News for the scandal-plagued GOP House leadership keeps getting worse and worse--and there's more to come. Yesterday, a Texas grand jury indicted TRMPAC, a PAC founded by Majority Leader Tom DeLay to manipulate the redisctricting process in Texas.
A Texas grand jury has indicted a political organization formed by Tom DeLay, accusing it of taking illegal corporate money as the House majority leader helped Republicans win control of the Texas Legislature and keep Congress in GOP hands.
Last fall, the grand jury indicted three close associates of the DeLay-Blunt leadership team. One of those men, Jim Ellis, was indicted for money laundering. Ellis, who ran ARMPAC, DeLay's federal political arm, once ran a political laundromat [2] for Roy Blunt called the ROYB Fund.
In 1999 and 2000, when Ellis ran both DeLay's ARMPAC and Blunt's ROYB Fund, ARMPAC made contributions to Blunt's committee totalling $150,000 [3]. In return, Blunt made a series of payments to the Alexander Strategy Group (ASG), a firm controlled by former DeLay staffers, that also happened to employ DeLay's wife at the time. Over the course of a two-year period, Blunt's payments to ASG totalled $150,000. For a detailed schedule of the payments, click here [4].
In the same quarter in 2000 that Blunt received a contribution from DeLay for $100,000, Blunt made a contribution to the mysterious DeLay Foundation for $10,000. Blunt's PAC also paid rent to the U.S. Family Network [5], yet another DeLay controlled entity.
In fact, ties were so close between the Blunt and DeLay operations, that ARMPAC, ROYB, Alexander Strategy Group--run by former DeLay staffer Ed Buckham, and the U.S. Family Network [6] once all shared the same office space at 132 D St., SE in a DC townhouse owned by Robert Mills, a former DeLay campaign manager.--who ran the U.S. Family Network [7]. They were forced to disperse when DC zoning officials noted that Mills had reported that only 15% of his home would be used for business purposes. (Roll Call, DeLay PAC, Consulting Firm Move Out of House, April 13, 2000. See also, ROYB campaign finance report [8] expenditure for rent to U.S. Family Network [9] at this address.)
Also during Ellis' tenure with ROYB, Blunt accepted a series of contributions from clients of embattled uber-lobbyist and DeLay crony, Jack Abramoff. Blunt accepted contributions from Concorde Garment Manufacturing, a company that ran sweatshops on the Marianas Islands. In March of 2000, 8 major U.S. retailers settled a class action lawsuit for $6.5 million for working conditions in Marianas Island manufacturing facilities, including those of Concorde Manufacturing. Abramoff lobbied on behalf of various Marianas Island interests. (New York Times, 8 Retailers Settle Suit, March 29, 2000)
Blunt also accepted a contribution from Juan C. Franco. Franco was a prominent Puerto Rican businessman whose key goal was Puerto Rican statehood. Franco was also represented by Abramoff. According to a May 7, 2005 National Journal article headlined, Getting in Good With Tom and Christine, Abramoff, Franco, and interests aligned with the Marianas Islands, were also frequent golfers at DeLay's charitable events.
Blunt's ties to Abramoff also apparently rose to the level of personal friendship. Blunt was included on a freebie list [10] at Abramoff's DC restaraunt as a "friend of owner."
Many of these ties remain unexamined by the mainstream press, but as the investigations and legal proceedings against DeLay and Abramoff continue, you can expect more and more sleaze to come to light, which will only deepen the ethical and political hole that DeLay and Blunt are digging for their party.
Note: Many of the articles referenced in this post are from 1999 and 2000 and are not online. Two of the more obscure ROYB campaign finance reports can be found here [11] and here [12].
Update on December 31, 2005 at 10:58 a.m.:
Many folks searching Google for the "U.S. Family Network" are landing on this post. Click here for a more extensive treatment of the U.S. Family Network, and its ties to Rep. Tom DeLay and Rep. Roy Blunt [13].