HOUSTON (Reuters) - A political committee formed by U.S. House of Representatives Majority Leader Tom DeLay broke Texas law by not disclosing more than $600,000 in mostly corporate contributions, a judge ruled in a case that adds to ethics questions swirling around the powerful Republican.
State District Judge Joe Hart in Austin made the ruling on Thursday in a lawsuit filed by five Democratic candidates defeated in 2002 by Republicans who received money from Texans for a Republican Majority, a political action committee founded by DeLay to help his party capture the Texas Legislature.
Hart awarded the Democrats a total of $196,660 in damages.
DeLay, the second-ranking Republican in the House, was not a defendant in the suit, which was filed against committee treasurer Bill Ceverha.
But the ruling was the latest setback for DeLay, who has been under fire recently over ethics questions involving fund-raising, foreign travel and his relationships with lobbyists. The finding could be a harbinger of the outcome of a criminal probe into the committee's activities, said the head of a campaign-finance watchdog group.
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