Texas Blood Sport

US House Majority Leader Tom Delay (R-TEX) was indicted by a Texas grand jury for campaign finance violations on Wednesday ( 9/28). The Majority Leader was charged with one count of criminal conspiracy for his alleged part in a scheme to use illegal cooperate contributions to aid in Texas Republicans capturing the state legislature in 2002.

The indictment was brought by Ronnie Earle, Travis County District Attorney, a life long Democrat. The indictment says that corporate political contributions, which are illegal under Texas law, were run through RNC banks accounts and given to state Republican candidates. In the indictment it indicates that John Colyandro, executive director of the Texans for a Republican Majority PAC, collected over a $150,000 from corporations in 2002. A check was written by the PAC for a $190,000 and was delivered to the RNC. RNC officials deposited the check with its State Elections Committee. James Ellis, an aide to Mr. Delay gave the RNC officials a list of Republican Texas House candidates to receive contribution to their campaigns.

In 2002 Texas Republicans took over the State House of Representatives and in 2003 at the urging of Tom Delay the Texas House redrew the congressional map to the advantage of the Republicans. When Texas Democrats refuse to attend the sessions Delay used his influence to try to force them back to Austin. In 2004 Texas Republicans won additional seats as a result of the redrawn districts. When the Democrats were in power they did the same thing.

The events of the last two days are just chapters in a political game of “blood sport”. I don’t know if Mr. Delay is guilty or not and only time will tell. However it does seem like Mr. Earle is trying to get a little partisan payback for the Majority Leader’s role in the Texas Republican redistricting process. Some may say that this is a stretch. Well consider this, the indictment present little evidence of the Majority Leader's part in the transfer of the money. Mr. Earle’s website http://www.ronnieearle.com/ contains a link to the Texas Democratic Party’s webpage and as of yesterday the website had the headline, “DeLay Indicted”.

A National Review Online article written on 9/29 by Bryon York reveals that Ronnie Earle has given a film crew “extraordinary access” to make a film about his work on the case (see www.nationalreview.com/york).

Mr. Earle is also the same DA that tried to prosecute Kay Bailey Hutchinson for alleged misuse of office and state employees when she was state Treasurer. This was right at the time when Ms. Hutchinson was mounting her campaign for the US Senate. Later Mr. Earle declined to bring the case to court.

According to Peter Flaherty of “CNSNews.com” on October 31, 2002, the Texas Democratic Party sent the DNC $75,000 and on the same day the money was given to Texas Democratic candidates. I believe to date we have not seen any indictment related to these transactions.

It appears that Mr. Earle may have a hidden agenda with his indictments of Mr. Delay. After the dust settles we will see if Mr. DeLay is guilty or if Mr. Earle is participating in good ole Texas “blood sport”.