Tom DeLay chronology
November 1978: Tom DeLay, owner of an exterminating business, is elected to the Texas House.
November 1984: DeLay is elected to the U.S. House from a suburban Houston district, winning 65 percent of the vote. As a freshman, he wins a coveted appointment to the Committee on Committees, which assigns lawmakers to committees.
March 1989: DeLay manages the campaign of Edward Madigan of Illinois for House minority whip. Madigan loses to Newt Gingrich of Georgia.
December 1994: After Republicans win control of the House, DeLay is elected majority whip without the support of newly elected Speaker Gingrich.July 1997: DeLay is part of a group that tries but fails to oust Speaker Gingrich.November 1997: The House ethics committee dismisses complaints that DeLay improperly helped clients of his lobbyist brother and linked legislative favors to campaign contributions.October 1998: DeLay attacks the Electronics Industries Alliance for hiring former Democratic Rep. Dave McCurdy as its president and later receives a private rebuke from the House ethics committee for "badgering a lobbying organization."January 1999: After Gingrich leaves office, DeLay helps J. Dennis Hastert of Illinois become speaker.May 1999: DeLay is admonished by the ethics committee for threatening the Electronics Industries Alliance with retaliation for hiring a Democrat as its president.June 2000: DeLay sets up a legal expense fund.
November 2002: Republicans win a majority in the Texas state House. A political action committee associated with DeLay, Texans for a Republican Majority (TRMPAC), aids the effort. In the U.S. House, DeLay is elected majority leader without opposition, succeeding fellow Texan Dick Armey.
Fall 2003: Texas Republicans use their new majority in the state Legislature to push through a mid-decade redistricting plan that threatens several Democratic House incumbents.
November 2003: House Democrats are outraged when DeLay holds a House floor vote open for nearly three hours while he persuades some reluctant Republicans to vote for the Medicare prescription drug law.
September 2004: Grand jurors in Texas indict DeLay associates Jim Ellis, John Colyandro, and Warren RoBold in an investigation of alleged illegal corporate contributions to a political action committee DeLay founded. The investigation involved the alleged use of corporate funds to aid Republican candidates for the state Legislature in the 2002 elections.
Sept. 30, 2004: The House ethics committee admonishes DeLay for improperly offering in 2003 to endorse the candidacy of Michigan Rep. Nick Smith's son in exchange for Smith's support of the Medicare drug bill.
Oct. 6, 2004: The ethics panel admonishes DeLay for sponsoring a fundraiser for energy company executives just before negotiations began on an energy bill. The committee also admonishes the majority leader for soliciting help from the Federal Aviation Administration to track down Democratic Texas state House members who left the state in an unsuccessful attempt to prevent adoption of the Republican redistricting plan.
Nov. 2, 2004: DeLay is re-elected to an 11th term in Congress with 55 percent of the vote. Nationwide, Republicans score a net gain of three House seats, with the DeLay-backed remapping of Texas congressional districts contributing to five new GOP seats. DeLay is also re-elected majority leader by House Republicans.
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