$9 Million Question:  

October 06, 2006

AG Candidates Ask:
Are You For the People?
Or Against Pedophiles?

Texas voters definitely have a choice in this November’s attorney general race—although few of them may be aware of it. Nonetheless they can expect to hear soon from the incumbent Republican. Attorney General Greg Abbott has raised almost $9 million since his 2002 election. Although he still retained $7 million in his war chest at the end of June, Abbott pledged to spend heavily to ensure that voters know about his accomplishments. At the top of his list, he says, is busting Internet pedophiles.

Starting Two Years Earlier,
Abbott Raised 83 Times More Money Than Van Os…

Election
Cycle
Total
Contributions
To Abbott
No. of
Contributions
To Abbott
2004
$3,985,473
1,781
2006
$4,749,806
1,918
TOTAL:
$8,733,279
3,699

 

Election
Cycle
Total
Contributions
To Van Os
No. of
Contributions
To Van Os
2004
NA
NA
2006
$104,081
912
TOTAL:
$104,081
912

Note: Libertarian candidate Jon Roland has not reported raising or spending any money.

... And Has 2,177 Times As Much In the Bank

Approximate
Date
Abbott Campaign’s
Cash On Hand
Van Os Campaign’s
Cash On Hand
12/31/03
$1,334,334
NA
6/30/04
$1,804,815
NA
12/31/04
$3,210,342
NA
6/30/05
$3,777,277
$11,267
12/31/05
$5,695,634
$0
6/30/06
$7,057,160
$3,242

 

Meanwhile voters should not expect to hear from Democratic challenger David Van Os—unless they mosey down to their local court house on the appointed day. A longtime labor lawyer, Van Os is running a populist campaign—and has the bank account to prove it. Since his failed 2004 race for the Texas Supreme Court, Van Os has raised $104,081, spending all but $3,242 of it by the end of June. Unable to buy much advertising, Van Os is well on his way to fulfilling his pledge to hold political rallies at each of Texas’ 254 county courthouses. Here Van Os rails more often against the kinds of rapacious corporate interests that have stocked his opponent’s war chest than the perverts who populate the World Wide Web. Libertarian Jon Roland, who has not reported raising or spending any money, says his priority will be to squash the corruption of public offices.

Apart from message and the sheer size of their war chests, a key difference between the two major-party candidates is in the size of the contribution checks that they received. Checks of $5,000 or more accounted for 75 percent of all the money that Abbott raised and just 19 percent of Van Os’ total funding. In contrast, checks for less than $1,000 accounted for 57 percent of Van Os’ money and 5 percent of the incumbent’s cash.

Researchers identified the interests behind more than $8 million of Abbott’s campaign money, finding that business interests accounted for more than 99 percent of his total. Abbott, an ex-Texas Supreme Court justice and former corporate lawyer, received the most money ($1.4 million) from the Lawyers and Lobbyists sector (led by Vinson & Elkins). He also received more than $1 million from the Miscellaneous Business sector (led by Houston beer magnate John Nau). Abbott’s top overall donor was, of course, Houston home-builder Bob Perry, who gave the attorney general a remarkable $470,265. The next-largest donors were Kenny Troutt, who made a fortune from his Excel phone company, and energy and water investor T. Boone Pickens.

Researchers identified the interests behind just $36,290 of Van Os’ campaign money. This was because he relied much more on harder-to-identify small donors and because his campaign did a poor job of identifying the occupation and employer of even some of its top donors (e.g reporting one $2,000 donor as nothing more than a “Political Action Committee”). Labor unions are Van Os’ top source of support. Two of his top donors are unions that previously employed this candidate: the Communications Workers of America and the AFL-CIO. While Abbott received a negligible share of his money from unions, the absolute amount that he received from labor ($15,900) almost rivals what Van Os obtained from this sector ($18,800).

 

Abbott's Special Interests

 

Abbott's Contributions Breakdown*

Size of
Contribution Check
Total
Amount
Percent
of Total
No. of
Checks
Percent
of Total
$50,000 or More
$850,000
10%
16
<1%
$25,000 - $49,999
$2,500,000
29%
100
3%
$5,000 - $24,999
$3,171,424
36%
443
12%
$1,000 - $4,999
$1,772,393
20%
1,160
31%
$100 - $999
$423,234
5%
1,414
38%
Under $100
$16,173
<1%
566
15%
Unitemized ($50 or less)
$55
<1%
NA
NA
TOTALS:
$8,733,279
100%
3,699
100%
*This chart analyzes each check received. Aggregate totals for donors making multiple contributions are reported below.

