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Published on Thursday, July 7, 2005 by The Dallas Morning News
by Wayne Slater
AUSTIN - A company indicted in a Texas campaign fundraising case says it was told that by giving a Tom DeLay political committee $25,000, company officials would get access to the U.S. House majority leader to influence legislation.
In court documents, Westar Energy of Kansas says that to meet with Mr. DeLay in 2002, company officials "were told they needed to write a check for $25,000" to Texans for a Republican Majority, known as TRMPAC.
It's the first time a company has said it donated to the Texas committee created by Mr. DeLay in exchange for a meeting and legislative help.
An aide to Mr. DeLay denied that he was swayed by the donation.
"Anyone who has worked with Majority Leader DeLay knows that his legislative efforts are based on sound public policy alone," spokeswoman Shannon Flaherty said.
Westar attorney Martha Dickie declared in April in an Austin court that company officials hoped to win Mr. DeLay's help on pending energy legislation, according to transcripts in a lawsuit challenging the use of corporate money in Texas elections.
Seeking an exemption
"They absolutely wanted an exemption to continue operating the business and to be grandfathered out of this federal legislation," she said in the hearing. "And maybe they were dumb about the way they went about getting it."
As a result of the contribution, two Westar executives attended a June 2002 golf outing with Mr. DeLay and two top aides at The Homestead resort in Hot Springs, Va.
The provision sought by Westar was included in a House bill with Mr. DeLay's support but was ultimately withdrawn after a grand jury in Austin began investigating corporate fundraising in 2002 Texas legislative races.
TRMPAC raised $1.6 million for Republican statehouse candidates in 2002, including at least $600,000 from corporations.
Those funds helped Republicans complete their grasp on political power statewide, with the GOP taking a majority in the Texas House for the first time in more than a century. In turn, the Legislature redrew congressional districts to create several Republican seats, adding to Mr. DeLay's majority in the U.S. House.
Westar spokeswoman Karla Olsen said Wednesday that the company made the contribution "to tell our side of the story" without any guarantee that the law would be changed.
"We understood we were only having discussions," she said.
Company lawyers wrote that the contributions were "solicited," though they did not specify how exactly the request occurred. Federal law prohibits the promise of legislative favors in return for political donations.
The House ethics committee admonished Mr. DeLay last year, saying the golf outing "created an appearance that donors were being provided special access." But the committee said it had no evidence that Mr. DeLay had improperly solicited contributions from Westar or had broken the law.
Grand jury indictments
A Travis County grand jury has indicted three DeLay associates and eight companies, including Westar, on charges of violating Texas law that forbids the use of corporate money to elect political candidates. All of the companies denied wrongdoing.
Prosecutors have since dismissed felony indictments against four of the corporations in exchange for their agreement to fund programs examining the use of corporate money in politics.
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