John Colyandro

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John Dominick Colyandro is the Executive Director of the political action committee Texans for a Republican Majority. Colyandro has been indicted for money laundering and unlawful acceptance of corporate contributions.

Colyandro graduated from Westfield High School in Houston, Texas in 1982.

In 1983 while attending the University of Texas at Austin, Colyandro founded the Texas Review Society and the Texas Review, a conservative political newspaper, which was the antecedent to the Austin Review, Texas Education Review, and Houston Review.[1]

Later in the 1980's, Colyandro wrote direct mail pieces for Karl Rove. When Colyandro was hired as executive director of TRMPAC, he was described as a "longtime pal of Rove's."[2]

In 1985, Colyandro founded the Texas Conservative Coalition to shape public policy through the promotion of limited government, free enterprise, individual liberties, and traditional values. Today, the TCC is widely recognized as one of the largest and most influential caucuses in the Texas Legislature.[3]

In 2004, Colyandro was indicted for accepting illegal corporate donations and for illegally laundering $190,000 in corporate funds through the Republican National State Elections Committee that later wound up in the hands of Texas Republican candidates.[4]

Colyandro was indicted [5] September 28, 2005, along with then-House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) and Jim Ellis, who runs DeLay's political action committee Americans for a Republican Majority (ARMPAC). All three were charged with "conspiracy in a campaign finance scheme."

Colyandro, who "already faced charges of money laundering in the case, also faces 13 counts of unlawful acceptance of a corporate political contribution," and Ellis were indicted September 13, 2005, "on additional felony charges of violating Texas election law and criminal conspiracy to violate election law for their role in the 2002 legislative races." [6]

"The money laundering charges stem from $190,000 in corporate funds that were sent" to the Republican National Committee, "which then spent the same amount on seven candidates for the Texas Legislature." [7]

Colyandro's pre-trial hearing is set for January 4, 2006.[8]

[edit] See also

• Republican Party of Texas
• Texas politics

[edit] External links

• Texans for Public Justice
• The Austin Review
• Texas Grand Jury Indictment Against Westar Energy, September 2004.
• "GOP operative should stand trial for money-laundering. Judge makes first ruling in corporate cash case," Austin American-Statesman, July 12, 2005.
• "Judge Supports Charges Vs. DeLay Colleagues," Associated Press, August 10, 2005.
• "Grand jury indicts two DeLay associates," Associated Press (CNN), September 13, 2005.
• Syvia Moreno, "3 DeLay Workers Indicted in Texas. Aides Charged in Fundraising Probe," Washington Post, September 22, 2005.