|
|
Political Groups Paid Two Relatives of House Leader
By PHILIP SHENON
Published: April 6, 2005
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/06/politics/06delay.html?th=&adxnnl=1&emc=th&adxnnlx=1112793685-DwRYNKvJHTB8RLYH9oS1vA
(must register to view original article)
WASHINGTON, April 5 - The wife and daughter of Tom DeLay, the House majority
leader, have been paid more than $500,000 since 2001 by Mr. DeLay's
political action and campaign committees, according to a detailed review of
disclosure statements filed with the Federal Election Commission and
separate fund-raising records in Mr. DeLay's home state, Texas.
Most of the payments to his wife, Christine A. DeLay, and his only child,
Dani DeLay Ferro, were described in the disclosure forms as "fund-raising
fees," "campaign management" or "payroll," with no additional details about
how they earned the money. The payments appear to reflect what Mr. DeLay's
aides say is the central role played by the majority leader's wife and
daughter in his political career.
Mr. DeLay's national political action committee, Americans for a Republican
Majority, or Armpac, said in a statement on Tuesday that the two women had
provided valuable services to the committee in exchange for the payments:
"Mrs. DeLay provides big picture, long-term strategic guidance and helps
with personnel decisions. Ms. Ferro is a skilled and experienced
professional event planner who assists Armpac in arranging and organizing
individual events."
Mrs. Ferro has managed several of her father's re-election campaigns for his
House seat.
His spokesman said that Mr. DeLay had no additional comment. Although
several members of Congress employ family members as campaign managers or on
their political action committees, advocacy groups seeking an overhaul of
federal campaign-finance and ethics laws say that the payments to Mr.
DeLay's family members were unusually generous, and should be the focus of
new scrutiny of the Texas congressman.
Mr. DeLay, whose position as majority leader makes him the
second-most-powerful House member, has offered a vigorous public defense in
recent weeks to a flurry of ethics accusations from Democratic lawmakers and
campaign watchdog groups, including charges that he violated House rules on
travel. The executive director of Americans for a Republican Majority and a
major fund-raiser for the committee were indicted in Texas last year on
charges of illegal fund-raising, and prosecutors there have refused to rule
out the possibility of charges against Mr. DeLay in the continuing inquiry.
In recent weeks, public interest groups have called on the House ethics
committee and the Justice Department to review lavish, privately financed
overseas trips for Mr. DeLay and his aides, including a 1997 trip to Russia
that was underwritten by a conservative education group closely linked to a
powerful Republican lobbyist who often boasted of his influence with the
majority leader.
The payments to Mr. DeLay's family have continued into 2005; the latest
monthly disclosure filed by Americans for a Republican Majority shows Mrs.
DeLay was paid was paid $4,028 last month, while Mrs. Ferro received $3,681.
Earlier statements show that the two women received similar monthly fees
from the political action committee throughout 2003 and 2004.
Mrs. DeLay has been involved in her husband's political career and his
fund-raising operations in Washington and Texas. In an interview in 2003
with Roll Call, a newspaper on Capitol Hill, a spokesman for Mr. DeLay
explained Mrs. DeLay's role as "the final signoff of Tom's travel schedule,
what events he attends and what his name appears on."
Mrs. Ferro has also helped manage Mr. DeLay's charity operations. Financial
disclosure statements filed by Mr. DeLay's House campaign committees, which
are separate from Americans for a Republican Majority, show that Mrs. Ferro
and her political consulting firm, Coastal Consulting of Sugar Land, Tex.,
received $222,000 from 2001 through last year, reflecting her role in the
re-election campaigns.
Although there has been no suggestion from prosecutors that Mrs. Ferro is
under investigation by the grand jury in Austin, her records were subpoenaed
in the inquiry, which is focused on the fund-raising activities of Texans
for a Republican Majority, a state political action committee modeled on
Americans for a Republican Majority. Mrs. Ferro received about $30,000 in
fund-raising and consulting fees from Texans for a Republican Majority, the
committee's records show.
"It's DeLay Inc. " said Melanie Sloan, executive director of Citizens for
Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a research group that has closely
monitored Mr. DeLay and his campaign fund-raising and expenditures. "If it's
not illegal, it certainly is inappropriate for members of Congress to use
their positions to enrich their families."
Larry Noble, executive director of the Center for Responsive Politics and a
former general counsel of the Federal Election Commission, said that
"questions are raised anytime a politician puts close family members on the
payroll."
Republican lawmakers can point to prominent Democrats whose campaign and
political action committees have provided lucrative jobs or consulting
contracts to family members. Representative Howard L. Berman of California,
the ranking Democrat on the House ethics committee from 1997 to 2003, paid
$50,000 from his campaign accounts last year to a consulting firm owned by
his brother, according to disclosure forms. Disclosure statements also show
that Senator Barbara Boxer, another California Democrat, directed $15,000
from her political action committee in 2003 to a consulting firm run by her
son.
Several public interest groups have called in recent weeks for the House
ethics committee or another body that may be examining his finances to open
an investigation of Mr. DeLay, focused in part on his privately financed
overseas travels, including the 1997 trip to Moscow and a 2000 trip to
Britain. Questions about the trips' financing were first raised in March in
an article in the National Journal.
Mr. DeLay has denied that he violated House rules in accepting the 2000 trip
from a conservative education group associated with one of the city's most
powerful Republican lobbyists, Jack Abramoff.
The nonprofit education group, the National Center for Public Policy
Research, has said it received large contributions from Mr. Abramoff's
clients about the time of the trips, although it has denied that the
donations were redirected to finance Mr. DeLay's travels.
The trip to Moscow, according to the American Foreign Policy Council report,
was backed by the energy companies that had ties to the Russian government
and that were trying to build support in Washington for Russian
privatization efforts and trade policies.
Mr. DeLay met with Russian business and political leaders. House financial
disclosure statements show that Mr. DeLay's travel costs totaled $9,029 and
that the costs for five members of his staff totaled $55,033. It listed the
sponsor as the National Center for Public Policy Research.
Bobby R. Burchfield, a lawyer for Mr. DeLay, declined to comment, as did the
National Center for Public Policy Research. Jonathan Blank, managing partner
at Preston Gates & Ellis in Washington, said the firm had represented
Chelsea but would not discuss whether the organization had helped pay for
Mr. DeLay's trip.
Dan Allen, a spokesman for Mr. DeLay, said the congressman had filed forms
stating that the Moscow and Britain trips were paid by the National Center
for Public Policy Research.
Eric Lipton and Monica Borkowski contributed reporting for this article.
|
|
|