That includes his political action committee, Americans for a Republican Majority, which is commonly referred to as ARMPAC. The high-voltage federal fund has doled out more than $3.5 million to GOP candidates since 1994. Louisiana's Republican congressmen have received $60,034 alone, and at the top of list is Rep. Charles Boustany Jr., who has collected about $25,000 since he entered the political fray in 2004.
ARMPAC lost some of its luster last year when Executive Director Jim Ellis, as well as other DeLay aides, were indicted by a grand jury for money laundering ' a first-degree felony. ARMPAC as an entity, however, has not been charged with any wrongdoing. It's DeLay's state PAC ' "Texans for a Republican Majority" ' that has landed the politico in hot water. DeLay was indicted in September for allegedly using the Texas PAC to funnel corporate money to several legislative candidates in the Lone Star State.
Still, recipients of money from ARMPAC are getting pummeled by special interests to return their contributions to DeLay. When asked what Lafayette Rep. Boustany would do, his press secretary Amy Jones questions the timing of the query.
"This is an old issue," she says, and adds that Boustany has no plans to return the money.
As far back as fall 2004, political groups like the Louisiana Democratic Party were asking GOP candidates to recoil from the DeLay money. For some, it became a major election issue in their last campaign. But special interests are finding ways to breathe new life into the issue, with hurricane survivors at the forefront.
For instance, the Campaign for America's Future recently launched a public appeal asking lawmakers to donate the equivalent of whatever DeLay granted them to the Bush-Clinton Katrina Fund, a charitable pool organized by the former U.S. presidents. Campaign for America's Future bills itself as a progressive think tank, and has a "rogues gallery" of politicians on its Web site that includes Democratic Rep. John Tanner of Tennessee and Republican Rep. Bob Ney of Ohio.
Ellen Miller, deputy director of Campaign for America's Future, says her group's call to action is more relevant than ever with the formation of the hurricane fund. "Washington is engulfed in corruption," she says. "It's time for members of Congress to stand with the people and show that, in this time of great national need, the charity chests are more important than political war chests."
Even before the campaign was launched, Rep. Kenny Hulshof of Missouri cleared the way for such thinking by donating his $15,000 DeLay contribution to the Bush-Clinton fund. His spokesman later said the congressman wanted to "disassociate" himself from the situation. Rep. Steven LaTourette of Ohio soon followed pace, and two more lawmakers ' Reps. Jeb Bradley of New Hampshire and Heather Wilson of New Mexico ' are playing catch-up, vowing to return the money but not yet announcing their intentions, according to published reports.
DeLay hasn't been convicted of anything, but perception is weighing him down. His reputation took another hit recently with an Associated Press report that Delay's various organizations have spent more than $1 million on top-of-the-line luxury accommodations and lavish meals during political fundraising trips.
For now, Boustany appears unwilling to break party ranks and is rolling the dice in hopes that Delay will be acquitted of campaign finance violations. But Boustany spokeswoman Jones says it's not out of the question that Congressman Boustany would eventually rid himself of the $25,000 in DeLay contributions.
"If at any point there would be an indictment that showed a violation of federal campaign law with ARMPAC, then we would certainly donate the money," Jones says. "But we would end up trying to find something local inside the district to give the money to."
Contact Jeremy Alford through his Web site at www.jeremyalford.com.
MAY 17 Here's a column from James Gill, this time in the Advocate. Gill, who has jumped ship from the Picayune, writes about the absurdity of dueling polls in this post. The numbers are so wildly different, it is obvious that both sides are "cooking the books," he writes. In particular, he looks at Sen. Mary Landrieu, and how her recent actions in DC have been received by those polled. Gill's acerbic, amusing prose is a welcome addition to a paper so conservative as to be occasionally lacking in personality.
MAY 17 Blogger Tom Aswell continues delivering bombshells about the state education department and Gov. Jindal's education "reform" efforts. In this post, he reports that students in the Shreveport area have been signed up for a charter school without their knowledge or consent. Most interesting to Aswell is how this Texas-based charter (with ties to GOP types) got the personal student information it has, if the students didn't give it.
MAY 17 This post by JR Ball in the Baton Rouge Business Report is an interesting tongue-in-cheek look at recent Baton Rouge economic development efforts. Among the items he examines is the idea that gaining a Costco makes BR a "world-class city." (Really? All you need is a different brand of Sam's? MK!) This effort, and other recent ones, are all built on the taxpayer's back, with tax zones, tax incentives and tax rebates, Ball writes.
MAY 17 Blogger CB Forgotston is critical of the legislature's reliance on a revenue-estimating committee's decision to include projected tax amnesty income in this year's forecast. That's a problem, CB posts, because the deadline for these people to pay their taxes is June 30, 2014. So when do you think these people who haven't paid taxes in years are going to pay their taxes? Surely not before June 30, and that means the money won't be there for this year's budget, he argues.
MAY 17 Here's an interesting blog out of California by a Hollywood writer, attorney and academic named Brian Alan Lane. He blogs about higher ed, and was a whistle-blower in a scandal over false credentials. In this post, he takes aim at LSU's new top dog, King Alexander. It's convoluted and a little confusing, but it sure makes Alexander a lot more interesting than he was yesterday.
MAY 17 Blogger Robert Mann writes about the LSU Board's refusal to allow Dr. Fred Cerise to testify before the legislature about Gov. Jindal's plan to close down all the state's charity hospitals and dump the poor on the private system. It's hard to imagine anyone more qualified than Cerise to testify about that, so why would anyone try to prevent him doing so? Mann thinks it is because the powers that be aren't interested in hearing any truth about the plan.
MAY 17 This post on the Louisiana Sinkhole Bugle, a blog that notes developments in the Bayou Corne and Jefferson Island salt domes, talks about a proposed expansion of the salt dome storage under Lake Peigneur in Iberia Parish. Residents are working against it for several reasons, including two biggies: the sinkhole disaster in Bayou Corne and the continuing, unexplained bubbling on the surface of the Lake.
MAY 17 NOLA police arrested more people Thursday accused of either being involved in the Mother's Day shooting or hiding the suspect afterward, this Gambit story reports. The NOLA police chief said he suspects the whole thing was gang-related and throws out a challenge to the gangs: he's got informants now, he says, and he knows a lot more than the gangs want him to know. The people who live in the neighborhoods terrorized by gangs are ready to talk, he says.
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