Judge Bob Perkins' political donations created the appearance of bias. Perkins, a Democrat, has contributed more than $5,000 since 2000 to Democratic candidates such as John Kerry and the liberal advocacy group MoveOn.org.
MoveOn.org is conducting a "Fire Tom DeLay" campaign, but Perkins said that campaign began after he made his contributions to the group. Prosecutors argued that many of Perkins' contributions were made during a presidential election, when DeLay was not the primary target of the group.
http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/11/01/delay.indictment.ap/index.html