Both are effectively controlled by Tom DeLay.
Two associates of U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay were charged Tuesday with two additional felony charges of violating Texas election law and criminal conspiracy to violate election law for their role in the 2002 legislative races.
The indictment is the seventh this month from a Travis County grand jury investigating the use of corporate money in the campaigns that gave Republicans control of the Texas House.Jim Ellis, who heads Americans for a Republican Majority, and John Colyandro, former executive director of Texans for a Republican Majority, already are facing charges of money laundering in the case. Colyandro also faces 13 counts of unlawful acceptance of a corporate political contribution. The use of corporate money to influence political races is illegal in Texas.
The money laundering charges stem from $190,000 in corporate money that was sent to the Republican National Party. The party then spent the same amount of money on seven candidates for the Texas Legislature.
Americans for a Republican Majority, also known as ARMPAC, is DeLay’s national fundraising committee. The Republican from Sugar Land helped create Texans for a Republican Majority.
Money laundering is a first-degree felony with a punishment of 5 to 99 years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000. The two violations of the Election Code constitute a third-degree felonies punishable by a possible prison sentence of 2 to 10 years and a fine of up to $10,000. Criminal conspiracy as charged in this indictment is a state jail felony with a possible punishment of 180 days to 2 years in the State Jail and a fine of up to $10,000.
There is one rule in Texas politics–you can’t use money directly contributed from corporations or unions (that’s one more rule than Illinois) and these clowns seem to have violated it. DeLay is probably immune from prosecution because of jurisdictional issues, but given the breadth of his scandals, this is an important one, but only one.
You sshould not underestimate the power of a prospective long prison sentence to get SOBs like the ones indicted in this case to start singing like canaries. If the evidence presented to date is not sufficient to indict DeLay, it just means that these schmucks might have a bit of a bargaining chip with prosecutors. Rest assured, these scoundrels do NOT want to spend serious time next to hardened criminals in the Texas State Prison system.
You should also rmember that there is always the possibility that Cong. DeLay could end up testifying at the trial, which means he could be facing a perjury rap if he doesn’t tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth (something DeLay has a hard time doing).
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