This article doesn't mention it (can't find the Times-Dispatch article) but without the $$$ from Warner, Allen, and the Republican Congressmen the party would have been bankrupt and unable to automatically get candidates on the ballot.
I totally missed this story as it got NO attention in the local press-and we are the capital. I just happened to see the T-D article on my stepfather's work bench.
Typical Republicans-get caught red handed.....buy your way out of it (throw money at the problem).
http://www.augustafreepress.com/stories/storyReader$29824
GOP SETTLES EAVESDROPPING SUIT: The Republican Party of Virginia has finalized the legal settlement with state Democrats related to the matter of a political eavesdropping case involving the former head of the Republican Party of Virginia.
The party will pay $750,000 to a group of Democrats who filed civil suit after a former GOP official tapped into two Democratic Party conference calls placed in March 2002 using a pass code given to him by a former Democratic Party staffer.
Four people - including former RPV executive director Ed Matricardi - pleaded guilty to criminal charges for their roles in the incidents.
"With this settlement, the Republican Party of Virginia will continue to focus on the important issues facing the Commonwealth," Griffin said.