As 2018 approaches, so does the 2018 primary season. I'm sure you've already received more than you want campaign mailers from those running for political office. Many of the mailers come from candidates themselves but you'll also receive mailers from organizations and Political Action Committees, touting one candidate over another. It's important to know who these PAC's are and the typical candidate they support. One of the best resources to gain this information is Transparency Texas.org. An unbiased look at all the different PAC's and donors that take and give to political campaigns in Texas, Transparency Texas is almost a one stop information center. Transparency Texas has listed the top 10 PAC's in terms of donations received thus far for the 2018 election cycle. You can find them here. The top donors thus far are listed here.
Transparency Texas has also listed what they deem as the four political tribes in Texas and where each PAC falls on the scale. This is important, because as a voter, you want to know if the PAC aligns with your own belief system. You may also want to know, in case you're considering to donate to one of these PAC's. For instance, Texans for Lawsuit Reform (TLR) and Texas Real Estate Association (TREPAC) are the two biggest PAC's in Texas. According to Transparency Texas, they tend to give money to candidates that lean moderate to liberal republican and the occasional democrat. On the other end, is Empower Texans. They give money to candidates who lean more conservative. Here in East Texas, two local PAC's are known to support the more conservative candidate, Grassroots-We The People in Tyler and VOCAL in Longview. (Full disclosure, ETLW is a product of VOCAL and author is the treasurer).
Another source is the Texas Ethics Commission. Anyone can look up a candidate, PAC or incumbent's donations and expenses. (Don't worry, I've already done this for you, coming in Part 2 of this report). I started with the PAC that sent the most recent mailer, Associated Republicans of Texas. They were endorsing Chris Paddie. Their mission statement includes, "ART is committed to winning Texas House and Senate seats by allocating resources to the right candidates, in the right districts, at the right time". See their website here. However, looking at the list of candidates they support, it looks as though, only candidates that fall in the liberal to moderate faction receive any funds. Run by some of the wealthiest individuals in the state they are one of the most influential Texas PAC's. You can read more on ART here. Jay Dean of Longview was also a recipient of this organization.
As mentioned, TREPAC is another big hitter. Their legislative priorities usually tend to align with the Conservative Republican wing of the House, yet their giving heavily favors Liberal Republicans, as evidenced by funding Chris Paddie, Joe Straus, Drew Darby, Byron Cook, Jason Villaba and Charlie Geren. The reason? Texas Association of Realtors likes having a seat at the table. They likely believe they must have one in order to get things done.
Texans for Lawsuit Reform is the largest Political Action Committee in the state. Since 2015 they have received $11 million dollars in donations. Richard Weekley, of Houston is a co-founder of Weekley Homes and co-founder, Chairman and CEO of (TLR), a statewide tort reform organization. He has given $923k since 2015 to this PAC and also gives individual donations to candidates, (we'll see who in just a bit). Robert McNair, Houston Texans owner, also tops the $900k donation mark to them. Their biggest expense has been to the political consultants Murphy, Nasica and Associates, which works exclusively with establishment politicians favored by the House leadership cartel. Paddie, Dean, and Cook have employed this firm that has been known to "get dirty" during campaign season. Ironically, the second biggest expense from TLR since 2015 is to State Senator Bryan Hughes of Mineola.
Clicking on the links above should give you plenty to read and research before I post Part 2 of this blog where I'll be detailing where each SD 1 reps donations came from since the beginning of the last election cycle. It's shaping up to be quite interesting!
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