From the Houston Chronicle: A Travis County jury today convicted former U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Sugar Land, on two charges dealing with political money laundering. He faces the possibility of long prison sentences on both convictions.
DeLay helped orchestrate the Republican takeover of the Texas House of Representatives in the 2002 election. From the Houston Chronicle story:
“DeLay and two political aides were accused of arranging to trade $190,000 in corporate money with the Republican National Committee in 2002 in exchange for a like amount of money raised from individual donations that the RNC gave to seven specified Texas candidates. Texas law bars the use of corporate contributions in candidate elections.”
The next year the newly established Republican majority elected Tom Craddick, R-Midland, as Speaker. Then Republican lawmakers in Austin threw out a congressional redistricting map put in place just two years earlier and drew new district boundaries that were substantially more favorable to GOP candidates. The Craddick-run House spent the next six years pushing through as much of the religious right’s political agenda as it could.
Texas Freedom Network 