By Sam Dealey
Published December 17th 2003 in The Hill
The chief of staff to Rep. Martin Frost (D-Texas)
spent an unusual amount of time in Texas as Frost led the fight to block
Republican congressional redistricting efforts.
Frost's staff
members do not dispute House travel records that show the aide, Matthew
Angle, spent virtually the entire summer away from the nation's capital.
But they claim that Angle moved to a political payroll when
dealing with the GOPís contentious re-mapping offensive. They further say
that the rest of the time he was engaged in normal official
duties.
House rules and federal law bar the use of official
resources, including professional staff, for overt political work.
Nevertheless, the rules drawn by the House Standards
of Official Conduct Committee leave a fair amount of wiggle room for
political activity by aides.
Democratic
members of Texasís congressional delegation, a group that could shrink
appreciably if the redistricting plan stays intact, have charged that
House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) has masterminded an unwarranted
political power grab.
DeLay staffers acknowledge that they are a
driving force behind the new map. But they insist that their own political
activities have been undertaken by Jim Ellis, director of DeLay's
leadership PAC, and without the use of official congressional
resources.
"They've obviously trained their sights on DeLay and
Ellis and on their roles," said DeLay spokesman Jonathan Grella. "But
clearly the same actors who have been complaining about Republicansí use
of government resources are making hypocrites of themselves. Our point
person is not employed by the taxpayers."
Angle did not return
calls seeking comment.
Frost spokesman Tom Eisenhauer said Angle's
activities were "in complete compliance with the rules of the
House."
"As chief of staff, he oversees the district staff and the
Washington staff, and he works out of whichever office he needs to," he
added.
Angle, a 20-year Frost veteran, also served as executive
director of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee when Frost
chaired the group.
Beginning in April, when the state legislature
in Austin went to work on the redistricting issue, to late July, when
Democratic state senators fled to New Mexico to block a vote, Angle made a
steady stream of visits to the Lone Star State.
In April, House
disbursement records show, Angle spent 26 out of 30 days in Texas; in May,
22 of 31; in June, 14 of 30 days; and in July, between 17 and 27 out of 31
days traveling.
Campaign finance records disclose that Frostís
committee reimbursed Angle & Associates, the chief of staffís
political consulting firm, some $4,000 in travel expenses for the second
and third quarters. The committee also paid the firm $45,000 in consulting
fees during that period.
The Lone Star Fund, a leadership PAC
linked to Frost, also paid Angle directly for travel costs of at least
$2,000 through the first six months of the year.
Through the first
three quarters of this year, Angle was paid $45,000 in taxpayer funds in
his role as a ìpart-timeî chief of staff. The average annual salary of a
full-time House chief of staff is $110,000.
Frostís staff has
played a leading role in orchestrating the fierce Democratic response to
the GOPís redistricting drive.
In May, as the state House was
poised to pass a GOP-friendly map, Frost staffers helped coordinate the
flight of 50 state House Democrats to Ardmore, Okla. Their absence
deprived the chamber of a quorum and prompted Gov. Rick Perry (R) to issue
warrants for their arrest.
Lisa Turner, a field representative for
Frost, accompanied the departed Democrats, and Angle greeted them upon
their return to Austin five days later at 4 a.m.
Turner told the
Fort Worth Star-Telegram that her stay in Ardmore was unconnected
to her congressional job. "I take my vacation time to do whatever I want
to do," she said.
A spokesman for Frost told the paper at the time
that Angle was in Austin "working on his other interests" and was not
acting behalf of the congressman. The spokesman also said that Frost
wasn't involved in the Ardmore caper.
But DeLay's spokesman scoffed
at that claim. "It would be laughable if it weren't so outrageous that
they would care to characterize their extensive abuse of government
resources as a collection of isolated incidents," said
Grella.
House records also show that on May 27 the Lone Star Fund
disbursed $1,092 to Dan Dipert Coaches in Arlington, Texas. The company
said the payment was for a May 12 coach trip, departing Arlington in the
morning for the state Capitol in Austin and returning later that day. The
company reported that Marc Veasey, a full-time Frost congressional
staffer, made the reservation. The company's contact number for Veasey was
Frostís congressional office in Washington.
Eisenhauer said the bus
was rented to ferry district activists to monitor the redistricting vote
in the state House, which was aborted when the Democrats fled the state.
He quoted Veasey as denying he had made the reservation.
Yet
another instance where the line between official duties and political
activity seems blurred appears in a Nov. 25 e-mail from Angleís House
account to John Gonzalez, chief of staff to Rep. Chris Bell (D-Texas). It
was inadvertently sent to a Republican aide and made available to The
Hill.
"You should have received the expert reports by now," Angle
wrote. "Also, as you heard on the call, Susman [Godfrey] wants Frost and
Bell to give them the polls [sic] results recently taken by our bosses."
Susman Godfrey is the name of the law firm that represents
Democrats in their anti-redistricting suits.
Eisenhauer declined to
discuss the matter, other than to say that "we follow the guidelines
issued by the House Administration Committee" and "this brief message
clearly complies with those guidelines."