home | table of contents | previous | next

Ideological & Single
Issue PACs Up Close

Partisan PACs
Altogether, these PACs spent almost $18 million in the 1998 election cycle, up a substantial 29 percent over the previous cycle. Despite the diversity of these many Ideological and Single-Issue PACs, Texas’ two biggest PACs, which fall into this category, account for more than half of all Ideological and Single-Issue spending. These huge PACs are the Texas Democratic Party’s PAC ($6,061,414) and the Texas Republican Campaign Committee ($3,346,263).

The Texas Democratic PAC increased its spending by $2.9 million from the 1996 to the 1998 election cycle, chalking up an 89 percent increase. This $2.9 million accounts for a staggering 70 percent of the $4.1 million overall spending increase by the entire Ideological and Single-Issue sector. Another large Democratic PAC, the Texas Partnership PAC (which narrowly defended the House’s Democratic majority) spent $568,295, racking up 184 percent growth over the previous election cycle.

In isolation, these data might suggest that the Democratic Party is establishing a lock on Texas politics. In reality, of course, the Republican Party has shattered the Democrats’ traditional lock on state politics in recent elections.

PACs further down the Ideological PAC food chain help shed light on this transformation. For example, the strong growth of these two Democratic PACs was offset by a 72 percent drop in the spending of two other important Democratic PACs: the Texas Senate Democratic Campaign Committee and the 21st Century Democrats. The combined spending of these two PACs plummeted from $1 million in the 1996 cycle to $276,552 in the 1998 cycle.

When all the PACs classified as Ideological partisan PACs are tallied up, Democrats and Republicans have approximate PAC parity. There were 178 PACs that exclusively or overwhelmingly served one of the two dominant political parties in Texas in 1998. Together, these PACs spent more than $15 million, or 84 percent of all the money in the Ideological and Single-Issue sector. The 50 PACs serving the Democrats spent $7.7 million, compared to the $7.3 million spent by the 128 PACs that serve the GOP.

Not only do the Republicans have many more small, local chapter PACs (such as the Professional Republican Women of Kerr County PAC), they also boast more huge PACs. Apart from the two main party PACs mentioned above, two other partisan Ideological PACs rank among the top 10 PACs in Texas: the Associated Republicans of Texas ($1.4 million) and Eight in Ninety Eight ($824,433).⁴

Single-Issue PACs
This rough parity among partisan PACs turns into a decisive GOP spending advantage when other kinds of PACs are analyzed. The top single-issue PAC category, tort law PACs, consists of two PACs with large expenditures: Texans for Lawsuit Reform ($1.2 million), Texas’ fifth largest PAC, and the Texas Civil Justice League ($356,331). These Single-Issue tort PACs largely are funded by business interests, particularly by such litigious industries as construction and toxic chemicals. Like the dominant Business PAC sector analyzed above, Texans for Lawsuit Reform’s expenditures reflect a GOP bias.

Just two other Ideological and Single-Issue PAC subcategories spent more than $100,000: education and environmental PACs. Single-Issue PACs weighing in on the school voucher debate dominated the education subcategory. A recently formed anti-voucher PAC, the ABC Group, spent $172,006 that it raised from labor, environmental, and abortion-rights groups that oppose the Christian Right’s agenda. Two PACs aligned with Christian Right activist James Leininger, the A+ PAC and Putting Children First, spent $166,087 to support vouchers.

Just two PACs that wade into environmental issues accounted for almost all of the $292,863 spent by environmental PACs. The Coastal Conservation Association spent $137,089 to advance its agenda: defending sport fish supplies in the Gulf of Mexico. A newcomer, the Texas League of Conservation Voters, spent $134,651. Most of the League’s money came from ex-Eagles rock star Don Henley. With the exception of Sen. David Bernsen, the 1998 Democratic candidates most championed by the League lost.

home | table of contents | previous | next