Pioneer Parade: March 29, 2004 ‘Tomstown’ Scandal Is Replete With White-House-Donor Elite • Bush Pioneer Donors Called the Shots, Paid the Bills & Mount the Defense.

presidential spokesman suggested at a March At least 17 of Bush’s other Pioneer volunteers are 9th briefing that the White House has not players in the scandal or have close ties to such Afollowed Austin’s criminal probe to determine players. These include such major protagonists as Tom if Tom DeLay’s Texans for a Republican Majority Craddick, Louis Beecherl and Bill Ceverha. (TRM) PAC spent illegal corporate funds to elect a GOP majority to the House in 2002. DeLay, Inc. Pioneers Driving what the Austin Chronicle dubbed the “This president is strongly committed to fighting ‘Tomstown’ scandal are allegations that TRM PAC corruption,” Scott McClellan told a reporter. “But in and the Texas Association of Business (TAB) spent as terms of a specific case in the state of Texas…you much as $2 million dollars in illegal corporate money need to direct your questions elsewhere. I don’t know to help elect a GOP House majority in 2002. The top the specifics of that case.” beneficiaries of the TRM- and TAB-backed House takeover are the two Toms: Bush Pioneer volunteer Bush’s reelection campaign political director Terry Tom Craddick and his pal, House Majority Leader Nelson testified 10 days later before a Travis County Tom DeLay. The GOP House takeover led to Craddick grand jury. It presumably was interested in what this becoming Texas speaker and redrawing Texas’ national GOP official knew about the $190,000 in congressional districts to Tom DeLay’s specifications. corporate money that TRM PAC contributed to the Someday these new districts may help DeLay become Republican National State Election Committee speaker of a more powerful House. (RNSEC) in 2002, shortly before RNSEC gave that same amount to TRM-backed House candidates. Bush Pioneer volunteer Randy DeLay cashed in on his elder brother’s influence by becoming a lobbyist If the White House wants specifics, it can follow the after the 1994 Republican takeover of the U.S. House. grand jury’s lead by questioning some of the elite Pioneer-linked TRM donor Union Pacific railroad “Pioneer” donors who pledged to raise at least hired the younger DeLay in 1996, when the elder $100,000 for the Bush campaign. Taken together with DeLay was a strong supporter of that railroad’s money contributed by their employers, 25 “Pioneer” controversial merger with Southern Pacific, which volunteers gave a total of $242,500 to TRM PAC in raised anti-trust concerns. Six years later, Union 2002. This Bush Pioneer money—including possibly Pacific had Tom Craddick personally deliver checks illegal corporate funds—accounts for a hefty 16 that it wrote to TRM-backed House candidates. percent of the $1.5 million that TRM PAC raised. (Elite Bush donors who gave to TAB are unknown Pioneer-tied Reliant Energy is another Randy DeLay because TAB will not identify its donors.) client. Then-Reliant staff lobbyist Bruce Gibson Elite Bush Donors With TRM-Scandal Links Pioneer Volunteer Bush Pioneer 2004 2000 TRM Connection *Tom Craddick X TRM courier and beneficiary Randy DeLay X Lobbyist brother of TRM creator & beneficiary *G.W. ‘Bill’ Ceverha X TRM Treasurer & Craddick transition-team member Louis Beecherl, Jr. XXTRM Treasurer’s boss; TRM donor Congressman X Stumped for TRM candidate Dan Flynn; redistrictor Union Pacific’s Richard Davidson/Drew Lewis XXCompany used Craddick’s donation courier service Akin Gump’s Bill Paxon/Jim Langdon/Alan Feld XX*Akin lobbyist sent TRM checks c/o Craddick Jimmy Westcott X TRM donor Primedia bought out her company Texans for Lawsuit Reform’s Karen Overbeck X *TLR PAC gave TRM candidates $686,920 †Vinson & Elkins’ Joe Allen/Tom Marinis XXAllen pledged V&E PAC money to TRM candidates Tom DeLay’s lobbyist pal Jack Abramoff X His client the Choctaw tribe gave TRM $1,000 Hance Scarborough’s XXPartner represents TRM & Ceverha Loeffler Jonas’ Tom Loeffler XXPartner represents TRM’s Susan Lilly * Subpoenaed † Pioneer Joe Allen left Vinson & Elkins in 2003 to form his own firm. (now the lieutenant governor’s chief of staff) agreed to Enron Oil and Gas, EOG went independent from give $25,000 in Reliant corporate money to TRM PAC Enron in 1999—four months after Enron head Ken in September 2002 after being solicited by TRM Lay volunteered as a Bush Pioneer. fundraising consultant Susan Lilly and Rep. Beverly Woolley, a TRM board member. The same memo suggests that Bush Pioneer Joe Allen, who then controlled Vinson & Elkins’ PAC, promised A memo on this Houston fundraising trip obtained by TRM’s fundraisers to give $7,500 of V&E PAC the Houston Chronicle and Texas Observer reveals money to TRM-backed candidates. In an infamous that Lilly and Wooley got financial commitments from opinion that it issued shortly before Enron declared three other Pioneer-linked donors. Sometimes, they bankruptcy in 2001, V&E concluded that Enron’s jotted down the political agendas of these donors, fraudulent off-balance-sheet partnerships were linking the solicitations to specific public policies. “aggressive” but not “inappropriate.” Pioneer volunteer and corporate raider Charles Rep. Dianne Delisi accompanied Lilly on a similar Hurwitz of Maxxam, Inc. agreed to give $5,000 to fundraising trip to Dallas two days later. They scored the TRM fundraisers, who wrote “horseracing, #1” $35,000 for TRM, including $5,000 from Bush next to his name. Hurwitz has been lobbying to Pioneer Fred Meyer, chair of Aladdin Industries. legalize more gambling activities at his Sam Houston Race Park. