Quote of note:

Cooper also cited another document, a June 2002 American Express bill, that shows ARMPAC mixed hard money and soft money spending by DeLay, Ellis, Ferro and others on travel, meals and various other expenses using the same account.

FEC auditors found ARMPAC may have improperly spent about $200,000 in soft money and ARMPAC has already repaid that amount.

Papers: DeLay Group Used $100K for Races
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Tom DeLay's political group used nearly $100,000 in corporate and unlimited donations to mail last-minute political appeals praising five congressional candidates despite rules meant to keep such money out of federal races, documents released Thursday show.

The records also detail payments DeLay's group made to Jim Ellis and Warren Robold, two longtime fundraisers indicted in Texas in the same state campaign finance case as DeLay. All three men say they are innocent in that case.

The documents from the Federal Election Commission's audit of DeLay's Americans for a Republican Majority PAC (ARMPAC) were obtained by Political Money Line, a group that studies campaign fundraising.

They show DeLay's ARMPAC sent money from its so-called soft-money account before the November 2002 election to pay for mailings for such candidates as Indiana Republican Chris Chocola, who won election to the House that year.

...Under a campaign finance law that took effect after the 2002 elections, DeLay can no longer raise soft money for ARMPAC.

DeLay's fundraising from corporations is under increasing scrutiny, as well as how that money was spent. He and several political associates have been indicted in Texas on charges they illegally channeled corporate money into state legislative races.

The FEC documents show Ellis' consulting firm was paid $5,000 a month from ARMPAC's hard-money account and $2,000 from its soft-money arm in the 2001-02 election cycle.

A consulting firm co-owned by DeLay's daughter, Danielle Ferro, had a contract with ARMPAC under which it was to be paid $4,000 a month during the 2001-02 election cycle.

And Alexander Strategies, a consulting firm that employed DeLay's wife Christine and was run by former DeLay congressional chief of staff Ed Buckham, was paid $8,400 a month.