and money laundering activities while although unrelated to the company, were discovered through grand jury investigation into Wittig and the company. He was indicted along with Clinton Odell Weidner II, a former president of Capital City Bank.

Update: June 30--Clinton Odell Weidner II pleaded guilty to two counts of making false bank entries right before trial today and said that Wittig had nothing to do with his fraud.