DeLay’s FEC Filing: $32K For A Car, Massive Legal Fees, Payments To Family Members, & Political Expenditures Made After His Resignation

Tom DeLay’s last filing with the Federal Election Commission made public this weekend reveals payments for thousands of dollars in legal fees to no less than six law firms in Texas and Washington, D.C; numerous payments to the former Congressman’s daughter, payments to the man who organized a protest that disrupted his opponent’s press conference and resulted in a criminal investigation, a $32,000 payment for an automobile, and political expenditures made days after DeLay formally resigned from the House of Representatives.
According to the schedule of itimized disbursments for DeLay’s congressional campaign filed with the Federal Election Commission, DeLay, who is under indictment in Travis County for alleged misdeeds relating to the 2002 election, paid six law firms in Texas and Washington, D.C. thousands of dollars in legal fees.
The law firms included:

• Andy Taylor & Associates PC, Houston, Texas, $10865.00. Taylor, a former Assistant Attorney General of Texas, was paid several hundred thousand dollars by the State of Texas to defend the DeLay prompted Congressional redistricting plan that was recently declared unconstitutional. Taylor also represented Texans for a Republican Majority, the Texas arm of DeLay’s Americans for a Republican Majority Political Action Committee in the redistricting litigation. Taylor has also represented TRMPAC and the Texas Association of Business in both civil and criminal litigation stemming from the 2002 election. Taylor also represented the state, the Legislative Redistricting Board and then-attorney general John Cornyn (while in private practice) in 2001 lawsuits related to the redistricting of the Texas House and Senate (shortly after he resigned from the Attorney General’s Office). It was this redistricting coupled with the activities of TRMPAC and TAB that resulted in the first Republican majority in the Texas House since Reconstruction that enabled DeLay to force through the mid-decade redistricting plan recently declared partially unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court. Taylor also headed up the transition team for current Texas AG Greg Abbott after Cornyn was elected to the U.S. Senate and Abbot was elected to take his place.

• Blank Rome (Blank, Rome, Comisky & McCauley LLP)Washington, D.C., $69,410.00: The firm recently also represented USGen, a Maryland-based energy corporation and division of PG&E in its $1.5 billion bankruptcy case.

• Bracewell & Giuliani, Houston, TX, $25,000: One of the many firms that represents DeLay is the law firm of former New York City mayor and presumed presidential candidate Rudolph Giuliani. Formerly Bracewell & Patterson, the firm changed its name after taking on Giuliani as a named partner in 2005. Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott was formerly a Bracewell & Patterson attorney as was former Republican National Committee Chairman Marc F. Racicot. The firm also represented Enron.

• McDermott, Will & Emery, Washington, D.C.: $265,000. McDermott, Will & Emery is the world’s 17th largest law firm and bills itself as a leader in patent and trademark law. In addition, its firm attorneys have lobbied for a diverse group of clients ranging from Northwest Airlines and Eli Lilly to the PGA Tour and the California Avacado Commission.

• McGahn & Associates, PLLC, Washington, D.C., $40,000: Firm of DeLay attorney Don McGahn (DeLay’s attorney responsible for the fricas related to television commercials about DeLay earlier this year). McGahn is also the attorney for the National Republican Congressional Committee (also here) and COLDPAC.

• McGuire Woods LLP, Richmond, VA, $75,000.00: McGuire Woods has been paid to lobby for the Republic of Korea, Eastman Kodak, Verizon, Lockheed Martin and the National Basketball Association.

Also on the receiving end of funds from the DeLay campaign was Leonard Cash, who was paid $8,965.10 in salary in reimbursments.

Cash is alleged to have acted in concert with former DeLay campaign manager Chris Homan to create a major disturbance at a press conference of former Congressman Nick Lampson, DeLay’s opponent, in early April. The disturbance resulted in the filing of assault charges by Lampson supporter Marsha Rovai, 70, a former CPS worker, who was knocked down by a DeLay supporter. Video here.

In addition, DeLay’s daughter, Danielle ‘Dani’ DeLay Ferro, was paid about $18,000 for the quarter.
The report also shows that DeLay paid a telemarketing firm (Feather Larson Synhorst DCI of Phoenix, AZ) $34,190.58 on Aprill 11—eight days after he announced his intent to resign from office.
He paid the Austin firm of Olsen & Shuvalov, a well-known Texas Republican consulting firm and direct mail house, $17,392.48 for direct mail the same day, followed by another $12,959.23 on April 25 and a whopping $50,000 on May 12. Olson and Company was founded by Todd Olsen, former Executive Vice President of Karl Rove & Company and Heather Shuvalov, who also worked for Karl Rove & Company. The firm did work for President George W. Bush when he ran for Texas Governor and for his 2001 innauguration, and has worked for U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison. In addition, Olsen & Shuvalov has done work for U.S. Congresswoman Katherine Harris (R-Florida), who served as Secretary of State for the state of Florida during the 2000 election in which Florida’s election was challenged all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. Other clients include U.S. Senator Elizabeth Dole (R-NC).
In addition, DeLay paid $32,396.02 for what was listed as a “final car payment” to US Bank.
Finally, in a sign DeLay may have been anticipating the legal wrangling that may lead to him ultimately staying on the November ballot in Congressional District 22, his campaign paid Americans for a Republican Majority (a PAC DeLay founded) $34,186.88 to acquire contributor lists on June 13—the Tuesday following DeLay’s last day in Congress.

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