The Lone Star Project provides fact based political and legislative analysis designed to help individuals, organizations and the press see beyond the rhetoric and misinformation typically provided by the current Republican State Leadership in Texas and Texas Republicans in Washington.  Claims made and positions adopted by the Lone Star
Project are supported with specific citations, credible sources and professional research. 

The Lone Star Project is organized as an activity of the Lone Star Fund, which is a federal political action committee registered with the Federal Elections Commission.  The Lone Star Fund is a non-ideological PAC and is not affiliated with the National Democratic Party or the Texas Democratic Party. Read what others are saying in the press clips below.

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lonestar(@)lonestarproject.net

Press Clips

About the Lone Star Project
Texas Redistricting DOJ Memo Revealed
Texas Redistricting
Henry Cuellar
Tom DeLay
Tom DeLay - Travis County Trial
Pete Sessions -Jack Abramoff Scandal

About the Lone Star Project

(Matt) Angle decided to form the Lone Star Project in early 2005, a federal political action committee that would serve as a fact-checker on the Republican Party on both the state and national levels.
"My belief was that -- particularly in Texas -- you had a situation where you had the Republican leaders failing," said Angle. "[They were] not just failing as political leaders but as leaders generally. My thought was to not just complain but to show people exactly why there was a problem."

Angle keeps the group's goal focused -- no national advertising campaign, rather it's all about "political and some policy analysis that is research-based," in his words. (The Fix – Washington Post, March 6, 2006)

The budget for Angle's operation is miniscule when compared to some other political action committees in Washington. For the last six months of 2005, the Lone Star Fund (the fundraising arm of the Lone Star Project) brought in just $10,000 and ended the year with a meager $1,200 on hand.

Angle insists he never envisioned Lone Star as "a huge political operation," and its small size certainly creates a David vs. Goliath struggle against the Texas Republican Party, whose officials control every statewide office and 22 of the state's 32 congressional districts… The Democrats' road back to majority status in the state is not a short one, said Angle. He pointed to the 2010 gubernatorial race as a statement contest for the party. Between now and then "there has to be an intellectual transformation in Texas," Angle said. "Democrats have to re-earn the voters' trust."  (The Fix – Washington Post, March 6, 2006)

Washington Post.com's Cillizza writes Lone Star Project director Matt Angle has been fighting 2 battles -- one against the '03 TX redistricting and the other against Rep. Tom DeLay (TX-22). Though not "a household name to casual" pol observers, he is "responsible" more than any other TX Dem for "the aggressive stance the party has taken toward" DeLay and other TX GOPers since '04.

Angle founded the Lone Star Project, a PAC dedicated to fact-checking the GOP on state and nat'l levels, in '05. Angle doesn't do advertising, and considers his group to be all about "political and some policy analysis that is research-based." His budget is "miniscule" compared to other PACS, bringing in just $10K in the last 6 mo. of '05 and ended the year with $1.2K CoH. Angle never envision his PAC as a "huge political operation," and its size creates a "David vs. Goliath struggle" against the TX GOP, which holds ever statewide office and 22 of 32 congressional districts (3/6). (National Journal's House Race Hotline, March 6, 2006)

Texas Redistricting DOJ Memo Revealed

A memo made public last week by a Democratic group in TEXAS called the Lone Star Project indicates that analysts and staff attorneys at the U.S. Department of Justice objected to the state's Republican- drawn 2003 congressional redistricting plan but were overruled by top department officials. The DOJ analysts and staff lawyers wrote in the memo that "the state failed to follow its traditional redistricting principals preserving communities of interest and forbidding fragmentation or packing of minority voters." (State Net Capitol Journal, December 12, 2005)

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Texas Redistricting

Democrats claim hope in the fact that the justices agreed earlier this winter to hear arguments quickly. "If the court didn't think this (Texas) was materially different from the Pennsylvania case, they wouldn't have taken it up," says Matt Angle, a spokesman for the Lone Star Project, a Democratic group seeking to invalidate the law and run this fall's elections using the old districts.

Angle said the GOP-drawn apportionment "reduced the number of effective minority districts from 11 to 9....They take the cynical view that a minority district is defined by the color of the skin of the person elected. But that's not what the law says. The law says a minority district is determined by the color of the voters." (Associated Press February 27 2006)

"If the court had thought the Texas case didn't have serious considerations, then they didn't have to do anything," argued Matt Angle of the Lone Star Project…

"The very fact that they've taken it up, there's at least the possibility that a majority on the court would rule that the plan is illegal," he said. (National Journal's CongressDaily February 28, 2006)

The case before the Supreme Court involves district-level minority voting rights, questions of political gerrymandering and mid-decade redistricting. He bert said the original decision to override the professional staff was made by civil rights division political appointees Hans von Spakovsky and Brad Schlozman. Lone Star Project consultant Matt Angle said Spakovsky had been involved in a project to remove African-Americans from the voting rolls in Florida during the 2000 presidential campaign. (Houston Chronicle Dec. 3, 2005)

In the lead-up to the court hearing, Angle worked donors and the press in an attempt to convey the importance of redistricting in the political process. On the day the court heard oral arguments, Angle organized two press conferences to bracket the event. In the morning, the Lone Star Project sponsored a talk with a group of state and national lawmakers from Texas.
After the hearing, Angle convened another gathering, this time with Paul Smith, the attorney who argued the Democrats' case, and Gerry Hebert -- the lead lawyer for the plaintiffs, which included the League of United Latin American Citizens and other groups. Frost and former Democratic Reps. Max Sandlin and Ken Bentsen attended the briefing. Smith and Hebert expressed optimism that the Court would invalidate either part of or the entire map. (The Fix – Washington Post, March 6, 2006)

