2006 Documentary Lifts the Lid on Tom DeLay’s 2003 Texas Redistricting Power Play

Scandals & Feuds3/5 wildness

2006 Documentary Lifts the Lid on Tom DeLay’s 2003 Texas Redistricting Power Play

The Big Buy: Tom DeLay's Stolen Congress / 2000s

In 2006 filmmakers Mark Birnbaum and Jim Schermbeck released The Big Buy: Tom DeLay's Stolen Congress, a hard‑nosed political documentary that traces Tom DeLay’s trajectory from Texas businessman to U.S. House Majority Leader and then lays out the mechanics and consequences of the controversial 2003 Texas redistricting. The film centers on DeLay’s role and the politically engineered manoeuvres attributed to Texans for a Republican Majority, chronicling how lines were redrawn and alliances mobilized to shift congressional power. Birnbaum and Schermbeck assembled interviews and public records to map a web of political ties between DeLay, other congressional figures and business interests, framing the redistricting as a raw exercise of insider influence rather than neutral mapmaking.