Tom DeLay and Enron, Ken Lay and Redistricting!
By Byron LaMasters
Yay. More trouble for Tom DeLay. The Washington Post connects the dots with their front page article today:
In May 2001, Enron's top lobbyists in Washington advised the company chairman that then-House Majority Whip Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) was pressing for a $100,000 contribution to his political action committee, in addition to the $250,000 the company had already pledged to the Republican Party that year.
DeLay requested that the new donation come from "a combination of corporate and personal money from Enron's executives," with the understanding that it would be partly spent on "the redistricting effort in Texas," said the e-mail to Kenneth L. Lay from lobbyists Rick Shapiro and Linda Robertson.
The e-mail, which surfaced in a subsequent federal probe of Houston-based Enron, is one of at least a dozen documents obtained by The Washington Post that show DeLay and his associates directed money from corporations and Washington lobbyists to Republican campaign coffers in Texas in 2001 and 2002 as part of a plan to redraw the state's congressional districts.
I'll have to read the rest of the article when I have more time to look at all the research the Washington Post did (it's a long article). Anyway, take a look.
Posted by Byron LaMasters at July 12, 2004 08:45 AM
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I think the only question now is if "the redistricting effort in Texas," qualifies as funding a state legislative campaign. If so, it'w a major no-no under the Texas constitution.
Delay sought "a combination of corporate and personal money." It looks like he did this to hide the money trail so he could argue later that only "personal" money was used in the frontline redistricting effort, and that the "corporate" money was used for administrative expenses. How well he laundered the corporate money will determine whether or not he is indicted.
