DeLay has faced similar problems in Washington. There, a large part of DeLay's method of gaining power was challenged in 2002 by the passage of the McCain-Feingold bill, which banned legislators from raising, using or controlling the unlimited political contributions to political parties or affiliated organizations, commonly known as soft money. Candidates may still accept donations of up to $2,000 from individuals or corporations, but they can no longer snag the $25,000 or $100,000 checks that companies such as Westar used to pony up for soft-money organizations, which the candidates could apply toward indirect campaign expenditures.

DeLay, it seems, may be getting around that ban through an organization called Americans for a Republican Majority (ARM). According to McCain-Feingold, the soft-money wing of that organization is supposed to be completely separate from DeLay. But the congressman and founder, though he has technically spun it off, has maintained extremely close ties even in the months since the new law came into effect. According to documents filed last month with the IRS that cover the first six months of 2003, ARM employs and supports a number of close DeLay allies. It is headquartered at Williams and Jensen, a lobbying firm that signed DeLay's then chief of staff, Susan Hirschmann, as a partner two months before McCain-Feingold went into effect. ARM has also employed the Alexander Strategy Group this year. That organization was founded in 1997 by a former DeLay chief of staff, Ed Buckham, while he was still working for DeLay. According to DeLay's 2002 financial disclosure forms, the Alexander Strategy Group also employed DeLay's wife, Christine, though DeLay spokesman Stuart Roy says that was mainly as a bookkeeping favor for an affiliated organization, which now covers her complete salary.

According to Federal Election Commission spokesman Bob Biersack, it's not clear how many close ties a congressman can have to an organization he's supposed to have split from. "There's no absolute bright line," he says. But a look at FEC rules shows that DeLay's relationship to ARM might exceed the coziness that the law allows. According to FEC rules, "candidates, officeholders, and their agents or organizations established, financed, maintained, or controlled by the candidate can't raise soft money." To determine whether someone fits the above criteria, the FEC provides a 10-point list that includes "whether the sponsor has any members, officers, or employees, who were members, officers, or employees of the entity that indicates a formal or ongoing relationship."

Tom DeLay's relationship with the Alexander Strategy Group and other people and organizations on the ARM payroll seems clearly formal and ongoing, even if his wife is off the payroll. The Center for Responsive Politics' Larry Noble, a former FEC general counsel, says that whether relationships such as DeLay's with ARM are allowed to stand "is a battle ongoing right now within the FEC." "The game that they are playing is they say that these people no longer work for DeLay and that they have no common membership," says Noble. "The reality is that they are setting these groups up with people who have long experience and who can definitely parallel what the office holder is doing, and who other people know are connected to the office holder." Again, DeLay may not face any consequences. According to Craig Holman of the watchdog group Public Citizen, "I believe DeLay is violating the rules. But I also believe the FEC has no backbone." Both Democrats and Republicans have stacked that organization with people who are hostile to campaign-finance reform. Moreover, as Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., points out, people think that all politicians break the rules when it comes to money. Thus, the Democrats might be seen as saying DeLay should be reprimanded because he does it worse. "It's hard to make the quantitative argument 'This man is twice as bad as me so he should go to jail,'" Frank says.

The influence of money and politics can make even DeLay's charitable intentions appear unseemly, however. Last April, the majority leader held a golf tournament in Key Largo, Fla., to benefit his foundation for foster children, the DeLay Foundation for Kids. The tournament offered bigwigs the chance to amble around the links with powerful Republican congressmen such as Roy Blunt, DeLay's chief whip and sidekick. Mimicking a standard political fundraiser, the foundation solicited funds from a motley collection of supporters: one "platinum"-level donor giving $100,000; 25 "crystal" donors giving $10,000.

The tournament sold out. And why shouldn't it? Corporations got to give money to DeLay without disclosing it, while receiving both face time with congressmen and tax deductions to boot. To make attracting star power easier, DeLay successfully worked just before the tournament to overturn Congress' rules preventing charities from paying for representatives' travel.

Past brochures offered sponsors the opportunity to display their logos at the course's most prominent holes, and donors included corporations such as AT&T, which gave $25,000 in 2001 and 2002 -- about the same amount of money it gave to both Americans for a Republican Majority and Texans for a Republican Majority. According to currently filed tax returns available through GuideStar, no other nonprofit foundations have given to the DeLay Foundation for Kids.

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