Thread: DeLay Is Quitting Race and House, Officials Report

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/04/washi ... 61&ei=5087

April 4, 2006
DeLay Is Quitting Race and House, Officials Report
By CARL HULSE
WASHINGTON, April 3 — Representative Tom DeLay, the relentless Texan who helped lead House Republicans to power but became ensnared in a corruption scandal, has decided to leave Congress, House officials said Monday night.

Mr. DeLay, who abandoned his efforts to hold onto his position as majority leader earlier this year after the indictment of the lobbyist Jack Abramoff, a former ally, was seeking re-election as vindication. But he told selected colleagues that, facing the possibility of defeat, he had decided not to try to hold on to his House seat.

"He just decided that the numbers and the whole political climate were against him and that it was time to step aside," said one Congressional official with knowledge of Mr. DeLay's plans. The official did not want to be identified because Mr. DeLay's formal announcement was scheduled for Tuesday in Houston.

His decision was first reported Monday by MSNBC and by Time magazine on its Web site, which posted an interview with Mr. DeLay, as did The Galveston County Daily News. "I'm very much at peace with it," Mr. DeLay told Time of his decision.

Mr. Delay, who is serving his 11th term in Congress, told the Galveston paper he planned to step down from his seat by late May or June.

Congressional aides said Mr. DeLay had informed his Texas colleagues and other Republican leaders, including Representative Thomas M. Reynolds of New York, the chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, as well as President Bush.

One DeLay ally said that the lawmaker had been considering leaving Congress since he gave up his leadership post in January and that he had been persuaded to make the break last week, when his former deputy chief of staff, Tony Rudy, pleaded guilty to corruption charges. He was also said to have been influenced by troubling poll numbers in his district in the Houston area.

Though Mr. DeLay had moved into the background since leaving the majority leader's office, his decision to leave Congress could rattle House Republicans already anxious about their prospects in November, partly because of the cloud of ethics problems caused by the scandal involving Mr. Abramoff and Mr. DeLay's former inner circle.

The decision also threw into turmoil the 22nd Congressional District, where Mr. DeLay convincingly won a primary contest by a margin of better than 2 to 1 against three Republican rivals less than a month ago.

Monday night, with the news ricocheting around Texas and Washington, the mayor of Mr. DeLay's hometown, Sugar Land, David G. Wallace Jr., said he would seek the seat. Asked in an interview if he was running, he said, "I am."

Mr. Wallace, 44, an investment banker and real estate developer serving his second two-year-term in the part-time City Hall position, said he had not talked to Mr. DeLay about a vacancy but had been hearing "rumors in the last couple of days."

"Our understanding is that if Tom vacates the seat, there will be a special election called," Mr. Wallace said.

Mike Stanley, campaign manager for Tom Campbell, a lawyer who led the Republican challengers to Mr. DeLay in the primary March 7, said he believed Mr. Campbell would now seek to reenter the race.

"He had already decided to run in two years if Mr. DeLay still held the seat," Mr. Stanley said. Mr. Campbell drew just under 10,000 votes, or about 30 percent, with Mr. DeLay winning 20,558 or 62 percent.

Bill Miller, a leading Austin lobbyist close to the Republican leadership, said Mr. DeLay called Gov. Rick Perry Monday night. Mr. Miller quoted Mr. DeLay as saying "I don't want to be a distraction" and said he had maintained that his decision to drop out of the race had nothing to do with any pending criminal action.

In an interview Monday night, Richard Cullen, Mr. DeLay's principal criminal defense lawyer, said that his client had been pondering a withdrawal from the race for some time and that "it had nothing to do with any criminal investigation."

"The decision had absolutely nothing to do with the investigation," Mr. Cullen said. "It was a very personal decision and a political one."

Mr. DeLay is under indictment in Texas on campaign-finance related charges for his role in a state redistricting plan that gained Republican House seats in the state but focused national scrutiny on his political tactics.

The indictment forced him to step aside from his leadership post, but he had intended to return if he beat the charges.

Mr. Delay told the Galveston County paper that he decided last week after speaking to the Christian group Vision America that he could be more effective pushing the conservative cause if he left Congress.

"I can continue to be a leader of the conservative cause," he said. "I can do more to grow the Republican majority, rather than spend the next eight months locked down in running a campaign."

Bill Burton, a spokesman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said Mr. DeLay's decision was "just the latest piece of evidence that the Republican Party is a party in disarray, a party out of ideas and out of energy."

Mr. DeLay, 58, who served most of his time in the leadership as the whip, was known for his ability to deliver Republican votes on contentious issues and for fund-raising power that helped Republicans hold the majority for the past decade.

