Judge hears new TAB indictment (Texas elections)

Austin American Statesman ^ | 6/7/07 | Laylan Copelin

[Cat loving Texan]

Judge hears new TAB indictment Travis district attorney hopes for different result this time around.

By Laylan Copelin

AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF

Thursday, June 07, 2007

Travis County prosecutors urged a judge Wednesday to look at the conduct of the Texas Association of Business in reconsidering whether the group should be tried on charges that it violated election laws during the 2002 campaign.

Last year, State District Judge Mike Lynch dismissed a felony indictment accusing the state's largest business group of breaking the law by using $1.7 million in corporate money to send 4 million mailers to voters in two dozen legislative districts.

State law generally prohibits corporate money from being spent in connection with a campaign, but the group argued that its ads were not campaign material because they never used words such as "vote for" or "vote against."

In 2002, with the balance of power in the Legislature up for grabs, the business association worked with then-U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay's political committee, aiming to elect Republicans who would enact its agenda. Both used corporate money, and both said their efforts were designed to affect election results.

Lynch ruled that the business group's ads severely tested the limits of the law and were "patently offensive" at times but did not expressly advocate the election or defeat of the candidates.

Lynch also criticized the state's original indictment accusing the group of coordinating with political committees as a "convoluted maze" that did not give the defendants adequate warning of what crime they were charged with.

On Wednesday, Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle was back in court defending a fine-tuned indictment that he said tried to answer the judge's concerns.

Roy Minton, representing the business association, dismissed it as more of the same.

"It's déjà vu all over again," Minton said, quoting Yogi Berra. "Where are we, that anything has changed?"

Assistant District Attorney Beverly Mathews urged Lynch to take a different approach in deciding whether the new indictment is lawful.

"Look beyond the simple content of the ads," Mathews said.

She said the new indictment makes clear that the association's political advertising is a campaign expenditure. Furthermore, she said, the indictment spells out that the group's actions — targeting likely voters in key districts, mailing ads close to the election and coordinating the ads with other political groups — made the ads illegal.

"Any rational person could come to that conclusion," Mathews said.

Minton, however, said the rational-person test is not the law in Texas. He cited a recent U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals decision that upholds the "magic words" test. Under that theory, a communication is not campaign material if it avoids specific words urging voters to support or oppose a candidate.

Minton also argued that coordinating with other political action committees is not against state law.

Lynch said he hoped to make a decision by July 13.

The judge cannot consider that a DeLay associate, John Colyandro, worked simultaneously on the business group's mailers while consulting for one of the candidates the group supported, state Senate candidate Ben Bentzin.

Prosecutors did not learn of that connection, first disclosed by Bentzin in 2006, until months after the first indictment was returned and the statute of limitations had expired. That direct connection between a campaign and the business group could not be included in the new indictment, either.

Earle complained that Lynch's decision to dismiss the earlier indictment denied a jury of citizens the right to decide the case. Lynch defended his decision, saying judges are supposed to prevent trials on faulty indictments or search warrants.

Earle urged Lynch to let a jury decide.

"They wanted to reach citizens with a million-dollar campaign," Earle said of the business group's 2002 effort. "They want to avoid 12 citizens."

lcopelin@statesman.com; 445-3617

[IllumiNaughtyByNature]

"Look beyond the simple content of the ads," Mathews said.

Remember, it's a living, breathing document and you, and the Judicial Kreskin, can read into it whatever you want?

[Right Cal Gal]

I certainly hope the next move by the TBA is to work within all legal means possible to insure Earle’s defeat in the next election.

Then he can go fishing with Nifong.

[Wallace T.]

Don't shed too many tears over Ronnie Earle going after the Texas Association of Business. That organization is a supporter of the amnesty bill for illegals currently before Congress.

Ronnie Earle is a Democrat attack dog to be sure, but if he goes after an organization that would sell out America for cheap labor, three cheers for him.

[Right Cal Gal]

Thanks for the info - you’re right - don’t want to support those cruds.