DeLay Ends His Drive to Regain Post

Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, indicted in Texas last fall and under scrutiny in a blossoming political scandal on Capitol Hill, abandoned on Saturday his effort to regain his leadership post.

His decision touched off a race to succeed him in a Republican Party beset by ethics problems. And it followed days of political turmoil and soul-searching within the GOP, sparked by Tuesday’s guilty pleas to corruption-related charges by lobbyist Jack Abramoff, once a close DeLay associate.

In a letter released Saturday, DeLay said he agreed with growing calls among Republicans for a new, permanent majority leader to be chosen soon.

“The job of majority leader is too important to be hamstrung by personal distractions,” a tired-looking DeLay said later in the day during a public appearance in his hometown of Sugar Land, Texas.

He also pledged to stay in Congress and run a “vigorous” campaign for reelection in November for the Houston-area seat he has held since 1984.

DeLay, for years widely viewed as Congress’ most influential Republican, stepped down as majority leader after he was charged in September with violating campaign finance laws in Texas. Insisting he expected to be found not guilty early this year, DeLay said he would then seek to reclaim the post.

House Republicans -- many of whom agreed with DeLay’s assertion that the Texas charges were politically motivated -- had been willing to give him time to resolve that case. Instead of naming a permanent successor in September, they appointed Rep. Roy Blunt of Missouri to be temporary majority leader.

One reason the party so supported him was his work over the last decade to increase campaign contributions to Republican coffers. Key to that was the “K Street Project,” an initiative through which Washington’s lobbying community was persuaded to increase their donations to the GOP.

Another reason was his ability to deliver unified votes for the party’s legislative agenda -- he has long has been known in Washington as “The Hammer,” a testament to his brass-knuckles political style.

But the Abramoff guilty pleas transformed DeLay-related political calculations. By the end of last week, pressure within GOP ranks was growing for him to relinquish any claim on the majority leader post.

Among the crimes Abramoff acknowledged were bilking Indian tribal clients out of tens of millions of dollars and attempting to influence congressional lawmakers with lavish trips, gifts and campaign contributions. He is cooperating with federal investigators who are examining his ties to DeLay, other lawmakers, and current and former congressional staff members.

As a result, many House Republicans up for reelection this year began worrying about the political fallout of keeping alive DeLay’s leadership hopes.

“You know how people talk about the captain being willing to go down with the ship?” said one Republican lawmaker, speaking on condition of anonymity because the issue is politically sensitive.

“Well, in this case, it would have been the ship going down with the captain.”

Among those pressuring DeLay to support the selection of a new majority leader was House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.), DeLay’s longtime political ally.

According to a lawmaker close to the speaker, Hastert dispatched emissaries to Sugar Land -- where DeLay, 58, was hunkered down with family members and his closest advisors -- to urge him to give up for the good of the party. The lawmaker spoke on condition of anonymity when discussing Hastert’s role in the matter.

Ron Bonjean, Hastert’s spokesman, said DeLay phoned the speaker Saturday morning to tell him of his decision.

Hastert, in a statement, said DeLay’s decision was “honorable ... and the right decision for the House Republican Conference.”

A White House statement expressed “respect” for DeLay’s decision “to put the interests of the American people, the House of Representatives and the Republican Party first.”

Hastert canceled plans to lead a congressional delegation to Asia and the Egypt starting Monday. The vote on a new majority leader is to be held the first week of February.

Several Republicans said Saturday that Hastert’s position as speaker remains secure but that other leadership jobs could be contested as part of the battle for majority leader.

The campaign for that post was in full swing by Saturday afternoon. Senior staff members for several lawmakers opened their Capitol Hill offices and the political horse-trading commenced.

At least one GOP congressman received a call from Rep. John Boehner (R-Ohio) seeking support to become majority leader. Boehner (pronounced BAY-ner), 56, chairman of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, helped win passage of President Bush’s No Child Left Behind Act. Before being elected to Congress in 1990, he ran a plastics and packing company.

He was elected House Republican Conference chairman, the chamber’s No. 4 GOP spot, in 1994. An ally of ex-Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.), he lost the conference post in 1998 to a DeLay-backed candidate.

Blunt, 55, the acting majority leader, is expected to seek the job on a permanent basis.

First elected to Congress in 1996, the low-key Blunt is less combative than DeLay. It was with DeLay’s support in late 2002 that he won the No. 3 House post, majority whip -- the person responsible for corralling the votes to promote the party’s agenda. Blunt is a former Missouri secretary of state who was for four years president of his alma mater Southwest Baptist University in Bolivar, Mo.

Others who are considered possible contenders include Rep. Thomas M. Reynolds (R-N.Y.), chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee.

“This is a workday,” said a delighted Rep. Charles Bass (R-N.H.). “I’m already getting calls from candidates seeking my support, and there are conference calls going on everywhere.”

Bass, a moderate, had joined with Rep. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), a conservative, in circulating a letter Friday seeking an election for a permanent majority leader.

He and Flake normally are at far ends of the political spectrum, Bass noted, but they agreed that the party needed to take bold action to rid itself of the taint of scandal.

“I just didn’t want to be any part of a caucus that was supporting, in any way, the kind of behavior that is alleged to have occurred between Jack Abramoff and perhaps a number of members of Congress,” Bass said.

Bass and other Republicans said they would question candidates for the majority post closely about ethics concerns.

“The criteria for me and the litmus test for me is going to be [that] we have to elect leaders who are not tainted by the Abramoff scandal,” said Rep. Ray LaHood (R-Ill.), who is close to Hastert. “The last thing we need is to elect new leaders and then a few months down the road have them under investigation for being involved with Jack Abramoff.”

Amid such comments, Hastert was expected to announce as early as today proposals to tighten the rules governing lobbying of Congress.

Democrats are gearing up for a major challenge to DeLay in November’s election. He won reelection in 2004 with 55% of the vote -- a relatively poor showing for a longtime incumbent -- and Democrats are prepared to pour money into this year’s race.

“He’s losing Republican support here in the district, and he’s apparently lost it in Washington, D.C., as well,” said Mike Malaise, campaign manager for Democrat Nick Lampson, a former congressman who is DeLay’s likely opponent.

DeLay, the former owner of a pest extermination business, served as House majority whip for seven years and became majority leader in 2002. DeLay forged a highly disciplined coalition that focused on cutting taxes and promoting causes dear to the party’s social conservative base.

Although they were not personally close, Delay and President Bush forged an effective political partnership, with DeLay playing a key role in pushing through much of the administration’s first-term legislative agenda.

But DeLay’s hard-charging tactics sometimes brought him close to -- or over -- the ethical line. In 2004, he was rebuked three times by the House Ethics Committee for ethics lapses. Then, in 2005, a series of stories in the Washington Post and other newspapers detailed DeLay’s ties to Abramoff, a flamboyant lobbyist who boasted of his ties to the Republican leadership.

It was disclosed that Delay had taken a trip to an expensive Scottish golf resort with Abramoff that was funded by the lobbyist’s tribal clients, in violation of House ethics rules. DeLay said he thought the trip was financed by a conservative think tank, and he denied any wrongdoing.

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Times staff writer Janet Hook contributed to this report.