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 May trial, found that the GOP group failed to disclose two $500,000 donations made to Gov. Rick Perry’s campaign in the final days of the 2006 campaign.
The $2 million judgment comes after it was disclosed this summer that the Perry campaign had paid Bell $426,000 to settle similar claims against him.
Bell can’t comment about the Perry settlement because of a confidential agreement, but he was free to react to Tuesday’s decision.
“People should be glad that there are repercussions when people try to hide the source of campaign donations,” Bell said. “If the judge had ruled for them, most of our election laws would have gone out the window.”
Bell had previously settled with the Perry campaign for $426K. The Chron has more, including the final judgment and findings of fact, which seem pretty clear. The RGA will appeal anyway, so this story isn’t over quite yet.
The RGA lost this case but won the election. Looks like they won the battle that counted.
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