After Six Years, Texas Association Of Business Pleads Guilty To Campaign Finance Violations
By Vince Leibowitz on Oct 21, 2008 in Featured, GOP Corruption & Scandals ![[Post to Twitter]](/wp-content/plugins/tweet-this/icons/tt-twitter.png){kind=icon}
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Six years after the Texas Association of Business broke the law to help Republicans steal the 2002 election and forever changed the Texas political landscape, the group has pleaded guilty to violating campaign finance laws.
TAB pleaded guilty to the misdemeanor charge of making unlawful direct campaign expenditures, and will pay a $10,000 fine.
While this closes out the last of the charges and civil suits facing TAB, a second set of criminal activity that sparked indictments of former U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Sugar Land) stemming from 2002 election activities remains unresolved and pending before state appeals courts.
From the Statesman:
[Travis County DA Ronnie] Earle accused the trade association, which is a corporation, of making illegal corporate donations to its own political action committee by paying the salaries of two employees as they traveled the state, appearing at fundraisers and other events, urging voters to support the state GOP candidates, speaking to the news media on behalf of the candidates and consulting on strategy. Those two employees were association president Bill Hammond and the association’s lobbyist, Jack Campbell.
State law generally prohibits the spending of corporate money in connection with a campaign.
“I now recognize that while working as a salaried employee of the Texas Association of Business, it was a violation of the law to expressly advocate for the election of these candidates,” Hammond told reporters today. “I take full responsibility for my actions. I apologize to the voters of Texas and to the members of the Texas Association of Business.”
Hammond’s weak-assed apology is a six years late and a dollar short. It will be tough to reverse effects of the wholesale rape of the poor and middle class led by the Republican majority that Hammond helped put in place.
Even so, the guilty plea is a victory for clean elections, and Travis County DA Ronnie Earle deserves a lot of credit for his dogged prosecution of TAB.
Craig McDonald, from Texans for Public Justice had perhaps the best quote on the whole situation today:
“Clearly some progress has been made when the Texas Association of Business admits to criminal behavior six years after the fact. Yet, $10,000 is a small price to pay for stealing an election that profoundly reconfigured Texas politics–and even that of the nation as a whole.”
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