The Texas Seven

The Texas House candidates who received checks from RNSEC totaling $190K were: Dwayne Bohac, Todd Baxter, Larry Taylor, Rick Green, Dan Flynn, Jack Stick, and Glenda Dawson. All but Dawson, who passed away in 2006, testified in this trial. The prosecution has labeled the group as "The Texas Seven" — to the chagrin of Dick DeGuerin.

Dwayne Bohac is still serving as State Representative for District 138 in Houston. He told the jury, "There are so many PACS, even after eight years I don't know all of them." His campaign received $10K from TRMPAC, $2K from ARMPAC, and it's check from RNSEC for $20K. Bohac had once interned with DeLay for course credit through Houston Community College in the 80's.

In October of '02, Todd Baxter's campaign received three checks from TRMPAC totaling $16K, one from ARMPAC for $2K, and its check from RNSEC for $35K. "It was one of the larger checks I received", he said on the witness stand.

Kevin Brannon was contracted by TRMPAC in late '01 to serve as its "eyes and ears" in the field. His main responsibility was to be on top of what was going on in the races by calling into districts, collecting info, and preparing reports for Colyandro. Brannon had previously worked for Texas senator Phil Gramm.

Larry Taylor, like Bohac, is also a current member of the Texas House, serving District 24 in Galveston. In 2002, he received $32K from TRMPAC, $1K from ARMPAC, and $20K from RNSEC. Rick Green was the only member of the Texas Seven to lose his race that year. Leading up to it, his campaign received $20K from TRMPAC, $2500 from ARMPAC, and $20K from RNSEC.

Brannon's research in the field would ultimately help determine not only which candidates would be supported by TRMPAC, but also how much money each would receive. Those final decisions have been the subject of much discussion during the trial.

According to Bill Ceverha, who served as Treasurer of TRMPAC's Advisory Board, there was never a meeting or decision to allocate those dollars. "It just happened," he explained. He actually said that twice during his testimony. Ceverha, a journalist who later served in the Texas House from 1977-89, is well known in Dallas and currently works as a political consultant in that area.

It's believed that TRMPAC's Executive Director, John Colyandro, made the final decision on those allocations. Since Colyandro is named as a co-conspirator in this case, and will later be facing his own trial, he won't be testifying at this one. It was previously established that DeLay always granted final approval for ARMPAC's contributions to candidates (not to be confused with incumbents, who had pre-approval established by previous contributions), and the prosecution contends that Colyandro was certainly consulting with DeLay on those decisions for TRMPAC as well.

Dan Flynn is also still serving in the Texas House for District 2, located just east of Dallas. Mr Flynn let the court know that he was referred to as "Dan from Van (TX)", since a man on DeLay's staff had the same name as his. In 2002, Flynn's campaign received $115K from TRMPAC, $1K from ARMPAC, and $20K from RNSEC. His candidacy was for an open seat — a particularly important race for either side. When asked if the RNSEC check was the second largest he received that year, he responded, "probably that's right." (His largest check was $50K from Texans for Lawsuit Reform.)

In the final months of that race, Flynn's campaign was also one of three that received targeted consulting from Kevin Brannon while he simultaneously worked as TRMPAC's man in the field. To comply with Texas Election Code, Brannon was paid by TRMPAC in hard dollars for his direct work with the candidates, and soft dollars to continue as the "eyes and ears" of the same organization.

Jack Stick was a candidate for State Rep in Travis County's District 50. His campaign was particularly interesting because he barely finished second during a non-conclusive primary race, but then prevailed as the Republican winner in the run-off. Stick is also the father of a 10-month old boy. He must have had babysitting duties on the day he testified, and when it became apparent that the surrogate sitter wasn't going to keep the young boy from wailing while Stick was on the stand, the court allowed the pacified toddler to sit on his father's lap.

"I wasn't enamored with TRMPAC," testified Stick. "They'd supported someone else (in the primary) without interviewing me." Nonetheless, Stick was running in a Democratic stronghold so his campaign received $30K from TRMPAC and $35K from RNSEC. "I can't recall a larger donation check," said Stick of the latter.

After completing Stick's testimony, the prosecutor noted that they had put the baby to sleep. "He may not be alone," responded Judge Priest. 

Craig McDonald, who had filed one of the original reports about TRMPAC with the DA's office and testified earlier, heard about the incident later and was quoted as saying, "If I had known you could bring a prop, I would have brought a puppy."