Target Tom DeLay: The Kingpin of Corruption

In April 2005, we launched a TV ad campaign against Tom DeLay that was, at the time, the largest in our organization's history. This ad ran over 700 times in Tom DeLay's Houston district and in Washington DC. The ad called out DeLay's corruption for hundreds of thousands of households full of his own constituents and colleagues.

The ad was a huge hit. It was aired and discussed on major TV shows (including CNN's 'Crossfire' and "Inside Politics,' the nationally syndicated 'McLaughlin Group,' Fox News' 'The Big Story,' and PBS's 'Lehrer News Hour'), scores of newspapers (like the New York Times, Washington Post, Houston Chronicle and USA Today), and some of the nation's most popular blogs (including MyDD.com, AmericaBLOG.com and TalkingPointsMemo.com).

The ad's news coverage alone exposed the real face of Tom DeLay to millions of Americans, and has already opened up a much needed public discussion on the corruption currently tolerated by the Republican leadership.

In April 7th edition of the Washington Times, we ran a full page print ad [1] that asked if Tom DeLay was the new face of American conservatism? The Washington Times has a heavy readership amongst Washington's conservative elite. The ad sent a powerful message to tens of thousands of Times readers that DeLay's corruption has no place in American politics -- even within conservative circles.

In early November, we turned up the heat on Tom DeLay's corruption tainted colleagues in the U.S. House. Again, we flooded the U.S. House with tens of thousands of requests for members of Congress to give the campaign contributions they received from DeLay to charity. A week later, we followed up on our initial ask by barraging the media in the districts where the Representatives didn't give the money back exposing their member of Congress' ties to Tom DeLay's corruption. Thusfar, at least four Republican Representatives have given DeLay's money to charity.

In January 2006, we bought the largest television buy in our organization's history against Tom DeLay. We planned to run a television ad in DeLay's district. The original DeLay ad was forced off the air when television stations bowed to DeLay's pressure, despite the fact that the ad was true and its accuracy was verified by an independent group [2]. DeLay's move backfired as his blatant abuse of power made headlines across his Houston district and across the country. Thanks to our supporters barraging the stations with tens of thousands of letters, a few days after DeLay forced the ad off the air, the television stations aired "the ad Tom DeLay didn't want you to see". Building on the success of these ads, our supporters contributed thousands more to produce new hard hitting ads.