Mr. DeLay had better live up to his last name because right now Ronnie Earle, Travis County District Attorney (Austin), is preparing to indict a whole bunch of folks around the Majority Leader and with the new Washington Post find of this morning, he’ll might just have enough for DeLay himself.
DeLay requested that the new donation come from “a combination of corporate and personal money from Enron’s executives,” with the understanding that it would be partly spent on “the redistricting effort in Texas,” said the e-mail to Kenneth L. Lay from lobbyists Rick Shapiro and Linda Robertson.
The e-mail, which surfaced in a subsequent federal probe of Houston-based Enron, is one of at least a dozen documents obtained by The Washington Post that show DeLay and his associates directed money from corporations and Washington lobbyists to Republican campaign coffers in Texas in 2001 and 2002 as part of a plan to redraw the state’s congressional districts.
DeLay’s fundraising efforts helped produce a stunning political success. Republicans took control of the Texas House for the first time in 130 years, Texas congressional districts were redrawn to send more Republican lawmakers to Washington, and DeLay — now the House majority leader — is more likely to retain his powerful post after the November election, according to political experts.
But DeLay and his colleagues also face serious legal challenges: Texas law bars corporate financing of state legislature campaigns, and a Texas criminal prosecutor is in the 20th month of digging through records of the fundraising, looking at possible violations of at least three statutes. A parallel lawsuit, also in the midst of discovery, is seeking $1.5 million in damages from DeLay’s aides and one of his political action committees — Texans for a Republican Majority (TRMPAC) — on behalf of four defeated Democratic lawmakers.
DeLay has not been named as a target of the investigation. The prosecutor has said he is focused on the activities of political action committees linked to DeLay and the redistricting effort. But officials in the prosecutor’s office say anyone involved in raising, collecting or spending the corporate money, who also knew of its intended use in Texas elections, is vulnerable.
Documents unearthed in the probe make clear that DeLay was central to creating and overseeing the fundraising. What the prosecutors are still assessing is who knew about the day-to-day operations of TRMPAC and how its money was used to benefit Texas House candidates.
Texas, much like Illinois, doesn’t have many campaign finance rules, but the ironclad one is no corporate money. If these documents are solid, DeLay is going to be indicted and is likely going to prison. A Texax prison at that. This is a state case.
To understand why a local DA is at the center of this, one has to understand that the Texas law regarding public corruption gives the Travis County DA authority over public corruption cases statewide. The reason is that as the State Capitol, Austin was a natural place to give the authority. Of course, Ronnie Earle is from the most liberal place in Austin so this raised the cackles of Texas Republicans as he pursued an investigation into the state redistricting efforts and the finances surrounding Republicans taking both chambers of the Texas Lege.
Republicans have threatened to defund the Travis County public corruption department that is state funded and potentially reduce Earle’s authority.
If anyone is confused about why all this effort by DeLay, remember the mid-decade redistricting the Texas Lege pulled off and his K-Street effort that seeks to have Republicans hired in key lobbying jobs. DeLay sees his role as the guy to deliver a permanent Republican majority.
The Stakeholder is all over this story.
In a little bit, look for updates as to how GOPers from Illinois are voting with DeLay–let’s just ask the question, why is a Republican Congressman from Illinois voting like a Republican Congressman from Texas?
UPDATE:
Jerry Weller-Tom Delay 94% agreement. Where do they differ? On a couple regional transportation bills and procedural motions
Phil Crane–Tom Delay 95%. Where dod they differ? On a couple regional transportation bills and one less procedural motions.
Sugarland Texas has the same values as Lake County and Central Illinois? I don’t think so.
There were no significant policy differences, but instead the differences were over procedure and pork in a given area according to Congressional Quarterly.
That said, the bills included in these votes include the Medicare Drug bill:
? $139 Billion in Windfall Profits for the Pharmaceutical Industry
? Blocks Medicare from Collective Bargaining for Lower Prices
? Prevent Re-importation from Canada
Most readers know I’m not a fan of 3, but the others are significant issues (Greg Blankenship makes a reasonable argument on two that I simply disagree with over at a New Can of Worms)
Hyde numbers later….
ArchPundit