Naked City

A criminal investigation into how corporate money influenced the 2002 legislative races has unearthed new findings that link House Speaker Tom Craddick to possibly illegal campaign finance activities of a political action committee formed by U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay. The findings, reported in Monday's edition of The New York Times, suggest that Craddick and the committee – Texans for a Republican Majority – worked together to ensure a Republican lock on the Texas House and Craddick's subsequent election as speaker. In turn, Craddick followed DeLay's redistricting road map to guarantee GOP gains in Congress in November.

One of the most revealing findings had Craddick personally delivering $152,000 in TRMPAC campaign checks to 14 Republican candidates – while campaigning for speaker. Craddick's office has denied that he "bought" the speaker's seat. Craig McDonald, director of watchdog Texans for Public Justice, pointed out that state law forbids speaker candidates from influencing that contest with special-interest money. "The Times story suggests that Craddick may have sidestepped this law by using DeLay's TRMPAC as a proxy."

Watchdog groups Campaigns for People and Public Citizen have called for a grand jury investigation into Craddick's activities. Craddick had previously denied any involvement with TRMPAC during the 2002 election cycle, but this week rejected calls to release records of his speaker campaign. Watchdogs have long believed that TRMPAC heavily subsidized its endeavors with corporate money. State law prohibits corporations and unions from funneling money directly to campaigns, but it does allow such contributions to cover "administrative" costs. The new developments are part of an ongoing grand jury probe of both TRMPAC and the Texas Association of Business.

Austin lawyer Cris Feldman, who filed a lawsuit against the treasurer of Texans for a Republican Majority on behalf of several unsuccessful Democratic candidates, also weighed in: "Some of the revelations are very significant, and it's evident that TRM helped spawn corruption on numerous levels," he said. "The whole thing is very significant, but there's no telling where this will lead."