Republicans' Texas Spending May Bolster Charges Against DeLay

Bloomberg.com: U.S.: "The Republican Party's $190,000 in donations to seven Texas politicians in 2002, which are at the center of criminal charges against Representative Tom DeLay, dwarfed all other contributions the national party made to state legislative races that year, federal records show.

The size of the donations -- five times more money than the national party gave to other state legislative candidates -- may bolster a prosecutor's accusations that DeLay channeled funds through the party to skirt a Texas law banning corporate contributions to political races, campaign-finance experts say.

The money was distributed on Oct. 4, 2002, to Republican legislative candidates backed by DeLay's political action committee, Federal Election Commission records show. That was about two weeks after the national party got $190,000 from the PAC. An indictment obtained by Texas prosecutor Ronnie Earle charges that DeLay's PAC sent a list of the candidates to the party along with $190,000 raised from companies."