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Henry Cuellar

Third-party groups also have entered the fray, with the Lone Star Project on Friday sending out a news release that questions Cuellar’s use of campaign funds in his 2002 Congressional race and charges he misused state funds while still Texas secretary of state, which is an appointed position. (Roll Call,  March 7, 2006)

This really caught my(Markos’s) eye from Cuellar's spokesperson:    “Strother dismissed the support for Ciro as more to do with ‘the fact that most Democrats, including myself, are disgruntled with the state of the country and (President) Bush.’ So what does he think of his boss (Cuellar) making out with Bush not just in this year's SOTU address, but also in 2005 (his first as a US congressman)? From Lone Star Project: (Daily Kos, February 2, 2006)

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Tom DeLay

"Democrat attacks and the politics of personal destruction were heavily used by my opponents in this Republican primary, and they were rejected just like they will be in November," DeLay said in a statement. "Now we need to focus on the real contest at hand the battle between Republicans and liberal Democrats, between myself and Nick Lampson."

Angle quickly got a chance to prove his mettle when Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle began looking into potential fundraising abuses by the Texans for a Republican Majority PAC (TRMPAC), an offshoot of DeLay's Americans for a Republican Majority federal PAC (ARMPAC). At issue is $190,000 in corporate contributions by TRMPAC to the Republican National Committee in 2002, and the RNC's subsequent donation of that same amount of money to seven candidates for the Texas state House. Under Texas state law, corporate contributions cannot be made to state legislative races. Prosecutors have alleged that TRMPAC officials -- several of whom have close personal and professional ties to DeLay -- essentially sought to launder corporate contributions through the RNC. Angle sprung into action, using the Lone Star Project as an information clearinghouse for all things DeLay. The organization "particularly became relevant as the unethical activities of Tom DeLay came more to light," Angle reflected. "Because I had followed that closely I knew quite a bit about what DeLay has done as it related to TRMPAC." (The Fix – Washington Post, March 6, 2006)

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Meanwhile, the Democratic Lone Star Project put out a statement challenging DeLay's contention that Travis County is Democratic. The group said election returns for the past two presidential elections, past two U.S. Senate races and the 2002 governor's race show Travis County was more Democratic than Republican by a margin of two-tenths of one percent. (Houston Chronicle Nov. 8, 2005)

Voters there picked John Kerry for president, but some Democrats say Travis County could be Republican U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay's kind of place if he wants a fair trial on campaign finance charges.

DeLay is pushing to have his case moved to his home county of Fort Bend.

The Lone Star Project, a Democratic group, points to several top-of-the-ticket races in recent years in arguing that Travis County has less of a partisan split than other possible trial venues despite its liberal reputation.
Averaging Travis County election percentages for the Democratic and Republican candidates in five top races from 2000 through 2004, the project finds   46.83 percent for Democrat candidates and 46.63 percent for GOP candidates.  (San Antonio Express-News November 11, 2005)

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Pete Sessions -Jack Abramoff Scandal

Democrats raise questions about Sessions’ tie to Abramoff

The Lone Star Project…issued a news release Tuesday excerpting news stories and documents concerning Sessions and Abramoff's clients. Among the items cited are Sessions' activities on behalf of the government of Malaysia and a trip he made there.

"Pete Sessions now has a responsibility to explain why he became an advocate for Malaysia after this trip, whereas before he had shown no interest at all," said Matt Angle, Lone Star Project director… In House records, Sessions reported his Malaysia trip as occurring between Jan. 11 and Jan. 19, 2002. He listed "Malaysian effort on terrorism, trade" as the reason for the trip and said it cost $8,000 for transportation, $2,100 for lodging and $500 for meals…
The trip was officially paid for by the Kuala Lumpur-based Institute of Strategic and International Studies, which Sessions noted by the group's acronym, ISIS, on his travel record.
But the National Journal, a Washington political magazine, reported last month that the trip was partly paid for by the government of Malaysia.

The Malaysian government paid almost $1 million in 2001 and 2002 to the American International Center, a think tank set up by Scanlon, the National Journal reported. The center then paid Greenberg Traurig, Abramoff's former employer, $1.5 million for lobbying assistance… In addition, Sessions' political action committee, PETE PAC, has received about $20,500 from tribes that were clients of Abramoff, most of those made in 2002.

Sessions is a member of the Rules Committee, which decides which legislation will get a vote on the House floor and what amendments will be considered. Harrison said that position makes everything part of Sessions' duties.

Sessions is running for re-election and faces no opposition in the Republican primary. He'll likely face Democrat Will Pryor, a Dallas attorney, in November. (Associated Press January 17,2006)

"Sessions, prior to this trip, had shown no interest in Malaysia," said Mr. Angle, who runs the Lone Star Project... "If you take a look at what Sessions has done, it would be logical that he would be one of the members the federal investigators would be taking a look at." …Three House members went on the trip, sponsored by the Institute of Strategic and International Studies, a Malaysian think tank with ties to that country's government.

In his travel disclosure, Mr. Sessions reported the cost at $10,500.

Four months later, he started a congressional caucus to foster U.S.-Malaysian trade and security ties. He was joined by Rep. Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y., who was also on the trip. They remain co-chairmen of the 15-member caucus. (The Dallas Morning News, January 17, 2006)

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