Complaint Alleges DeLay Plan
Violates Law
Thursday December 4, 2003 8:01 PM
By PETE YOST
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - Two watchdog groups filed a complaint Thursday
against House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, asking that the Internal
Revenue Service deny a tax exemption to a DeLay-backed charity
that will throw parties and offer a luxury suite for major donors
to watch President Bush's acceptance speech at the 2004 Republican
Convention.
``Celebrations for Children'' will raise money for abused
and neglected children by using the events at the New York convention
in August as a drawing card, paying for them with a portion of
the donations to the group.
``Representative DeLay is using the nation's charity tax laws
and the pretext of helping children as a cynical cover to raise
and spend huge amounts of prohibited soft money to finance political
activities,'' said Fred Wertheimer, president of Democracy 21.
DeLay's office says the fund raising is for a worthy charitable
cause and that the efforts of DeLay and his wife have been a
``long-standing endeavor to build a permanent safe home'' for
foster children.
``Democracy 21 should have its protected tax status revoked
for engaging in such obvious one-sided political activity intended
to benefit its favorite charity - the Democratic Party,'' said
DeLay spokesman Stuart Roy.
Wertheimer's organization and the Campaign Legal Center allege
that ``the DeLay scheme'' violates IRS law. DeLay's group has
tax-exempt status as a charity, and therefore should operate
exclusively for charitable purposes, they contend.
The goal is for 75 percent of the money raised by the convention
events to go to the children's charity, says Craig Richardson,
executive director of the group created by DeLay. A number of
mainstream charities spend less than that for programs.
The complaint says that the DeLay-backed charity will be used
to evade restrictions under the new campaign finance law that
prohibit raising or spending corporate, union or unlimited donations
in connection with a federal election. Under the law, a presidential
nominating convention is counted as an election.
DeLay is soliciting charitable donations for three separate
fund-raisers, including the events at the 2004 convention.
Copyrighted 2003 Associated Press
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