Democrats Urge Probe of House GOP Proposal to Raise $25 Million

Democrats want the Justice Department and Congress to investigate whether House Republican leaders are violating campaign finance laws with a planned $25-million fund for key House races next year.

Advisors to the House’s third-ranking Republican, Majority Whip Tom DeLay of Texas, created the Republican Majority Issues Campaign to raise and spend that much in two dozen races in 2000.

House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert of Illinois, Majority Leader Dick Armey of Texas and the No. 4 Republican, Oklahoma’s J.C. Watts Jr., chairman of the Republican Conference, also are raising money for the effort.

Campaign finance watchdog groups criticized the fund-raising strategy on a variety of fronts, not the least of which is organizers’ decision to keep their donor list secret.

“For members of Congress to set up an invisible slush fund to collect $25 million to influence the 2000 elections raises all sorts of questions,” Larry Makinson, executive director of the Center for Responsive Politics, said Thursday.

Also Thursday, the GOP chairman and the top Democrat on the House ethics committee took the unusual step of releasing a letter saying the panel had not approved the GOP leaders’ campaign.