By Sylvia Moreno and R. Jeffrey Smith
Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, May 27, 2005
AUSTIN, May 26 -- A state judge ruled Thursday that the treasurer of a political fundraising committee organized by House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) violated the state's election law by failing to report $684,507 in contributions from corporations and other donors in 2002.
The civil court decision is the first to uphold a complaint by Democrats about the way DeLay and his advisers financed a 2002 political victory in Texas, which ultimately helped cement Republican control of the U.S. House of Representatives.
The fundraising committee, Texans for a Republican Majority (TRMPAC), following a plan devised by the DeLay camp, helped elect the first Republican majority in the Texas House in 130 years. That allowed DeLay's allies here in the state legislature to redraw congressional districts and elect four additional Republicans to the U.S. House in 2004.
The decision by state District Judge Joseph H. Hart focused on the liability of the committee's treasurer and did not mention DeLay, who has denied involvement in any improprieties. The judge did not rule explicitly on the wider issue of whether the contributions themselves -- as opposed to the failure to report them -- were illegal.
Separate criminal charges related to that issue, including indictments of three political associates of DeLay and four of the corporations that provided contributions, are pending in another Texas court.
Bobby R. Burchfield, an attorney for DeLay, said that "the entire TRMPAC controversy really has very little to do" with the majority leader, a circumstance he said was confirmed by the absence of any mention of DeLay in the ruling. He said the decision "resolves, pending appeal, a good-faith dispute about whether particular contributions and expenditures are reportable under this ambiguous statute" and should not be overblown.
DeLay, asked by a reporter for CNN if the ruling had implications for him, responded: "Not for me. I'm not part of it."
But attorneys for the five defeated Texas Democratic state legislature candidates who brought the lawsuit said the opinion provides a foundation for future court rulings adverse to DeLay's committee and those connected to it.
Cris Feldman, an attorney for the plaintiffs, said in a statement that "today's opinion is an important first step in holding accountable Texans for a Republican Majority for its illegal use of secret corporate cash in the 2002 Texas state elections."
Terry Scarborough, the lawyer who represented TRMPAC and its treasurer, responded with a written statement saying that "we feel strongly that this decision is wrong." The statement added: "Our client was exercising his constitutional rights."
Scarborough said he hopes to obtain the judge's permission to appeal the ruling before the related criminal case is concluded.
At issue were the activities of the Texas group, created in 2001 by DeLay and his advisers to reorder the state and national political maps. Its director was John Colyandro, a veteran of White House political adviser Karl Rove's direct-mail firm; one of its decision-makers was Jim Ellis, who runs DeLay's federal political action committee; and its chief corporate fundraiser was Warren RoBold, who performed the same function for DeLay's federal committee.
Documents revealed in the civil case spelled out how DeLay, who served on the committee's board, wrote a cover letter for its fundraising brochure, and called or met with donors at dinners and other events, where he sometimes solicited their views on pending federal legislation. DeLay's attorneys have claimed, however, that he was not involved in the group's day-to-day operations.
The donors included corporate giants such as Philip Morris USA, Bacardi USA, Sears Roebuck and Co., and AT&T Corp., many of which had more policy interests at stake in Washington than in Texas. In all, 17 state House members who received money from TRMPAC's coffers were elected. The Texas House approved a redistricting plan favorable to Republicans 13 months later.
In finding its treasurer, Bill Ceverha, responsible for the reporting violations, Hart did not accept the two principal defenses raised by the Texas committee in both the civil and criminal trials. He did not find the election law unconstitutional, and he rejected a claim that the corporate funds were used for "administrative" purposes and were legal and not covered by reporting requirements under Texas election law.
Ronnie Earle, the Texas district attorney overseeing the separate criminal case, said that his office's court pleadings contain "many of the same points as those contained in Judge Hart's opinion."
Hart's decision centered on his interpretation of an election law provision that requires disclosure to the Texas Ethics Commission of all campaign contributions and expenditures, and makes treasurers of political groups personally liable for damages if violations are found.
A separate provision -- which Earle has alleged the committee violated -- bars corporate financing of state legislative campaigns, while permitting corporate contributions toward purely administrative expenses by political action committees. Ceverha and his attorney said all of the corporate funds were used for such expenses, but the judge called their definition of the word "administrative" incorrect.
Hart said the law does not allow a treasurer to turn "a blind eye to obvious facts." He said TRMPAC's political fundraising, polling, staff salaries for political activity, political conferences and candidate meetings, political direct mail, political research and printing -- all financed by $532,333 in "corporate contributions" -- could not be considered "administrative" expenses of TRMPAC under ethics commission rulings.
The judge's decision awarded a total of $196,660 in damages to the five defeated Democratic candidates, in amounts ranging from $17,332 to $87,3323. The total award was considerably less than the $1.2 million their lawsuit sought, a difference based on the judge's reading of a provision in the statute related to damages that he described as "not a model of clarity."
Former state representative David F. Lengefeld, one of the plaintiffs, said the judge's decision "gives me renewed hope in the election code in the state of Texas."
"It shows the law was surely broken by those involved in Texans for a Republican Majority and their attempts to cover up their actions," he added in a telephone interview from his insurance office in Hamilton, Tex.
Lengefeld also called the ruling "an important first" that "sets the stage for the criminal investigations and trials to come."
Smith reported from Washington. Staff writer Mike Allen in Washington contributed to this report.