'[Y]ou really have to prove yourself,' said former DeLay spokesman Kevin Madden. | Robert A. Reeder Ex-DeLay aides thrive in GOP

While former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay tries to avoid a three-year stint in Texas prison, the loyal aides who once worked for him have quietly created a powerful Republican network on and off Capitol Hill — riding the GOP comeback while their former boss appeals his state money-laundering and conspiracy conviction.

These DeLay alums are populating the upper reaches of Republican leadership jobs in the House and enjoying lucrative jobs lobbying and consulting. Their enduring influence shows that while the GOP establishment may have moved on from DeLay, the staffers who ran his House shop at its peak of power still have cachet.


“The leader’s office during the time I worked there was full of very talented people, and I am glad to see so many go onto great things,” said Elliot Berke, a campaign finance lawyer in private practice who served as DeLay’s counsel between 2004 and 2006.

DeLay was sentenced Monday to three years in prison after being convicted in November. His defense team is appealing the conviction, a process that could take months or even years.

But a look at the top jobs in the new GOP majority reads like a “Who’s Who” of DeLay’s staff list from four years ago:

Tim Berry, DeLay’s former chief of staff, was recently appointed as the top aide to Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) after four years as a senior lobbyist for media giant Time Warner Inc.

Brett Loper, another top DeLay aide, is now working for Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) as a policy director. Loper, whose wife is a lobbyist and former aide to Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.), served as DeLay’s chief of staff for several months in his final year in office.

Several other ex-DeLay aides hold senior posts in the House GOP hierarchy: Anne Thorsen, a top floor aide under DeLay, will help run the floor for Boehner’s operation. Danielle Maurer, deputy director of floor operations for the former Texas Republican, will oversee member services for the new speaker.

It’s a remarkable contrast to the gloomy times for anyone associated with DeLay in the wake of his June 2006 resignation, as the staff broke up and aides scattered as fast as they could to save their own careers.

For some time after that, having the name “Tom DeLay” on one’s résumé was a major drawback. The Jack Abramoff scandal was still simmering, and two former top DeLay aides — Michael Scanlon and Tony Rudy — had already pleaded guilty as part of the Justice Department’s criminal probe of the case. DeLay was under federal investigation, as was Ed Buckham, DeLay’s onetime chief of staff.

But after the Election Day romp by Republicans on Nov. 2 last year, DeLay’s staffers started trickling back onto the scene.

Most of the DeLay alums working again in the House didn’t want to talk about their time on his staff, preferring to focus on the future rather than the past. They wanted to play up their current accomplishments, rather than resurrect what — for some of them — had been a difficult time, especially from the 2005-06 period, when DeLay found himself in the middle of the Abramoff scandal.

Yet other DeLay veterans remain proud of their work for him, especially if they were never personally tarred by Abramoff’s long shadow, which is starting to recede now that he has been paroled from federal prison after more than four years behind bars.

“The professionals who worked in the majority leader’s office were very mindful of respecting the institution of the House of Representatives,” said Kevin Madden, a former DeLay spokesman. Madden is now executive vice president of public affairs for JDA Frontline, a public relations firm. Madden also served as a spokesman and top adviser for former Massachusetts GOP Gov. Mitt Romney during the 2008 presidential campaign.

“Many of them had started as legislative assistants or other junior jobs, and they progressed to leadership positions. Those kind of jobs are places where you really have to prove yourself, in either Republican or Democratic offices.”

And many of them are now helping guide the new Republican majority, whether it’s on messaging, policy or floor operations.

Shannon Flaherty McGahn, who stayed on as DeLay’s spokeswoman even after he left the House, is now communications director for the House Republican Conference.

Amy Steinmann-Smith, another DeLay floor staffer, is now Republican policy director of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. Dan Flynn, once deputy chief of staff to DeLay, has been selected to be incumbent retention director at the National Republican Senatorial Committee.

David James, chief of staff in DeLay’s personal office, is state director for Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas). And Keagan Tallon Lenihan, legislative director for Rep. Pete Sessions (R-Texas), began her career as a staff assistant in DeLay’s office.

The list of DeLay alumni extends deep into K Street as well. Susan Hirschmann, DeLay’s top aide when he was majority whip, is a principal at the lobbying firm Williams & Jensen. Hirschmann is close to Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.), and her husband, David, is a senior vice president at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

Jack Victory, a onetime DeLay adviser, is a lobbyist with the Capitol Hill Consulting Group, while Ralph Hellmann, a top official at the Information Technology Industry Council, worked for DeLay nearly a decade ago. Drew Maloney, who served in the majority whip’s office, is CEO at Ogilvy Government Relations. Stuart Roy, a former DeLay spokesman, is a partner at Prism Public Affairs.

Glenn LeMunyon, an ex-DeLay-aide-turned-appropriations-lobbyist, attracted unwanted media attention last year when his Capitol Hill town house was singled out in the New York Post as the spot for “after-hours parties.”

And Emily Miller, a former DeLay spokesman from his time as majority whip -- Scanlon’s former fiancée -- can regularly be found covering Capitol Hill as a senior editor for the newspaper Human Events.

Scanlon is expected to also make some news when he is finally sentenced for his role in the Abramoff scandal next month. Rudy has yet to be sentenced, with prosecutors continuing to postpone the deadline.