Records: TAB officials wished to sway races

[maddezmom]

But the group says that its ads did not violate any election law
By R.G. RATCLIFFE
Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle Austin Bureau

AUSTIN - Documents released in a civil lawsuit Friday show that Texas Association of Business officials were trying to influence the outcome of state House races when they ran a $1.7 million "voter education project" paid for with corporate money.

"Of the nine incumbents ... we went after, seven were defeated. This is huge news," a TAB executive said in a 2002 e-mail the day after the group helped Republicans win control of the Texas House for the first time since Reconstruction.

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TAB and its president, Bill Hammond, have been part of a 2 1/2 -year state criminal investigation into whether state election law was violated when corporate money was used to influence the 2002 elections. TAB targeted 22 House races; Republican candidates won 18.

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Indictments have been returned against three associates of U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay in connection with how corporate money was spent by the political action committee Texans for a Republican Majority. TRMPAC coordinated its activities with TAB. The TRMPAC defendants say they are innocent.

more:http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/rssstory.mpl/metropolitan/3240604