Fwd: [DemocraticResearch] Texas GOP "agrees to stop" some campaign practices

Well - it looks like they got away squeaky clean. arrrrggggg....

TOM BLACKWELL  wrote: Not enough.   Not enough.  Not enough.

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Texas GOP agrees to stop some campaign practices

Party to make changes in way it spends corporate money in return for deferred
prosecution.

By Laylan Copelin

AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
http://www.statesman.com/metrostate/content/metro/stories/11/18gopdeal.html

Friday, November 18, 2005

The Republican Party of Texas avoided prosecution Thursday by agreeing to stop
using corporate money for some political activity.

Although
party officials denied criminal wrongdoing, they signed an agreement
with Travis County Attorney David Escamilla as he was preparing to present to a
Travis County grand jury the results of his 18-month investigation into the
GOP's 2002 campaign activities.

Escamilla's investigation, which is similar to one pursued by Travis County
District Attorney Ronnie Earle against U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay and the Texas
Association of Business, will be put on hold through March 31, 2007. In return,
the Republican Party of Texas agreed to stop using corporate money to pay for
political consulting, voter registration, get-out-the-vote efforts or
advertising that mentions candidates.

State law generally prohibits money raised from corporations or unions from
being spent in connection with campaigns. The law allows political parties to
spend that money to run conventions and on administrative expenses, typically
interpreted to mean overhead
such as office rent, utilities, bookkeeping and
other nonpolitical purposes.

But in 2002, the Republican Party, TAB, the state's largest business
organization, and DeLay's political action committee, Texans for a Republican
Majority, spent corporate money on consultants, fundraisers, phone banks or
so-called issue ads that specifically mentioned candidates.

The Republican Party's agreement has no direct effect on felony charges against
DeLay or TAB, both indicted on charges arising from Earle's investigation into
the use of corporate money during the 2002 legislative elections.

But campaign finance activists said the agreement underscores "a broader
conspiracy" by Republicans and their corporate allies to hide the use of
corporate money in the pivotal elections that led to the Republican takeover of
state government.

"They literally had a fire sale with our public institutions," said Craig
McDonald of Texans
for Public Justice. "They brought in $10 million of corporate
money. And that corporate money bought policies for special interests