It seems that way, anyway. With the defeat of several incumbents in last week’s primaries, there’s a lot more unneeded campaign war chests lying around. Millions in unspent contributions have long lurked in former state lawmakers’ campaign bank accounts, often sitting idle until the cash eventually works its way back into the political system. There [...]
Posts Tagged ‘campaign finances’
HISD considers revamping ethics rules
This all seems like a good idea. Houston school trustees, who now may accept campaign cash from anyone at any time, would face new restrictions under a proposal meant to curb improper influence in the school district’s business deals. The new rules, slated for board consideration next week, would bar a trustee from taking contributions [...]
Will the Lege change the rules about corporate campaign contributions?
I think the answer to that question is probably “No”, but given the Citizens United ruling and the effect it had in the 2010 election, one cannot rule it out. Immediately after the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision, the Texas Ethics Commission, acting within state law, issued rules for individual corporations or unions to disclose their [...]
Here come the nukes
Alas. Texas can import low-level radioactive waste from 36 other states, a commission run jointly by Texas and Vermont decided Tuesday in Andrews County. The Low-Level Radioactive Waste Disposal Compact Commission vote was a decisive victory for Waste Control Specialists, a company owned by a politically connected billionaire that has shaken off a series of [...]
A little nuclear waste in your stocking
There’s a reason why stories like this tend to appear just before a big holiday weekend. Potentially sidestepping political obstacles, a commission overseeing radioactive waste disposal could decide in early January to open a radioactive waste dump in West Texas to 36 other states. The Low-Level Radioactive Waste Disposal Compact Commission will meet to decide [...]
Bell scores $2 million verdict against RGA
Chris Bell racks up his second legal victory related to a lawsuit stemming from the 2006 Governor’s race. A state district judge Tuesday ruled that the Republican Governors Association violated state campaign finance laws and ordered it to pay Chris Bell, the 2006 Democratic candidate for governor, $2 million. Judge John Dietz’s order, following a [...]
Dirty deals, done dirt cheap
So I missed this DMN story from the weekend about Rick Perry’s excellent fortune in the real estate market. Three years after Gov. Rick Perry’s biggest real estate score, questions persist about whether the governor benefited from favoritism, backroom dealing and influence-buying. The Dallas Morning News found evidence that Perry’s investment was enhanced by a [...]
No tech vendor contributions to HISD trustees
This seems straightforward enough. Houston school board members can no longer accept unlimited contributions from technology vendors after federal regulators alleged HISD violated competitive bidding and gift-giving rules. The new policy, which board members discussed Thursday, relates to the federal E-rate program, which allows school districts to apply for funds for Internet access, wiring and [...]
Disclose, please
This is a step in the right direction, but it’s not enough by itself. The U.S. Supreme Court opened the door for corporations to pour money into influencing Texas elections, but the state ethics commission today is taking up a rule to make sure voters know who is spending the money. Under the rule up [...]
What to do with all that leftover campaign cash?
The Texas Trib explores the question of what happens to the money after a candidate drops out or an incumbent retires. Let’s say you’re a donor to a candidate or an elected official who quits a race mid-campaign or chooses not to run again. What if you made a contribution to one of the nine [...]
Improving campaign finance disclosure
This is a step in the right direction. The [Texas Ethics Commission] adopted new rules last week that, beginning this summer, will require anyone running for office to use 19 defined subject categories to describe any goods, services or other things of value purchased by their campaigns. In the past, these candidates chose vague terms [...]
Eight days out finance reports, District Council candidates
To wrap up our tour of the finance reports for the city runoffs, here’s a look at the two District Council races. First, District A, in which Lane Lewis is up against Brenda Stardig: Candidate Raised Spent Loans Cash PAC $$ PAC % =============================================================== Lewis 42,439 33,765 0 19,401 8,250 19.4 Stardig 41,495 41,638 0 [...]
Eight days out finance reports, Parker and Locke
Among other things, Friday was the eight days out campaign finance reporting deadline for the city runoffs. The Chron reports on the Mayoral candidates. Both sides aggressively asked for volunteers and donors before the Wednesday deadline. Election rules allowed Parker and Locke to go back to donors who gave the $5,000 maximum in the general [...]
Has the TEC grown some teeth?
Well, no. But they do seem to be levying bigger fines, so maybe their gums are a little harder. By every measure, the agency is issuing more — and larger — fines, the records show. “There’s been a shift to focus more on enforcement and compliance,” said the commission’s chairman, San Antonio lawyer Ross Fischer. [...]
Spending on voter outreach: District Council races
I’ve taken a look at spending on voter outreach in the Controller’s race and in the At Large Council races, and was working on a similar post for the district Council races for the 30 days out reports, but never quite finished it. Now that the 8 day report is out, I went ahead and [...]
Eight days out: Spending on voter outreach by At Large candidates
As with the Controller’s race, I took a look at spending on voter outreach for At Large candidates in the 30 day out report. Given that some large number of people have no clue about who is running for these offices, I figured I’d better look at the 8 day out reports as well. Here [...]
