April 11, 2005, 7:36 PM EDT
WASHINGTON -- Fundraisers for a political committee founded by House Majority Leader Tom DeLay routinely solicited donations by identifying legislative actions that prospective givers wanted, from video gambling to lawsuit limits, memos show.
"What companies that you know of would be interested in tort reform in Texas with asbestos problems that might support TRMPAC?" one DeLay fundraiser wrote in a memo prospecting for donors to the Texans for a Republican Majority Political Action Committee (TRMPAC).
That memo elicited an answer identifying several large companies and interest groups nationwide interested in lawsuit-limiting legislation in Congress and Texas, the documents show.
The fundraisers also discussed using DeLay himself to make calls to round up some of the bigger donations, and referred to delivery of at least two checks they collected directly to the House majority leader.
"Create a top 10 list of givers and let me call them to ask for large contribution," DeLay fundraiser Warren RoBold wrote in August 2002. "I would then decide from response who Tom DeLay others should call."
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