Jack Abbott ran for the Wisconsin State Senate seat promising a clean campaign against his opponent and former wife Nikki Newman. After Jack fired his campaign manager, David Chow, for publishing dirt on Nikki in her movie "Hot Hips", Ben was hired to take his place. Nikki then hired David, so Ben began his own smear campaign. Once Jack won the election Ben stayed on as his chief of staff. But later Jack left office in disgrace when his former step-mother, Gloria, exposed him for falsifying his father's will that cut her out, and Ben was out of a job. Jack then named Ben Head of the John Abbott Memorial Foundation