In 1994, as Republicans battled Democrats for control of the house, Mr. DeLay joined Representative Newt Gingrich and others in developing the so-called Contract With America and arguing that after 40 years in power, the Democratic Party had become corrupt and arrogant. He became majority leader in 2002, serving alongside Speaker J. Dennis Hastert, the man Mr. DeLay helped ascend to the speaker's position in 1998.

Representative John A. Boehner, the occasional DeLay rival who won the internal election to replace him as majority leader, on Monday called his predecessor one of the "most effective and gifted leaders the Republican party has ever known."

"He was a tireless advocate for his constituents, the state of Texas, and all Americans who shared a commitment to the principles of smaller government, more freedom, and family values," Mr. Boehner said.

With Mr. Rudy's guilty plea last Friday, he became the second former DeLay aide to admit wrongdoing in the corruption investigation centered on Mr. Abramoff, who has also pleaded guilty to conspiring to corrupt public officials, including members of Congress.

Mr. Abramoff, Mr. Rudy and the other aide, Michael Scanlon, who had been Mr. DeLay's press secretary in the House, are all cooperating with the Justice Department, which is investigating whether Mr. DeLay and other members of Congress accepted travel, gifts or money from Mr. Abramoff and his associates in return for legislative favors.

Mr. Rudy's plea agreement, which covers actions he took on Mr. Abramoff's behalf both while on Mr. DeLay's staff and after leaving the House to work as a lobbyist, did not allege any wrongdoing by Mr. DeLay or say that Mr. DeLay knew of any criminal activities by Mr. Rudy.

Mr. DeLay was indicted last September in Texas on unrelated charges involving violations of state election laws including money laundering and conspiring to funnel illegal corporate contributions to Republican statehouse candidates in 2002. The charges were later scaled back by a state judge to the money-laundering counts and remain the subject of an appeal.

In the fall of 2004, Mr. DeLay was admonished by the House ethics committee on three issues involving misuse of his influence, including an offer to support the House candidacy of the son of a former Republican representative from Michigan, Nick Smith, in return for Mr. Smith's vote for a Medicare prescription drug benefit.

Mr. DeLay, a one-time pest exterminator, was elected to the Texas House of Representatives in 1978, where he helped ignite a Republican resurgence in long-Democratic Texas.

Ralph Blumenthal contributed reporting from Houston for this article, and Philip Shenon from Washington.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid= ... Q&refer=us

DeLay Won't Seek Re-Election to Congressional Seat, Will Resign
April 4 (Bloomberg) -- Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, dogged by a federal corruption scandal that has drawn in two former aides, will announce today that he will resign the seat he has held in Congress for nearly 11 terms and won't seek re-election, according to a Republican close to DeLay.

DeLay has decided that he will resign from Congress by the end of May, but hasn't determined an exact date, according to the Republican official. DeLay will also announce that he will move to Virginia, to take advantage of a state law that would allow Republican officials in Texas to replace him on the November ballot if he moves out of state.

DeLay's announcement would come four days after Tony Rudy, his former deputy chief of staff, pleaded guilty in a case stemming from the corruption probe of lobbyist Jack Abramoff. While DeLay has not been charged in the corruption investigation, he is already under indictment on money- laundering charges related to fund-raising in Texas legislative races.

The departure of DeLay may help Republicans in the November elections by removing a politician who became a lightning rod for criticism, said John Pitney, a political science professor at Claremont McKenna College in Claremont, California. Still, Democrats will continue to talk of a ``culture of corruption'' as they work to retake Congress.

``It doesn't bring an end to the ethics issue,'' Pitney said.

Gingrich, Wright

His resignation would make DeLay the latest in a string of top congressional leaders who have either left their leadership jobs or resigned from Congress while under fire. Leaders who have left since the late 1980s have included former Democratic House Speaker Jim Wright of Texas, former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich of Georgia, and former Senate Republican Leader Trent Lott of Mississippi.

``It's another sign that effective leaders are often big targets,'' Pitney said.

DeLay told the Galveston County Daily News that he decided to drop his re-election bid after internal campaign polls showed sagging support.

``It was obvious to me that the 22nd District deserved more than an election that was turning into a referendum on me rather than what was important to the district,'' he told the newspaper in an interview posted last night on its Web site.

Representative John Boehner of Ohio, who replaced DeLay as majority leader after DeLay permanently relinquished the post in January, praised his predecessor, saying that DeLay ``served our nation with integrity and honor.''

``Tom is one of the most effective and gifted leaders the Republican Party has ever known,'' Boehner said. ``He was a tireless advocate for his constituents, the state of Texas, and all Americans who shared a commitment to the principles of smaller government, more freedom, and family values.''

`Beginning of the Reckoning'

Democratic National Committee Communications Director Karen Finney said DeLay's announcement ``is just the beginning of the reckoning of the Republican culture of corruption that has gripped Washington for too long.''

