9-29-05, 9:15 am

Republican Rep. Tom DeLay (TX) should resign his position in Congress, not just his leadership role, say government corruption watchdog groups.

Indicted yesterday on charges of criminal conspiracy related to his role in illegally accepting corporate campaign donations through his political action committee called Texans for a Republican Majority (TRMPAC), DeLay's leadership duties were assigned to a 'team' that includes Rep. David Dreier (CA) and Rep. Roy Blunt (MO).

A Travis County grand jury in Austin, Texas delivered the indictment on the last day of its term. The charge, if DeLay is convicted, could hand him a two-year sentence in state prison. Other TRMPAC leaders have also been indicted for their roles in the use of corporate campaign funds during the 2002 election cycle.

According to media reports in Texas, state law bans corporate money from being spent in connection with political campaigns. TRMPAC failed to report over $600,000 in corporate donations to the Texas Elections Commission and subsequently used some of the money for Republican political campaigns, the grand jury found.

Last May, a Texas judge found TRMPAC Treasurer Bill Ceverha guilty of illegally failing to report the money.

Over the past year, Travis County grand jurors have indicted three DeLay associates – John Colyandro, Jim Ellis and Warren Robold – as well as eight corporate donors, the Texas Association of Business, and DeLay's Texans for a Republican Majority.

The investigation has scrutinized a 2002 transaction in which Colyandro, the official head of TRMPAC, wrote a blank check to Jim Ellis, DeLay's top fundraising aide. Corporate donations covered the blank check. The money was given to a Republican National Committee slush fund, who then funneled $190,000 to seven Republican Texas legislature candidates.

This particular effort resulted in a Republican majority in the Texas legislature that allowed the Republican Party to re-draw federal congressional district lines that brought four new Republican seats to the House of Representatives.

According to the indictment against Ellis, the grand jury viewed this scheme as 'money-laundering' and failed to abide by state law banning the use of corporate money for political campaigns.

Colyandro and Ellis were re-indicted on criminal conspiracy charges yesterday as well.

According to a House Ethics Committee complaint that ultimately exposed many of the events related to DeLay's indictment on criminal conspiracy charges, TRMPAC officials solicited funds from Texas-based energy company Westar. E-mails and internal memos show that DeLay and Westar communicated about donations, and that money was subsequently given to TRMPAC specifically to gain DeLay's assistance on passage of certain bills before the House.

House Republican Party rules mandate that an indicted party leader be suspended from his or her position.

The members of the Republican leadership 'team' who will handle DeLay's duties while he faces criminal charges will have some influence over the House's ethics investigation of DeLay. This fact has some observers skeptical that an honest ethics investigation will follow.

Rep. Dreier, as Ellen Miller of the progressive policy group Campaign for America's Future noted in a national teleconference yesterday, can hardly be expected to have an impartial view of the ethics process in regard to DeLay. In 2004, Dreier voted to adopt weakened Ethics Committee rules created by the House Republican leadership in order to protect DeLay and himself has given $5,000 to DeLay's legal defense fund.

The other Republican named to take over DeLay's duties, Rep. Blunt, also voted to weaken the ethics process and is the leading donor to DeLay's legal defense with $20,000, according to a report last July by consumer advocacy group Public Citizen.

Melanie Sloan of the corruption watchdog Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington added that yesterday's indictment is only part of the overall picture of DeLay's problems with corruption. The federal investigation into DeLay's relationship with lobbyist 'Casino Jack' Abramoff and illegal payments to DeLay for trips abroad and other influence peddling schemes should pick up momentum.

As a result of the indictment, Sloan added, DeLay's fabled fundraising ability, mostly related to his powerful position in the House, will be drastically weakened, as will his notorious 'K Street' project, which seeks to elbow Democratic Party-oriented lobbyists out of influential positions in Washington's network of lawyers and lobbyists.

Miller suggested that DeLay's overall influence will weaken, adding that he 'will be a significantly diminished member of Congress.'

While DeLay's defenders are already screaming partisanship, Sloan maintains that DeLay's indictment and the recent arrest of White House aide David Safavian for obstructing a federal investigation into the dealings of Jack Abramoff have exposed a 'culture of corruption in this administration and Congress. It is a cancer that needs to be stopped,' she said.

Sloan called on DeLay to resign and to return the illegally spent money. She further urged local and state prosecutors to carefully monitor the activities of all politicians and their compliance with the campaign finance laws under their jurisdiction.

Both Miller and Sloan expect the corruption scandal to slow or even block the movement of President Bush's agenda through Congress, and to create a serious problem for the Republicans in the 2006 congressional elections.

Texans for Public Justice, an anti-corruption group based in Texas applauded the indictment. 'No jury can undo the outcome of Texas’ 2002 elections,' said Texans for Public Justice Director Craig McDonald, 'but the justice system must punish those who criminally conspire to undermine democracy – no matter how powerful they may be. If we are to be a ‘democracy,’ then powerful politicians cannot flout such laws with impunity.'

McDonald called for a shake-up in the Texas state legislature and scrutiny of those Texas politicians who benefited from the TRMPAC conspiracy.



--Joel Wendland is managing editor of Political Affairs and may be reached at jwendland@politicalaffairs.net.