San Antonio Express: GOP on defensive over lobby deals

San Antonio Express
GOP on defensive over lobby deals
Metro | State
Lisa Sandberg
01/30/2006

http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/metro/stories/MYSA013006.1A.lobbyfallout.87fa4b3.html

AUSTIN — Perhaps it didn't grab headlines quite like congressmen taking foreign junkets, but Democrats here weren't quibbling.

With a lobby scandal in Washington still radioactive, leaders of Texas' minority party spent last week publicizing lucrative lobby contracts funded by Texas taxpayers that were awarded to Republican loyalists in 2003.

Not just any loyalists, but loyalists with close ties to beleaguered U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay, the former majority leader from Sugar Land who's facing felony money laundering charges, and lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who is cooperating with a federal corruption probe targeting congressmen and their staffs.

Texas House Democratic leader Jim Dunnam blasted Gov. Rick Perry and other state GOP leaders for approving more than $1.1 million in state funds for Republican insiders Todd Boulanger and Drew Maloney to be the state's lobbyists in Washington.

The work was unnecessary, Dunnam and other Democrats charged, because Texas was already paying the Office of State-Federal Relations to advocate on its behalf.

What's more, the state has a Texan in the White House, 32 U.S. House members, including the then-powerful DeLay, and two U.S. senators in Washington, and didn't need outside lobbyists, Dunnam said.

"You mean to tell me that the president doesn't like Texas anymore? That's ludicrous and it doesn't hold water," Dunnam said.
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Do ALL States employ lobbyists, or is this just a Texas thing? I sure never heard of such a thing. I hope the media publicizes this BIG TIME, because even a person who pays no attention to politics can see how insane this was!