Attorney General Patricia Madrid Demands Wilson Return All of DeLay's Money

(Albuquerque, NM) -- Attorney General Patricia Madrid today called upon Representative Heather Wilson, her opponent in the upcoming Congressional election, to return all funds donated to her campaign by indicted Congressman Tom DeLay, who resigned as House Majority Leader on Saturday. 

“My opponent publicly stated that she did not think Tom DeLay should serve as House Majority Leader, yet she refuses to return almost three quarters of the money he has donated to her,” Madrid said. “Of 231 Republican Congressmen, she ranked number four in receiving contributions from DeLay.  During her time in office, she has accepted $48,000 from DeLay, and has returned only $10,000 of it.  By keeping the remainder of his money, she is sending a statement to her constituents that she accepts and approves of his corrupt behavior.” 

“It is unfortunate that Tom DeLay is not an isolated case.  DeLay, Duke Cunningham, and Jack Abramoff are all part of the same problem – a pervasive culture of corruption which has tainted our Congress,” said Madrid. “My opponent and her Republican allies have made this corruption possible by doing nothing to stop it.  She has voted to weaken House Ethics rules, she has voted against a bipartisan ethics task force, and she has voted to continue to allow sitting Representatives to negotiate lucrative deals with lobbying firms while they are still in office.  This is not the record of someone who cares about cleaning up Washington DC.”

“My opponent should have returned all of DeLay’s money as soon as he was indicted; the least she can do is to do the right thing now.  We need change in Washington DC.  It is time we started holding ourselves to a higher standard,” Madrid said.