Washington ? A House member is the third Republican in Congress to return or give to charity political contributions from a Kansas utility enmeshed in a campaign fund-raising controversy.

The campaign of Rep. Robin Hayes of North Carolina received $1,000 in donations from Topeka-based Westar Energy Inc. executives three months after a July 10, 2002, fund-raiser given on his behalf by co-hosts House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Billy Tauzin of Louisiana and House energy subcommittee chairman Joe Barton of Texas.

“We decided to return the money rather than having any cloud hanging over it,” Hayes spokesman Jonathan Felts said this week.

The event for Hayes was one of eight that Tauzin and Barton threw for House Republicans facing tight re-election races last year. Seven of the eight Republicans received Westar donations.

Barton introduced a regulatory exemption that could have helped save Westar billions of dollars, but he withdrew his support when a federal grand jury began investigating the company.

Westar documents that surfaced recently in an internal probe detail a plan for using more than $55,000 in donations to “to get a seat at the table” of a House-Senate conference committee whose Republican members included Barton, Tauzin, House GOP leader Tom DeLay of Texas and Richard Burr of North Carolina.

Barton cast his own vote and the proxies of Tauzin, DeLay and Burr in support of the Westar exemption last September before word of the grand jury probe of Westar surfaced.

Last week, Burr and Sen. John Sununu, R-N.H., said they would give $1,000 apiece to charity, the amount of their Westar donations from the company’s now-indicted former CEO, David Wittig.

Other recipients are declining to act or haven’t made a decision.

Barton’s office says the congressman is considering what to do, if anything, regarding $2,500 in donations.

A DeLay-affiliated political action committee says there are no plans to return a $25,000 donation that Westar gave so that its executives could attend a two-day fund-raising event with DeLay at The Homestead resort a year ago in Hot Springs, Va.

Westar and other energy companies participated in an energy issues round-table at The Homestead.

Tauzin’s office says his political action committee already distributed a $1,000 donation from Wittig to Republican congressional candidates. The office of Rep. Sam Graves, R-Mo., has said the congressman has no plans to return a $1,000 political donation from Wittig. Graves was a supporter of the Westar exemption.

Democrats have asked the Justice Department to investigate a possible connection between the donations and the Republican support of the Westar exemption. The Republicans deny any link.