DeLay's (illegal?)Corporate Fundraising (to redistrict) Investigated

[papau]

Corporate fundraising practices of the House Majority Leader seems to include per email in May 2001 from Enron's top lobbyists Rick Shapiro and Linda Robertson, a demand for a $100,000 contribution to his political action committee, in addition to the $250,000 the company had already pledged to the Republican Party that year - with the new donation to 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."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A43219-2004Jul11?language=printer

DeLay's Corporate Fundraising Investigated
Money Was Directed to Texas GOP to Help State Redistricting Effort

By R. Jeffrey Smith
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, July 12, 2004; Page A01


In May 2001, Enron's top lobbyists in Washington advised the company chairman that then-House Majority Whip Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) was pressing for a $100,000 contribution to his political action committee, in addition to the $250,000 the company had already pledged to the Republican Party that year.

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.

[lovedems]

1. Despite the evidence, DeLay will whine that democrats are

playing politics. No wonder he was an exterminator. There is room for only one cockroach in the state of Texas and he wanted the job.

[DemWitch]

2. I HATE this guy sooooooooo much

DeLay is such a dick... I hope they string him up by his balls... if he has any. Time for the "Hammer" to see what "hammer time" is all about. Yeah, he will bitch and chew about how the dirty Democrats are trying to destroy him and tarnish his good name, but lets face it folks, there is only so much room in ones closet before stuff starts to fall out from being overstuffed. I think the Republican leadership will ask him (read tell him) to resign before they are nailed with yet another embarrassing breach of ethics.