HISD candidate spending
After all I’ve done detailing how city candidates are spending their campaign money, I’d love to be able to tell how how candidates for HISD Trustee are spending theirs. I’d love to, but unfortunately I can’t, because that information isn’t available online, and I just don’t have the time to tromp over to HISD headquarters [...]
Eight day out finances
Here’s the Chron story about the eight days out finance reports, which is all about the Mayor’s race. City Councilman Peter Brown, who polls show leading the pack, poured an additional $801,000 of his family fortune into the race, pushing his self-funded total to $3.2 million. In the one-month period covered by the report, he [...]
Correction!
Now that everyone has had a chance to look over everyone else’s campaign finance reports, a number of candidates have made some corrections to their reports. Former City Attorney Gene Locke and City Controller Annise Parker received money from donors who gave to their campaigns during “contractor blackout” periods. City ordinance prohibits donors from making [...]
Spending on voter outreach: At Large races
I did this exercise for the Controller’s race last week, let’s see now what we can learn about the four contested At Large Council races. First, At Large #1: Candidate Amount Purpose ========================================================== Karen Derr 88.32 Advertising (Allen Jamail) Karen Derr 298.70 Advertising (Allen Jamail) Karen Derr 50.00 Advertising (GHWCC) Karen Derr 358.30 Printing Karen [...]
Ethics complaint filed against Bradford
I’ve received word via email that an ethics complaint has been filed against At Large #4 candidate C.O. Bradford, alleging violations in his October campaign finance report. The sender included a PDF of the complaint, but I’m not posting it here as it contained a scan of his drivers license. The details of the complaint [...]
34 > 20, and other campaign finance news
I’ve added two more candidate reports to my campaign finance report spreadsheet, Robert Kane and KA Khan, both in District F. Each of them had filed paper reports instead of electronic reports. You can see a list of such reports here, and you can see scanned PDF copies of their reports here: for Khan and [...]
Corrections, clarifications, and conundrums
This is a followup to my post from this morning about the 30 days out reports. I’m sure there will be more of this stuff to come, from plenty of folks, but this is what I’ve got as of now. – First, please be sure to see the updates I made to that post. In [...]
City fundraising reports, 30 days out
Today is the deadline to file the 30-days-out campaign finance report. You can look up your favorite candidate here, but I can tell you that more than half of them aren’t up as of when I publish this. I’ve updated my Google spreadsheet that keeps track of who raised what, so check that out for [...]
A tour of the July campaign finance reports
In addition to City of Houston elections, this past July 15 was also a reporting deadline for state and federal campaigns. I’ve put together this Google spreadsheet that details a number of legislative, SBOE, and statewide races, to serve as a point of reference. I skipped the top of the ticket for the statewides because [...]
The five-thousand dollar club
David Ortez does some digging through the campaign finance reports for the three Mayoral contenders and comes up with a list of those who gave the legal maximum of $5000 to each. Gene Locke is the big winner, with more than three times as many such contributors as either Annise Parker or Peter Brown. Check [...]
Dewhurst settles financial disclosure complaint
Well, now we have an idea of where Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst gets his wealth. The Republican sent the Texas Ethics Commission two corrected financial statements covering 2007 and 2008 filings. The new disclosures show Dewhurst holds a stake in several funds, including assets managed by Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers and the TCP Investment Fund [...]
Eversole sets a record
You da man, Jerry! Give credit to Jerry Eversole: When he broke the rules, he did it in a big way. The fine levied against the Harris County commissioner this month is the highest in the history of the Texas Ethics Commission. Eversole’s $75,000 sanction dwarfs the next-highest sanction, a $29,000 penalty slapped on Texas [...]
Eversole gets slapped by Ethics Commission
County Commissioner Jerry Eversole gets hit with a $75,000 fine by the Texas Ethics Commission for failure to accurately report expenses on his campaign finance reports. Eversole said he signed what is known as an “order and agreed resolution” so as to dispose of the state’s review of his finances, which began with a series [...]
Burnam makes his case in the papers
State Rep. Lon Burnam writes an op-ed about his resolution to impeach Judge Sharon Keller. Last week, a group of 24 national experts on judicial ethics issued a statement that Judge Keller has consistently demonstrated a lack of impartiality in cases involving criminal defendants like [Michael] Richard that violates their constitutional right to due process [...]
I hate you! Now gimme some money!
Damn those Washington elites! Always stuffing money into my pants campaign coffers! Rick Perry has railed against Washington, but when it comes to campaign cash, the governor has raised far more than rival Kay Bailey Hutchison from the nation’s capital. Perry has collected $2.7 million from Washington since becoming governor – four times more than [...]
Public financing for judicial races
In addition to the other ethics and campaign finance reform bills that I mentioned previously, one other bill set to come up in committee hearings on Wednesday the 15th is HB3146 by Rep. Rafael Anchia, which would allow for the creation of a public financing system for certain judicial races in Texas. It’s only at [...]