I'll bet this is Delay's slush fund for dirty tricks disguised as a kid's charity. Notice 26 million to the financier of the smearvets, a home builder who claims he's building a few homes for kids "at cost". 26 million worth. Nice homes for kids. Each with its own golf course? In that part of Texas 26 mill could build an entire town. cheap real estate and costs.
DeLay's charity for children under fire
Corporate donors' intent scrutinized
By Nicholas Thompson, Globe Correspondent | June 12, 2005
NEW YORK -- At a tribute last month in Washington to House majority leader Tom DeLay, admirers praised DeLay as a hero to foster children, having drawn attention to their needs, taken them into his home, and especially raised millions of dollars through the DeLay Foundation for Kids.
As DeLay confronts allegations of improprieties that have led to several House Ethics Committee investigations, his supporters are increasingly citing his caring heart as key to understanding the real Tom DeLay.
But his critics have also noted DeLay's work on behalf of foster children -- as a way for companies to give unregulated and undisclosed funds to a charity controlled by DeLay, in order to get in his good graces.
''It looks good on the surface, but it's rotten," said Fred Lewis, president of Campaigns for People, a Texas nonprofit group. ''It's not about benefiting children, and it's not about benefiting charity. It's about allowing another way for the donors to get their hooks into politicians."
DeLay, in his 11th term in the House, started his main organization, the DeLay Foundation for Kids, 18 years ago after his wife, Christine, a teacher, became an advocate for children in foster care. Eventually, the DeLays began taking foster children into their home.
The charity reaped greater funds as DeLay's career in Congress progressed. During the past five years, it has raised money primarily through golf tournaments where DeLay, 58, and other GOP House leaders have spent hours on the greens with business groups who paid large sums to participate. Last year, the foundation's tax returns declared assets of over $4 million and said that the spring golf tournament brought in $530,000.
Most of the money the foundation has spent has gone to Oaks at Rio Bend -- another organization controlled by DeLay and his wife -- which is building a residential community for foster children. ''Fighting for the needs of abused and neglected children is an issue that is extremely personal to Tom and his family, and for them, transcends partisan politics," said House Majority Whip Roy Blunt, who has participated in past golf tournaments with DeLay to raise money for the foundation.
Oaks at Rio Bend, which has declared in tax papers that it is an ''outgrowth" of the DeLay Foundation, aims to build a community of foster families who provide stable homes for children. According to its director, the organization has already built nine houses and a chapel and is half finished with a gymnasium. The company doing the construction is run by Bob Perry, a major donor to DeLay's campaigns, who has said he is doing the work at cost.
There are almost no restrictions on what corporations can give to nonprofits connected to politicians, making nonprofits one of the few avenues by which companies can give vast sums since the passage of a campaign-finance reform law in 2002. DeLay is one of a handful of political leaders, including Senator John McCain, a Republican of Arizona, who have started big-money charities in addition to their political work
DeLay is not required to name his charity's supporters. But tax and online records reveal that the donors include ExxonMobil, Southern Company, and SBC. The Michael and Susan Dell Foundation, created by the founder of Dell Computers, gave the DeLay Foundation $250,000 in 2003.
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The DeLay Foundation has always raised money by soliciting corporations. In its application for nonprofit status from the IRS in 1987, three years after DeLay was elected to Congress, it declared, ''The initial fund-raiser will be a gala evening with a buffet, cocktails, dancing, and a short program. . . .The costs of the event are being solicited from corporate contributions by officers and directors."
DeLay's spokesman, Dan Allen, referred all inquiries to the leaders of DeLay's charities. Jim Jenkins, president of the DeLay Foundation for Kids, said that the group is disconnected from politics and that the names of donors are not disclosed both for the donors' privacy and because of the concern that they might be approached by other, similar charities.
Margaret Gow, executive director of the Oaks at Rio Bend, said she has attended many of the fund-raisers for the DeLay Foundation, including the golf events, and has never witnessed any quid pro quo. ''I have never seen any indication that anything was ever asked or that anything was ever given," she said.
But critics have long noted that the companies giving to the foundation have a hidden route to the congressman.
''DeLay is selling something," said Melanie Sloan, executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. Sloan contends that companies give because they expect something back and that the foundation's donor lists should be disclosed at least to the House Ethics Committee.
Jack Abramoff, a Washington lobbyist being investigated by the Department of Justice for fraud, donated to the foundation and, according to a recent report in the National Journal, persuaded clients to do the same by telling them it was a way to get in the good graces of Tom and Christine DeLay.
In 2004, DeLay established another nonprofit, Celebrations for Children, to raise money at the Republican National Convention in New York City for abused and neglected children. The organization invited donors to parties, Broadway shows, luxury seats at President Bush's acceptance speech, and a yacht cruise with DeLay.
Chris Bell -- a former congressman who filed ethics complaints against DeLay that led to DeLay being admonished by the House Ethics Committee three times last fall -- said that he considered filing another complaint against DeLay over Celebrations for Children. Bell said the foundation was an overt political tool because of its clear connection to the GOP convention. Only one sentence in the foundation's 13-page brochure mentioned the recipients of the aid. Bell only relented when the organization was shut down in mid-2004 after public outrage.
DeLay's ''relentless aggressiveness in pushing the envelope is what leads to questions being raised about all his activities," said Don Simon, general counsel to Democracy 21, an organization that led the criticism of Celebrations for Children.
Bruce Hopkins, a Kansas City lawyer specializing in nonprofit tax law, said that it is almost impossible to discern the intent behind someone's donation.
''People make charitable donations for all sorts of reasons, and some are more charitable than others. But all the person has to say is 'No, I gave to this foundation because I support what it's doing.' "
Hopkins added that the law also gives people some leeway to make charitable donations that serve their private interests, such as donations to a university that then names a building after the donor.
DeLay's supporters call the fund-raising activities genuine and good for the country.?
© Copyright 2005 Globe Newspaper Company. |
