Published: 7:50 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 1, 2011

http://www.statesman.com/news/texas-politics/new-campaign-landscape-wouldnt-affect-delay-case-1157680.html

Perhaps the best-known campaign finance case in Texas involved former U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, who was convicted of money laundering in November in connection with political donations during the 2002 elections.

The Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission decision — and its fallout — would not have affected his case, even if the donations had been made last year.

DeLay could be convicted on the same charges today.

The U.S. Supreme Court did not overturn Texas' law prohibiting corporations or unions from donating to Texas candidates.

In November, a Travis County jury convicted DeLay on charges of money laundering and conspiring to commit money laundering.

According to testimony and evidence, DeLay and two associates sent $190,000 of corporate money to the Republican National Committee, which, in turn, donated the same amount from its noncorporate account to seven Texas candidates supported by DeLay.

DeLay said it was a legal transaction done all the time.

The Sugar Land Republican is the first defendant known to have been prosecuted under a state law dating back more than a century. He will be sentenced Jan. 10.

Before the jury returned its verdict, DeLay's lawyer, Dick DeGuerin , predicted that Texas' ban on corporate donations eventually would be struck down under the same legal reasoning the Supreme Court majority used in Citizens United.

In Minnesota, a test case might already be percolating. This year, Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life challenged that state's restrictions against corporations giving money to candidates or political parties.

The case is on appeal.