 

Abbott’s Top Donors (Accounting for 45% of His Total)
Jan. 2003 Through June 2006

Amount
 Contributor
Employer/Business
City
$470,265
  Bob & Doylene Perry Perry Homes Houston
$175,000
  Kenny & Lisa Troutt Mt. Vernon Investments (telecom) Dallas
$157,674
  T. Boone Pickens, Jr. BP Capital (oil & water investing) Dallas
$157,048
  John & Barbara Nau, III Silver Eagle [beer] Distributors Houston
$150,000
  Stevan Hammond Marketing Investors Corp. Dallas
$150,000
  Harold Simmons Contran Corp. (nuclear waste) Dallas
$140,228
  Lonnie 'Bo' Pilgrim Pilgrim's Pride Poultry Pittsburg
$115,000
  Randall G. Goss U.S. RISK insurance Dallas
$100,000
  William & Wendy Boothe Boothe Eye Care & Laser Center Dallas
$100,000
  Q PAC Q Funding, LP (investing) Fort Worth
$100,000
  Robert & Terry Rowling TRT Holdings (oil & hotels) Irving
$100,000
  Vinson & Elkins Law firm Houston
$91,707
  Robert J. Schlegel Pavestone building materials Dallas
$90,000
  Andrews Kurth Law firm Houston
$90,000
  Repub. State Leadership PAC Republican PAC Washington
$85,664
  James R. Leininger KCI (hospital beds) San Antonio
$77,000
  Fulbright & Jaworski Law firm Houston
$76,000
  Michael Stevens M. Stevens Interests (apartments) Houston
$75,000
  Felix & Candice Chen PAJ Inc. (jewelry maker) Dallas
$75,000
  Frank McGuyer McGuyer Homebuilders Houston
$70,309
  John V. Lattimore Lattimore Materials (concrete) Mc Kinney
$70,000
  Charles C.Butt HEB Grocery San Antonio
$69,713
  Valero Energy PAC Gas refining San Antonio
$67,500
  Linebarger Goggan Blair… Law firm Austin
$65,000
  Louis & Julie Beecherl Beecherl Co’s (oil fortune) Dallas
$65,000
  John Carpenter III Lachlan Alliance (real estate) Dallas
$65,000
  TX Real Estate Assoc. Realtor trade group Austin
$55,000
  Baker Botts Law firm Houston
$55,000
  Alice L. Walton Wal-Mart heiress Mineral Wells
$55,000
  Richard W. Weekley Texans for Lawsuit Reform/developer Houston
$51,000
  Locke Liddell & Sapp Law firm Houston
$51,000
  Walter & Suzette Negley WWN Corp. (makes screws) Houston
$50,000
  HillCo PAC Bob Perry’s lobby firm Austin
$46,615
  Landry's Restaurants PAC Restaurants, casinos Houston
$46,500
  Lowry & Peggy Mays Clear Channel (radio stations) San Antonio
$46,000
  Akin Gump Strauss Hauer… Law firm Austin
$45,000
  Winstead Sechrest & Minick Law firm Dallas
$43,651
  Ned S. Holmes Parkway Investments (developer) Houston
$40,000
  Dennis R. Berman Trivac (learning consulting) Irving
$40,000
  McGinnis Lochridge & Kilgore Law firm Austin
$40,000
  AT&T Telecommunications Austin

 

Van Os' Special Interests

 

Van Os' Contributions Breakdown*

Size of
Contribution Check
Total
Amount
Percent
of Total
No. of
Checks
Percent
of Total
$50,000 or More
$0
0%
0
0%
$25,000 - $49,999
$0
0%
0
0%
$5,000 - $24,999
$20,000
19%
3
<1%
$1,000 - $4,999
$24,500
23%
19
2%
$100 - $999
$36,765
35%
246
27%
Under $100
$21,053
20%
644
71%
Unitemized ($50 or less)
$2,552
2%
NA
NA
TOTALS:
$104,870
100%
912
100%
*This chart analyzes each check received. Aggregate totals for donors making multiple contributions are reported below.

 

Van Os’ Top Donors (Accounting for 47% of His Total)
Jan. 2005 Through June 2006

Amount
 Contributor
Employer/Business
City
$10,800
 *Communications Workers
 Labor union Washington
$10,075
 David Collins
 Retired Johnson City
$5,000
 *AFL-CIO
 Labor union Austin
$4,265
 Victor Scherb
 Professor Tyler
$3,000
 Garland & Sandra Stevenson
 Retired Telephone
$3,000
 Rebecca Willard
 Unreported & unknown Austin
$2,517
 Suzanne & John Stafford
 Unreported & unknown Beaumont
$2,000
 Political Action Committee
 Unreported & unknown San Antonio
$2,000
 Ruth McLean Bowers
 Oil & Gas; Rancher San Antonio
$1,114
 Sonia Santana
 Web Designer Austin
$1,025
 Emogene Proctor
 Retired Teacher Winfield
$1,000
 Richard R. Morrison
 Attorney Sugar Land
$1,000
 Internat’l Br. of Electrical Workers
Labor union Houston
$1,000
 Robert Lyon
 Attorney Rowlett
$1,000
 Teamsters DRIVE PAC
 Labor union Washington
$1,000
 TX Working Families PAC
 Carpenters union San Antonio
*Former employer of the candidate.