| Almost $3 Million In June & July! |
Sept 24, 2003
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Donors Line Up As Strayhorn Battles Perry and Dewhurst For Money and Power.
As mapmaking pens—wielded like swords—clove a bipartisanship legislature in two, Texas’ top GOP officials mustered their collective leadership to embrace one another--with steely knives.Ostensibly, Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn has spent the year clashing with Governor Rick Perry and Lieutenant Governor David Dewhurst over bean-counting disputes. But such theatrics fail to hide the fact that these politicians are less interested in cutting budgets than they are in cutting up each other—even when the next major statewide election is in late 2006!
As former Governor Bush is learning, wars are expensive. The hardest wars to finance are the internecine kind where opponents fight over the same pots of money. These three state politicians raked $2,850,999 into their war chests just in the months of June and July. In fact, while Strayhorn was raising money in early June, Perry and Dewhurst had to wait for the gubernatorial-veto window to close on June 23 to restart their fundraising machines.
Governor Perry has kept these machines primed with repeated special sessions for redistricting. This has kept Perry and Dewhurst in the news as partisan warriors struggling to throw their base more red meat. These same sessions have challenged Strayhorn to find creative ways to thrust herself into the news—a task made easier by the Governor Perry-backed special-session bill to strip away some Comptroller powers.
June and July Fundraising
By Perry, Dewhurst & StrayhornPolitician Money Raised Since
Regular Session EndedGovernor Perry $425,971 Lt. Governor Dewhurst $1,342,260 Comptroller Strayhorn $1,082,768 TOTAL: $2,850,999 Against this tawdry backdrop, Lobby Watch investigates which big donors exclusively backed Strayhorn in recent months at the expense of Perry or Dewhurst--and vice versa (ignoring contributions of less than $1,000).
Strayhorn
Comptroller Strayhorn raised almost $1.1 million in June and July, more than twice what Governor Perry raised and not far behind indebted Lieutenant Governor Dewhurst. Her top Strayhorn-only donors include: Hard-right heavy weights James Leininger and Lonnie Pilgrim; Energy interests that may reflect her Railroad Commissioner years (Patrick Moran and Duer Wagner); and investment firm heads Geoffrey Raynor, Fayez Sarofim and Charles Miller. Strayhorn appointed UT System Regent Miller to head her “e-Texas” education task force. Now her enemies want to take Strayhorn’s e-Texas program away from her. Perhaps the most intriguing Strayhorn contribution is the $10,000 she received from the lobbyist brother of Texas redistricting kingpin Tom DeLay.
Perry & Dewhurst
Lieutenant Governor Dewhurst led the fundraising blitz, taking in $1.3 million in the five-week period that ended on July 28th. Yet he is hardly ahead of the game. Dewhurst’s campaign reported a staggering $13 million debt left over from his squeaker election in 2002. The campaign spent $282,748 in the first half of the year just paying interest on these loans--which Dewhurst personally secured. Just to break even, this wealthy candidate must either raise frightening amounts of money or raid his personal piggy bank.Being over the barrel can yield strange bedfellows. Dewhurst’s top non-Strayhorn donors range from nuclear-waste king and tort warrior Harold Simmons to plaintiff firm Gallagher Lewis Downey & Kim (many more plaintiff lawyers surface in Dewhurst’s second tier of donors).
Compared with Governor Perry, Dewhurst has raked in more non-Strayhorn money from GOP lions like Simmons and the Wyly brothers. In contrast, Perry’s top non-Strayhorn supporters come from a secondary tier of Texas donors. Perry also received no money from institutional donors such as PACs and businesses and his office says that he did not eschew such money. It is not clear if these differences arise because these interests actively favor Dewhurst over Perry or because Dewhurst’s huge debts have prompted him to panhandle more aggressively.
To be sure, a core of partisans and pragmatists gave both to Strayhorn and to one of the men whose offices she covets. Risk-adverse Houston real estate magnate Ned Holmes gave to all three politicians.
These politicians are due to file additional campaign disclosures on September 25th, which will cover fundraising that occurred during this year’s second special session of the legislature.
Top Non-Strayhorn Donors To Dewhurst Non-Strayhorn Donor Amount Company/Interest City Gallagher Lewis Downey… $50,000 Plaintiff law firm Houston Polan Culley Advocacy $50,000 Lobbyists Austin T. Boone Pickens $50,000 Mesa Water (water rights) Dallas Harold C. Simmons $50,000 Corporate takeovers, nuclear waste Dallas Kenny A. Troutt $50,000 Excel Communications Dallas Sam & Charles Wyly $50,000 Ranger Capital (corporate takeovers) Dallas Akin GumP Strauss Hauer… $25,000 Corporate law firm/lobbying Austin Alan Erwin $25,000 Lobbyist Austin Loeffler Jonas & Tuggey $25,000 Lobbyists San Antonio James D. Pitcock $25,000 Williams Brothers Construction Sugar Land Barkley J. Stuart $25,000 Glazer's (alcohol distributors) Dallas TX Assoc. of Realtors $25,000 TX Assoc. of Realtors Austin TX Farm Bureau $25,000 TX Farm Bureau Waco TX Medical Assoc. $25,000 TX Medical Assoc. Austin H. B. Zachry $25,000 Zachry Construction Corporation San Antonio
Top Non-Strayhorn Donors To Perry Non-Strayhorn Donor Amount Company/Interest City Phil Adams $25,000 Phil Adams Co. (insurance) Bryan Moshe Azoulay $25,000 American Garment Finishers Dallas David Carter $25,000 Personal Way Transportation Addison Forrest Hoglund $25,000 Ex-Enron Executive John McStay $25,000 McStay Investment Council Dallas Richard Salwen $25,000 Retired Dell Computer executive Austin L.E. Simmons $25,000 SCF Partners (investments) Houston Dian Stai $25,000 Retired Owen Healthcare (drugs) Abilene Mort Topfer $25,000 Dell Computer Austin Richard Wallrath $25,000 Champion Ranch Centerville
Major Donors To Strayhorn and Perry or Dewhurst Donor Company/Interest City Strayhorn Perry Dewhurst Bob Perry Perry Homes Houston $25,000 $50,000 Louis A. Beecherl, Jr. Beecherl Investments (oil) Dallas $10,000 $25,000 J. Dan Brown Brown Distributing (alcohol) Austin $1,000 $25,000 Charles C. Butt H.E.B. groceries San Antonio $25,000 $25,000 Harlan Crow Crow Holdings (real estate) Dallas $25,000 $25,000 James D. Dannenbaum Dannenbaum Engineering (dams) Houston $10,000 $25,000 $25,000 J. Ralph Ellis, Jr. Ralph Ellis Co. (energy) Irving $10,000 $25,000 Robert Girling Girling Health Care Austin $25,000 $2,000 Ned Holmes Parkway Investments (real estate) Houston $5,000 $25,000 $10,000 Loeffler Jonas & Tuggey Lobbying San Antonio $25,000 $25,000 Drayton McLane, Jr. McLane Group, Wal-Mart, retail Temple $25,000 $25,000 Vance C. Miller Henry S. Miller Co's (real estate) Dallas $1,000 $25,000 Peter J. O'Donnell, Jr. Retired banker Dallas $10,000 $25,000 # # #
Texans for Public Justice is a non-partisan, non-profit policy & research organization
which tracks the influence of money in politics.