Probe angers Texas GOP

AUSTIN, Texas — A prolonged investigation by a state grand jury has angered Republicans and helped turn a once-friendly, bipartisan atmosphere into one of distrust.

Fueling the investigation is Ronnie Earle, a Democratic district attorney. His staff has fed several grand juries information and testimony about the possible illegal use of corporate funds by Republican Party leaders in key 2002 elections.

Critics say Mr. Earle wants to destroy the momentum that the Republican Party built up in recent years across Texas.

“It’s a partisan witch hunt, the worst I’ve ever seen,” said Andy Taylor, a Houston lawyer who represents the Texas Association of Business, one of the groups targeted by Mr. Earle. “His actions make the Salem witch hunt trials seem fair by comparison.”

“You don’t see him going after Democrats do you?” asked Tina Benkiser, state Republican chairman.

The fund-raising actions of several Republican leaders, particularly Texas House Speaker Tom Craddick and U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, remain at the heart of the investigation. None of those reportedly under investigation has been called to testify.

“You’d think that if he wanted the truth, he’d at least talk to those he is investigating,” Mr. Taylor said. “I don’t think he wants that grand jury to hear the truth.”

Mr. Taylor said he expects Mr. Earle to come forth with “bogus” indictments right after Labor Day.

He predicts, however, that the ploy will backfire.

“I think there will be tremendous enormous public blow-back, and the voters will take out their anger by voting in record numbers for Republicans,” he said.

Mr. Earle and his aides did not return several phone calls seeking comment.

Two years ago, for the first time in more than a century, Republicans swept dozens of statehouse elections and took control of the Texas Legislature.

Republicans first captured a majority in the state Senate in 1996. But after the 2000 elections, Republicans still trailed in the Texas House by 78-72.

Then came 2002 and a spirited Republican Party campaign that found considerable corporate money to support about two dozen candidates.

Texas Association of Business (TAB) director Bill Hammond was one of the big movers, soliciting $1.9 million from corporations and assuring that identities of the donors would not be made public. Mr. Hammond used the money for what he termed “issue advertising,” to bash Democratic voting records on issues such as limits on lawsuit damages and other “antibusiness” legislation.

After a Republican avalanche in the 2002 elections, the party took control of the House.

TAB leaders touted the group’s success in a newsletter:

“The Texas Association of Business blew the doors off the Nov. 5 general election, using an unprecedented show of muscle that featured political contributions and a massive voter-education drive.”

Within days, Mr. Earle, the Travis County district attorney, began looking skeptically at those contributions.

Mr. Earle said the fund — and others like it — might violate Texas’ 98-year-old ban on corporate contributions to candidates.

“Making a corporate contribution is a crime,” Mr. Earle said.

Mr. DeLay’s political action committee, Texans for a Republican Majority, also played a major part in the 2002 victories. That group, according to financial records, sent more than $600,000 to benefit Republican candidates.

After the sweep, the 2003 legislative sessions became brutally partisan, with Democrat lawmakers twice leaving the state in an effort to block a redistricting bill that they knew would likely assure Republicans at least a half dozen more congressional seats next year.

Gov. Rick Perry, a Republican, called three special sessions, until there was no more fight left in the once-dominant Democrats — and the bill passed easily. Quarterbacking the overall redistricting strategy was Mr. DeLay, who often came to Austin, called frequently and had top aides working closely with the state’s Republican leadership.

In defense of Mr. Earle, Democrats point to his two decades of prosecuting politicians through his office’s Public Integrity Unit. They say the District Attorney’s Office has taken on far more Democrats than Republicans.

Mrs. Benkiser, the Republican state chairman from Houston, last week had a ready reply to that kind of record keeping.

“He was aggressive against Democrats only when there were no Republicans,” she said.

Republicans still recall Mr. Earle’s last foray into a controversial prosecution.

In 1993, he indicted U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, a Republican and former Texas state treasurer, on charges of malfeasance. When a district judge ruled out some of the prosecution’s evidence, Mr. Earle refused to continue. She quickly was acquitted.

Mr. Earle, however, has earned respect among some in the legal community.

Vic Feazell, an Austin lawyer who represented two Democrats indicted by Mr. Earle in the mid-1990s, said, “I am not a friend of Ronnie, but I think he is an honorable man, and I have a lot of respect for him.”