Houston homebuilder Bob Perry, the state's top Republican donor, is venturing again into national politics, putting more than $8 million into the GOP's effort to maintain control of Congress.

Congressional Quarterly's PoliticalMoneyLine, which tracks how money is spent in politics, ranks Perry as the No. 1 donor this year.

Perry has given $2 million to Americans for Honesty on Issues, a new group that is buying television ads aimed at helping Republicans facing tight House races in Iowa, Colorado, Indiana, Arizona, North Carolina, Kentucky and New Mexico, according to the group's latest report to the Federal Election Commission.

Houston political consultant and fund-raiser Sue Walden is president of the group, but so far it isn't working in Texas races.

Most notably absent is Shelley Sekula-Gibbs' write-in bid for former Rep. Tom DeLay's seat — perhaps more evidence that the GOP considers holding that suburban Houston seat a long shot and is putting its bets on more promising races.

Earlier this election cycle, Perry contributed $5 million to the Economic Freedom Fund, which targeted Democratic congressional candidates in competitive races in Georgia, Indiana, Iowa and West Virginia.

Perry kicked in another $1 million to the The Free Enterprise Fund, which is airing ads attacking MoveOn.org, a liberal group that has been active in elections, and Democrats running for the U.S. Senate in Montana and Connecticut.

Perry's spokesman declined to comment on his political donations.

Perry, a longtime Republican benefactor in Texas, drew national attention in the 2004 presidential elections, when he funded the "Swift Boat Veterans for Truth" ad campaign questioning Democratic nominee John Kerry's Vietnam War record.

The Swift Boat group, like those receiving Perry's donations this year, are 527s, named after a provision in the federal tax code. Donations Perry and others make to those groups are not subject to the same limits as donations directly benefiting federal candidates or political parties.

Direct donations from any individual to a single federal candidate are limited to $2,100 in an election cycle.

Expenditures by 527s may not be directed to specific candidates. The money often buys advertising that is strongly favorable or negative to a candidate or cause, without specifically soliciting a vote.

Total donations

Perry's total donations to 527s in the 2006 cycle are close to the more than $8 million he gave such groups during the 2004 election season.

That year he placed fifth in donations to 527s, according to Federal Election Commission figures tabulated by the Center for Responsive Politics, a Washington-based research team that tracks campaign funding. Its Web site is http://www.opensecrets.org.

Billionaire investor George Soros contributed the largest amount during the 2004 election cycle, clocking in at $23.5 million and contributing largely to liberal organizations such as MoveOn.org.

He scaled back his giving this cycle, but remains the largest donor to Democratic causes, contributing a little more than $2 million to groups including Emily's List and the New Democrat Network.

Only donation so far

Perry's $2 million is the only donation reported so far by Americans for Honesty on Issues, which spent $1.4 million on nine races last week.

Walden is listed as the custodian of records on the group's official documents. Although the address affiliated with the organization is in Alexandria, Va., Walden is a well-known Houston consultant.

She has raised money for DeLay, who recently resigned from Congress, and served as an adviser to the late Enron Chairman Ken Lay.

More recently, the American Cancer Society hired Walden to lobby on behalf of an expanded indoor smoking ban proposed for the city of Houston.

Walden referred calls about the group to Glenn Willard, a Washington lawyer who drew up the papers establishing the organization.

Willard said he didn't know from whom the group is soliciting money. But he said the donors cannot earmark money for specific purposes and often don't know who else is contributing.

Perry has long been a supporter of Sekula-Gibbs, who is the state Republican Party's choice as a write-in candidate to succeed DeLay in the 22nd Congressional District.

He is her finance chairman, but campaign finance records do not list any contributions from Perry to Sekula-Gibbs' congressional campaign.

And with less than a month left in the campaign, none of the 527s he is funding are focusing on the 22nd District.

It's but one indication that national Republican-affiliated groups are pulling back their money to focus elsewhere.

Although the National Republican Congressional Committee has contributed nearly $100,000 to Sekula-Gibbs' campaign and mailed material on her behalf, that's less than it has spent in other races. For example, the NRCC contributed $244,000 in the district of former Rep. Mark Foley, who resigned after it became public that he exchanged sexually graphic instant messages with underage male pages.

22nd District 'a wild card'

Willard, the lawyer for Americans for Honesty on Issues, said that group is not advertising in the 22nd District. "I don't think CD22 is even on their radar screen," he said. "Why would anybody put money into any race that's strongly going in either direction?"

Sekula-Gibbs, however, said the national party is still "engaged."

Harris County Tax Assessor-Collector Paul Bettencourt, a Sekula-Gibbs supporter once considered a prospective DeLay successor, said he's not sure the party is giving up on the race.

"Her race is like a wild card. Therefore it doesn't have the same test rules," he said. "It's already a gamble. It's not something that needs to have the same funding as a slugout in a contested state."

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