Court Files Shed Light on DeLay’s PAC Ties

When a judge said last month that a political committee founded by House Majority Leader Tom DeLay had broken the law by failing to report $500,000 in donations, the Texas congressman distanced himself from the matter.

DeLay’s representatives insisted that he was a mere figurehead of the committee, Texans for a Republican Majority. He had no control over its day-to-day operation, they said, and his lawyer dismissed suggestions of impropriety as “outlandish.”

But in summer 2002, a crucial period of fundraising and activism for the committee, DeLay stepped off an airplane in Austin and received a list of people who were to attend a fundraiser billed as “a private meeting with Tom DeLay.” Three days earlier, a Texans for a Republican Majority staffer had e-mailed three other DeLay associates to ask for the list.

“Have that on the ground in Austin for T.D.,” he wrote.

The 11 lobbyists and executives on the roster had an ambitious wish list in Austin and Washington. Among them were representatives of the chemical industry, a wheelchair distributor and a powerful Texas law firm with strong ties to the GOP.

A database analysis shows that between 2000 and 2004, the groups represented that day gave at least $323,000 to DeLay’s campaigns or political committees, including $77,500 to Texans for a Republican Majority.

None of that money was donated at the meeting itself, and the donations were just a tiny portion of the millions DeLay has helped raise in recent years to dispense to conservative politicians through an innovative operation that has given him rare power in Washington and Texas.

But the roster of attendees, DeLay’s interest in the event and the ensuing donations do illuminate the private world where DeLay builds his political base.

The fundraiser was one of several similar events described in GOP activists’ files, which were subpoenaed in a lawsuit brought by five Democratic candidates here.

Watchdog groups say the documents suggest that DeLay’s involvement in the committee -- which he founded in 2001 using $50,000 provided by a parallel group he had run for years in Washington, Americans for a Republican Majority -- was deeper than he has acknowledged.

In one August 2002 e-mail, for instance, a DeLay fundraiser asked a fellow aide for a “top 10 list” of potential donors to Texans for a Republican Majority. The e-mail said DeLay would personally contact certain prospects. Another exchange suggested that two donor checks would be delivered to DeLay himself.

Fred Lewis, director of Campaigns for People, an Austin group that tries to reduce the influence of money on government, said it was telling that during the fundraising drive that summer, DeLay was cited as a donor draw.

“Now that there are scandals, it turns out he wasn’t involved,” Lewis said. “Both can’t be true. I find it almost comical.... The evidence is overwhelming that he was much more involved than what they say.”

DeLay’s representatives have denied that the congressman handled checks personally. In an interview, his Washington lawyer, Bobby Burchfield, said DeLay had no control over how donations were accepted or how money was spent.

Critics “want to get rid of Tom DeLay, and they make no bones about it,” Burchfield said. “Anything can appear improper to someone who is looking for a problem. There is nothing that violates legal standards or recognized standards of ethics here.”

Late last month, a Texas judge ruled that the treasurer of Texans for a Republican Majority broke the law when he failed to report $532,233 in corporate money raised during the 2002 campaign. The ruling came in the lawsuit brought by Democratic Party candidates who lost that year.

The elections of 2002 were pivotal for Texas Republicans, who -- using, in part, $1.5 million raised by Texans for a Republican Majority -- took control of the governor’s mansion and both chambers of the Legislature.

At DeLay’s urging, Texas lawmakers used their clout to draw new congressional district maps. Those maps produced a six-seat swing in the Texas congressional delegation last year, shoring up the GOP majority in Congress.

Democrats and campaign finance watchdog groups have alleged wrongdoing, largely because about a third of the money raised by Texans for a Republican Majority -- founded by DeLay in 2001 -- came from corporations. Texas law bans corporate contributions to legislative candidates.

The dispute over whether the corporate money was used illegally in the election has prompted several lawsuits, and a prosecutor in Austin is conducting a criminal investigation.

Three of DeLay’s political aides have been indicted on charges of money laundering and of unlawfully accepting and soliciting corporate contributions.

DeLay has neither been named as a defendant nor charged with a crime, but prosecutors have not ruled out charging him. The details of his involvement in Texans for a Republican Majority will be important to determining whether prosecutors or Democrats’ lawyers attempt to hold him personally liable for the fundraising operation.

DeLay was “substantially” involved in Texans for a Republican Majority, “from its founding to the raising of money to figuring out how it would be spent,” said Craig McDonald, director of Texans for Public Justice, a nonpartisan group in Austin that also fights the influence of money in politics.

“He was involved in helping to raise corporate funds. Those are essentially the same activities that [Texans for a Republican Majority] staff has been indicted for.”

DeLay is closely aligned with several of the lobbying groups represented at the July 2002 fundraiser.

One attendee was Austin lawyer R. Kinnan Golemon, a lobbyist for oil and chemical companies and general counsel of the Texas Chemical Council. Golemon represents, among others, Koch Industries, a privately held Kansas firm that owns a host of petroleum, chemical, energy and finance companies.

Koch is a prominent manufacturer of MTBE, a gasoline additive that has been found in drinking water. DeLay has been a key player in the effort to grant chemical companies immunity from liability associated with MTBE contamination.

Koch and one of its executives, according to financial disclosure forms, have donated $17,500 to DeLay’s last two campaigns and, since 2001, $63,500 to Americans for a Republican Majority.

It does not appear from Texas Ethics Commission records that Golemon represents Koch anymore.

Another attendee was Terral Smith, a former Texas legislator, onetime legislative director to then-Gov. George W. Bush and, at the time of the fundraiser, a lobbyist for the powerful Texas law firm Locke Liddell & Sapp. The firm has given at least $14,000 to DeLay’s campaigns and committees since 2001.

A prominent Locke Liddell lawyer, Andy Taylor, advised Texans for a Republican Majority and an affiliated group, the Texas Assn. of Business, during the 2002 campaign.

Later, when Republican leaders in Texas launched their effort to draw new congressional district maps, Atty. Gen. Greg Abbott hired Taylor to defend the GOP plan in court. Taylor’s bill came to $772,399.

At the time, one Democratic lawmaker asked why the attorney general had allowed “Tom DeLay’s attorney to draw the map for the state of Texas.”

Taylor has since left Locke Liddell.

Watchdog groups say the connections support their belief that DeLay was more directly involved than he has acknowledged.

Burchfield, DeLay’s lawyer, called that contention absurd -- and naive.

“Whenever a politician shows up for a fundraiser, there are going to be people there that have interests in the government,” he said. “If they didn’t, they wouldn’t be attending a political fundraiser. There is no evidence whatsoever that any of these people were contributing money or otherwise acting in an improper way to get any sort of quid pro quo.”

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Times staff writer Lianne Hart contributed to this report.