Tuesday, March 5, 2013

Donor to Williamson County Democrats Convicted in Federal Court

A federal court has convicted Austin Attorney Marc Rosenthal on 13 counts relating to racketeering, conspiracy, bribery, extortion, tampering, and mail fraud.  This has been more of a story in the Austin & South Texas news, but there is a Williamson County link as well. 

Rosenthal played a huge role in Democrat Diana Maldonado's campaigns for the Texas House in 2008 and 2010.   According to the Texas Ethics Commission, Rosenthal gave Diana Maldonado (HD52) $51,000 in contributions, as well as another $7,000 in "Air Travel" donations.  Back in 2008, local observers had noticed that Maldonado seemed to spend an unusual amount of time traveling around the state on Rosenthal's private jet.  No one could figure out why she would be traveling so far and so often when her district was limited to Williamson County.  

Representative Maldonado was certainly not the only recipient of Rosenthal's money.  He gave to various other Democrat candidates, County Democrat parties, and the Texas Trial Lawyers Association, but those donations run between only  $150 and $5,000.  Clearly, at $58,000, Ms. Maldonado was his hands-down favorite. 

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