If it were only for politics

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TOMMY STEVENSON: DeLay, others use Alabama to send money elsewhereThink of each of the hundreds of Political Action Committees set up in PAC-friendly Alabama over the years as barrels of varying sizes.Then think of the money from individuals, businesses, corporations and even other PACs as water poured into those barrels.Finally, think of the money in those PACs being dispersed by dippers to candidates, political organizations and even other PACs.The instruction, “Follow the money," that Deep Throat gave Robert Redford and Bob Woodward in the movie “All the President’s Men" (but which Woodward said was never given in the real-life investigation that brought down President Richard Nixon), would be impossible under such circumstances, wouldn’t it?Maybe that’s why former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, now fighting for his freedom in a Texas money- laundering trial, set up an Americans for a Republican Majority State Account PAC in Alabama in 1998.He then used the more than $750,000 – all of it coming from sources outside Alabama -- that was funneled into that PAC to help him finance the redistricting of Texas in 2002.That redistricting created more GOP House seats and, among other things, helped his party remain in control of Congress in the 2004 elections.The Americans for a Republican Majority State Account, as the PAC is sometimes identified on contributions and expenditures documents filed with the Alabama Secretary of State’s Office, also dispersed just a pittance of the money it collected in its Alabama PAC outside the state.According to the records that our Montgomery Bureau Chief Dana Beyerle and I accessed on the secretary of state’s Web site, the only money that stayed in Alabama was $11,000 that went to Gov. Bob Riley’s 2002 campaign for governor, and $5,000 that was tossed the PAC’s way when the fund was first set up in 1998.Even though the papers setting up the Americans for a Republican Majority State Account listed its address as 1155 21st Street, NW, Suite 300, Washington, D.C., Janice McDonald, an election specialist in the Secretary of State’s Office, said the scheme was all perfectly legal under existing Alabama campaign finance laws.“We have a lot of out-of-state PACs registered in Alabama and a lot of them that collect money from out of state and turn around and send it out of state," she said.That’s one reason to overhaul/sAlabama’s campaign finance laws, especially the loophole that allows PACs to contribute to other PACs, effectively disguising (some might say laundering) the true source of money that flows into our campaigns.A look at the contributions and expenditures forms of DeLay’s Alabama PAC is enlightening, perplexing and infuriating, all at the same time.Many of the contributions came from big law firms in New York, Washington and Texas, telecommunication and pharmaceutical firms and various single-interest companies like R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. Inc., which contributed $30,000 on Oct. 21, 2002. Two weeks earlier, General Cigar Holdings (DeLay is known to enjoy a fine cigar now and then) also contributed $10,000.But what’s up with the $5,000 contribution from the Sam Katz for Mayor Campaign Committee in Mechanicsburg, Pa., that was received on Jan. 12, 2000? Or the $5,000 from The Scooter Store in New Braunfels, Texas, that came in on May 24, 2002?The Lexington, Ky.-based National Thoroughbred Racing Association, where Michael Brown presumably was doing “a heck of a job" before being tapped as FEMA director by President George W. Bush, also chipped in $15,000 on Aug. 23, 2002.The expenditures were heavily weighted toward the various organizations in Texas working for redistricting, although many of them simply went to pay off five-figure credit card bills from American Express, Discover and MasterCard.But there is evidence that things weren’t just all work and no play for recipients of DeLay’s Alabama PAC.On Nov. 7, 2002, the PAC sent a $24,580 check to the ESPN Zone in Washington, D.C., a glitzy sports bar. The purpose of the expense was “food" and “fundraising," according to the document on file in Montgomery.The Champions Gate Golf Resort (The Hammer does love him some golf, doesn’t he?) in Champions Gate, Fla., got $2,351 on Jan. 31, 2002, while the elegant Greenbrier resort in Sulphur Springs, W.V., got $7,819 on Nov. 19, 2002, and Occasions Catering, of Washington, D.C., got $13,027 on Oct. 21, 2002.But again, much of the money from the Alabama ARMPA went to Texas, to such organizations as Texas Victory 2002 ($50,000), Texans for a Republican Majority ($25,000), Texans Against Gerrymandering ($20,000), and the Republican Party of Texas (a measly $1,000.)A lot of money also went back to Washington to the main political organization working on behalf of Republicans. The NRCC (National Republican Congressional Committee) got a whopping $122,000 in three separate donations from DeLay’s Alabama PAC leading up to the 2002 elections.I don’t know how common it is to set up PACs for the sole purpose of raising and dispersing hard-to-trace money. it could be going on in other states like ours where the campaign finance laws are a joke.But it already has resulted in a call for Attorney General Troy King to look into whether DeLay’s PAC broke any Alabama laws. And it should give impetus to legislators like state Rep. Randy Hinshaw, D-Meridianville, who is pushing for the attorney general’s investigation and Rep. Jeff McLaughlin, D-Guntersville, who has legislation reforming campaign financing laws in the current session of the Alabama Legislature.