(CNN) -- The head of the Republican House campaign committee apologized Saturday for not catching Rep. Mark Foley in alleged lies about his Internet exchanges with teen pages.

Rep. Tom Reynolds, R-New York, issued the apology in a TV commercial aired in his Buffalo-area district.

He also reiterated his assertion that he told House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Illinois, about Foley's behavior in the spring. (Watch how the Foley scandal has changed the political landscape -- 2:10 )

"I trusted that others had investigated. Looking back, more should have been done, and for that, I'm sorry," Reynolds said.

"I was told about odd but not explicit e-mails between Mark Foley and a page," he said. "I never saw a single e-mail, not one. Even so, I reported what I had been told to the speaker of the House.

"At the time, I thought I had done the right thing. I have since learned that newspapers in Florida and the FBI had copies of the e-mails for months and that Foley had been confronted about them and lied," Reynolds said.

"Nobody's angrier and more disappointed than me that I didn't catch his lies," he said.

The scandal appears to be damaging Reynolds' re-election bid. Polls conducted since Foley's resignation show Democratic challenger Jack Davis with a narrow lead over Reynolds.

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