Houston Democrats

The Honorable Lamar Smith, Chairman March 17, 2005
Committee on Standards of Official Conduct
HT-2, The Capitol
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515 Via Fax: 202-225-7392

Dear Chairman Smith:

We are writing to ask you to step aside as Chairman of the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct.

Yesterday’s news that you personally raised funds for Majority Leader Tom Mr. DeLay’s political action committee, a serious legal matter currently pending in your committee and other legal forums, makes it untenable for you to continue as chairman.

As you know, three of Mr. DeLay’s top associates at that political action committee, Texans For a Republican Majority or TRMPAC, have been indicted for their role in the 2002 campaign for which you helped them raise cash. Your own committee has an ongoing inquiry into this same matter. The Senate is also seeking financial records and travel receipts for a 2002 trip to Scotland by Mr. DeLay and his close ally, House Administration Committee Chairman Robert W. Ney (R-Ohio), among others.

Before your appointment, your committee deferred action on the fund-raising allegations against Mr. DeLay in an effort not to interfere with the work of the Texas grand jury.

Yesterday’s reports that you raised money for TRMPAC during a San Antonio breakfast on September 23, 2002, uncovers a conflict of interest that will be impossible to ignore even by recusing yourself once your committee resumes its investigation of Mr. DeLay. In the larger context of the other controversies swirling around your committee, the only honorable course of action for you now is to step aside.

Sincerely,

Charles Soechting