DeLay, 58, temporarily stepped aside as majority leader after he was indicted in September by a Texas grand jury on money-laundering charges related to fund-raising for Texas legislative races. He announced on Jan. 7 that he wouldn't attempt to return as majority leader, saying it was clear his legal case wouldn't be resolved quickly and congressional Republicans needed to find a new leader to push their agenda.

DeLay last month beat three Republican primary challengers in his first election since his indictment, receiving 62 percent of the vote in his Houston-area district. He was to face off in November against former Democratic Representative Nick Lampson.

`Make Headlines'

Lampson said the district ``needs a congressman who will make headlines for the right reasons.''

``No matter who I face in the general election, I am going to fight hard and I am going to win in November,'' he said in a statement last night.

Rudy, 39, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy in federal court in Washington. He admitted that he accepted payments arranged by Abramoff while serving in DeLay's office and as a lobbyist later worked with Abramoff and others to corrupt public officials and defraud clients. DeLay has denied any wrongdoing in both the money-laundering and corruption cases.

Abramoff is cooperating as prosecutors investigate possible corruption of members of Congress, their aides and former staffers. While DeLay has not been directly implicated, he went on a golfing trip to the U.K. with the lobbyist in 2000. In October, investigators questioned the staff of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher over a visit DeLay made to her office while on the U.K. trip. DeLay's attorney, Richard Cullen, has said the congressman has not broken any laws.

Second Aide

Rudy is the second former DeLay aide to plead guilty to crimes connected with Abramoff. In November, former DeLay spokesman Michael Scanlon, Abramoff's business partner, pleaded guilty to conspiring to corrupt public officials. Both are cooperating with the Justice Department.

Republicans, who control the White House and both houses of Congress, face mid-term elections in November. All 435 seats in the House of Representatives are up for re-election, as are a third of the seats in the Senate.

Once employed as a pest exterminator, DeLay entered Congress two decades ago after six years in the Texas statehouse. DeLay initially served as the party's vote-counting ``whip,'' and his arm-twisting skills earned him the nickname ``The Hammer.''

DeLay has been one of the top fund-raisers for his party, and sought to consolidate Republican power by demanding that corporations and trade associations hire more Republicans as lobbyists.

Bye-bye Cafta boy, Bush cronie. Don't let the door hit ya where the good lord split ya.

I have to admit I a new to this site, after reading some of the post I have to ask is this just a site to bash bush and republicans? I don't agree with our president on the immigration stand, think he is way off base, but i am a republican, does this mean I am going to be called names because I happened to vote for the president?

Originally Posted by nittygritty

I have to admit I a new to this site, after reading some of the post I have to ask is this just a site to bash bush and republicans? I don't agree with our president on the immigration stand, think he is way off base, but i am a republican, does this mean I am going to be called names because I happened to vote for the president?

Welcome to ALIPAC nittygritty!

Shouldn't be any name calling. I think a lot of us voted for Bush.

nittygritty,
I voted for Bush, but like most I am not happy with him. I will now vote as an independent. We don’t call names here. We allow civil discussions only.

Originally Posted by nittygritty

I have to admit I a new to this site, after reading some of the post I have to ask is this just a site to bash bush and republicans? I don't agree with our president on the immigration stand, think he is way off base, but i am a republican, does this mean I am going to be called names because I happened to vote for the president?

I voted for Bush back in 2000. Doesn't mean I'm going to bend over and give him a free pass either. He's the one who's responisble for the invasion by allowing it to continue. He's racked up record debts and put us in a war that's unneccessary. He deserves every bit of criticism that comes his way. I vote mostly Republican, but that doesn't mean I'm going to bury my head in the sand and not call out the Republicans when the act like morons. I put America before party politics.

No I'm going to call you names for voting for Bush. Lots of people made that mistake including me.

I made the same mistake once too, dman1200, but I am proud of the fact that I actually LEARNED from my mistakes. And, based on the plummeting polls, I think AMERICA HAS AWAKENED! There's no need to call anyone names on this site because Bush speaks for himself! BUT, nittygritty, if you think you are going to find a bunch of BUSHIES here, you are probably in the WRONG PLACE. I think you will find that MOST members are either Republicans or Independents BUT ones who have had a rude awakening. I don't think you will find anyone here who is playing ostrich by burying their heads in the sand on the issues because of party politics. Based on what I read here, I feel that most of the members are patriotic, THINKING Americans who are not willing to be led like sheep to the slaughter.

I will reiterate that all who are opposed to illegal immigration are welcome here. We are here to unite against the invasion of our nation through our unsecured boarders. We are joined not by political parties or beliefs, but by the fact that we are all Americans who want to keep our nation secure.