Campaign Reform Heroes & Zeros:
How Members of the Texas House Voted on Campaign Reform
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Table of Contents
I. Background
II. Secret Sabotage Votes
III. Open Sabotage Votes
IV. Heroes & Zeros
V. Voting Table
When legislation to improve campaign finance disclosure in Texas (HB 2) went before the full Texas House of Representatives on April 17, 2001, several members lay in ambush with five critical amendments to weaken the bill’s disclosure requirements. This report examines how members voted on three of these anti-disclosure amendments—as well as how they voted on the bill itself. Ironically, there is no way to analyze votes on the other two anti-disclosure amendments because the House tabulated these votes under procedures that shield members from any public accountability.Despite Governor Rick Perry’s explicit support for key provisions of HB 2 in his State of the State address, members of his party spearheaded most of the efforts to weaken or defeat the bill in the House. The House passed HB 2 by a vote of 82 – 61, with 71 Democrats and 11 Republicans voting for final passage. The members who voted against HB 2 included 57 Republicans and four Democrats.
The bipartisan co-sponsors of HB 2 were Reps. Debra Danburg (D-Houston), Pete Gallego (D-Alpine), Rob Junell (D-San Angelo), Jerry Madden ( R-Richardson) and David Swinford (R-Dumas). On the three recorded votes to weaken HB 2, both Republican co-sponsors voted to water down their own bill. Rep. Swinford went so far as to vote against final passage of his bill.
As unanimously reported out of committee, HB 2 would have eliminated glaring loopholes in current campaign disclosure requirements. For the first time, that version of the bill would have required:
Out-of-state PACs to report their expenditures; Contributors of more than $200 to disclose their employer and occupation; 24-hour reporting of all contributions of more than $1,000 received in the last nine days of an election; Disclosures of who paid for all candidate-specific ads run in the last 60 days of an election campaign. The Texas Ethics Commission to include donors’ street names in its electronic disclosures posted on the Internet.
When HB 2 hit the full House floor it ran a gauntlet of five key amendments to weaken its disclosure requirements. Fittingly, two of these anti-disclosure amendments were “division” votes that were tabulated in a way that shields members from public accountability for how they voted.On a secret vote, the House adopted an anti-disclosure amendment offered by Rep. Helen Giddings (D-Dallas) and supported by Rep. Steve Wolens (D-Dallas). That amendment eliminated an HB 2 provision that mandated disclosure of the employer and occupation of large donors.
In the other secret vote, a razor-thin House majority defeated an amendment to block electronic disclosure of donors’ street names. The House narrowly defeated this amendment by HB 2 co-sponsor Jerry Madden on an unrecorded 69-68 vote.
Although the House voted secretly on two anti-disclosure amendments, it publicly disclosed how members voted on three other anti-disclosure amendments. It also disclosed if members voted for or against final passage of HB 2. Based on how members voted on these four key open votes, a “Pro-Reform Voting Score” was calculated for each House member. Members earned a score of 100% if they voted against the three anti-disclosure amendments and voted for final passage of HB 2. In contrast, members who voted for the anti-disclosure amendments while voting against final passage of HB 2 wound up with a score of 0%.As shown below, the House passed just one of the three anti-disclosure amendment votes that occurred out in the open. This was another Jerry Madden amendment that extended the reporting requirements for last-minute contributions from 24 hours to 48 hours.
V. Voting Table - How Each Member Voted on HB 2Pro-Reform HeroesSixty-two House members received a 100% Pro-Reform Voting Score. These members, all of whom are Democrats, are:
Alexander; Bailey; Bosse; Burnam; Capelo; Chavez; Coleman; Cook; Counts; Danburg; Deshotel; Dukes; Dunnam; Ehrhardt; Eiland; Farabee; Farrar; Flores; Gallego; Glaze; Gray; Gutierrez; Hinojosa; Hochberg; Hodge; Homer; Hopson; Junell; Kitchen; Longoria; Luna; Martinez Fischer; Maxey; McClendon; McReynolds; Menendez; Moreno, P.; Moreno, J.; Naishtat; Najera; Noriega; Oliveira; Olivo; Pickett; Puente; Rangel; Raymond; Reyna, A.; Ritter; Sadler; Salinas; Solis; Telford; Thompson; Tillery; Turner, S.; Uher; Uresti; Villarreal; Wise; Yarbrough; Zbranek
Anti-Reform Zeros
Fifty-six House members received a 0% Pro-Reform Voting Score. These members, including lone Democrat Ron Wilson, are:
Allen; Berman; Bonnen; Brimer; Brown, B.; Brown, F.; Callegari; Christian; Clark; Corte; Crabb; Craddick; Davis; Delisi; Denny; Driver; Elkins; George; Geren; Goodman; Green; Grusendorf; Hamric; Hardcastle; Hartnett; Heflin; Hill; Hope; Howard; Hunter; Hupp; Isett; Janek; Keel; Keffer; King; Kolkhorst; Krusee; Kuempel; Marchant; McCall; Morrison; Nixon; Reyna; Seaman; Shields; Smithee; Solomons; Swinford; Talton; Williams; Wilson; Wohlgemuth; Woolley
Reform Turncoats
Fifty-two current House members who voted for passage of a similar reform bill in the 1999 session voted against final passage of HB 2 this session. The earlier reform bill, HB 4, overwhelmingly passed the House 138-3 on May 13, 1999.
A possible explanation of this schizophrenic behavior is that some members who secretly oppose reform knew that the Senate was not going to pass its version of the 1999 bill (which died quietly in a Senate committee). This would have presented members who oppose reform with a risk-free opportunity to pose as reformers. This time around, such grandstanding was much riskier because the Senate had already passed a weaker reform bill (SB 6) on March 14, 2001.
The 52 Reform Turncoats included four Democrats: Harold Dutton, Glenn Lewis, Ron Lewis and Ron Wilson. The full Reform Turncoat list is:Allen; Berman; Bonnen; Brimer; Brown, B.; Brown, F.; Christian; Clark; Craddick; Davis, J.; Delisi; Denny; Driver; Dutton;Elkins; George; Goodman; Goolsby; Green; Hamric; Hardcastle; Hartnett; Hill; Hope; Howard; Hunter; Hupp; Isett; Janek; Keel; Keffer; King, P.; Krusee; Kuempel; Lewis, G.; Lewis, R.; Marchant; McCall; Merritt; Morrison; Mowery; Nixon; Reyna, E.; Seaman; Smithee; Solomons; Swinford; Talton; Williams; Wilson; Wohlgemuth; Woolley.