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Law Enforcement Alliance of America

Posted on 09-20-2004 10:44 AM EDT

The Law Enforcement Alliance of America [501(c)(4)] received $4.5 million from one or more benefactors in 2002, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce may have been the source of the money, the Austin American-Statesman reported Sept. 12.

The LEAA, which spent $1.5 million on attack ads against Democratic Texas attorney general candidate Kirk Watson in 2002, is among the targets of a Travis County (Texas) investigation into the role of corporate money in the state's 2002 elections.

Travis County prosecutors hypothesize that the Chamber is a "mystery benefactor" of the LEAA, the Statesman reported. Texas law forbids the spending of corporate money on "direct electioneering."

Organizations in the Travis County probe have said no state laws were broken because ads by the LEAA and other groups did not use "express advocacy" words, which explicitly instruct voters to "vote for" or "vote against" a candidate. But the U.S. Supreme Court gave states wider latitude to regulate campaign-oriented ads when it upheld the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act last year.