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.— The Travis County grand jury has subpoenaed lobbyist headed by Bush Pioneer Donald Powell—also dropped Demetrius McDaniel of Pioneer-linked Akin Gump efforts to make Hurwitz repay millions of dollars for a to learn why he put a cover note to Craddick on some failed savings and loan after DeLay decried that of the $7,500 in corporate contributions that McDaniel Hurwitz was a victim of regulatory abuse. made to TRM PAC on behalf of his clients Lexmark and Primedia. In 1996 Primedia, which boasts a Bush Woolley and Lilly got $1,000 out of EOG Resources Pioneer executive, bought a media company started by President Ed Segner III, whom they noted was the family of Bush Pioneer Jimmy Westcott. concerned about energy severance taxes. Formerly Elite Bush Donors Who Contributed To TRM PAC TRM Pioneer Volunteer TRM Contributor Amount Pioneer Link 2004 2000 El Paso Energy $50,000 William Wise (Ex-Chair & CEO) X Louis Beecherl, Jr. $35,000 Self (Beecherl Investments) XX Burlington Northern Santa Fe $26,000 Matthew Rose (CEO) X Reliant Resources, Inc. $25,000 R. Steve Letbetter/Don Jordan (Ex-CEOs) X Robert B. Rowling $25,000 Self (Chair of TRT Holdings) XX Charles Wyly $20,000 Self (Ranger Capital Group) X Charles Miller $10,000 Self (Chair of Meridian Advisors) X *Vance C. Miller $10,000 Self (COO of Henry S. Miller Co’s) X Ray Hunt $5,000 Self (Chair & CEO of Hunt Consolidated) X Maxxam, Inc. $5,000 Charles Hurwitz (Chair & CEO) X Fred Meyer $5,000 Self (chair of Aladdin Industries) XX S. Reed Morian $5,000 Self (President of DX Service Co’s) X Pickens Co. $5,000 Owners Robert and William Pickens X RDM Enterprises $5,000 Robert McLane’s McLane Group controls RDM XX Silver Eagle Distributors $5,000 John L. Nau III (President & CEO) X Primedia, Inc. $2,500 Jeffrey Ballabon (Publicity Vice President) X Sam Barshop $1,000 Self and Patrick Oles of Barshop & Oles X Jack Knox $1,000 Self (Chair & CEO of Sixx Holding Co.) X †Ed Segner (EOG president) $1,000 Ken Lay joined Pioneers when Enron ran EOG X Locke Liddell & Sapp $500 Partner Jeff Love XX Patrick C. Oxford $250 Self (Bracewell & Patterson managing partner) X John Woodhouse (Sysco) $250 Bill Lindig is CEO of Woodhouse’s ex-company X TOTAL: $242,500 *Subpoenaed †Enron Oil & Gas (now EOG) went solo four months after Ken Lay volunteered as a Bush Pioneer in 1999.

Tom DeLay’s advisory “kitchen cabinet” includes Beecherl Pioneer lobbyist Bill Ceverha served as Pioneer Akin Gump lobbyist Bill Paxon and Pioneer TRM PAC treasurer before Craddick appointed him to lobbyist Jack Abramoff, whose firm recently fired his speaker transition team. TRM and Ceverha are him in another DeLay scandal. Congress is represented in the scandal by attorney Terry investigating how Abramoff and an ex-DeLay aide Scarborough, the Hance Scarborough Wright partner took a staggering $45 million in lobby and publicity of Bush Pioneer Kent Hance. fees from three Indian tribes in the past three years. One Abramoff Indian client—the 8,000-member Loeffler Jonas & Tuggey attorney Jonathan Mississippi Choctaw—gave TRM PAC $1,000. Pauerstein represents subpoenaed TRM fundraising consultant Susan Lilly. Pauerstein’s Pioneer partner, Craddick, Inc. Pioneers Tom Loeffler, threw a 2001 reception for Cradduck’s Texas Speaker Tom Craddick himself volunteered as a speaker candidacy. Pauerstein opposed the 2003 2000 Bush Pioneer, as did key powers behind his efforts of Democratic lawyers to depose Tom DeLay throne. Chief among them is Pioneer Louis Beecherl, and Pioneer Congressman Joe Barton about their Jr. The $35,000 that Beecherl gave to TRM PAC Texas redistricting roles. The Texas Attorney General made him its top individual donor. The wealthy former paid Pauerstein to vet state redistricting plans. head of Texas Oil & Gas Corp., Beecherl sat on the board of Texans for Lawsuit Reform (TLR). This With 41 members of his elite Pioneer donor network subpoenaed business lobby gave $686,920 to TRM- tied to the Tomstown scandal, President Bush can help backed House candidates in 2002 and employed “fight corruption” by grilling his top donors about Pioneer volunteer Karen Overbeck. their roles in the Tomstown scandal. •