[ Report Home | Previous Page | Next Page ] Texas PACs 2000 Election Cycle I. Texas PAC Facts

• 865 active Texas Political Action Committees (PACs) spent $54 million in the two-year 2000 election cycle. This spending marked an increase over the two previous cycles of 1996 ($43 million) and 1998 ($52 million).

 
• 498 “Business” PACs spent $34 million, far outspending both “Ideological/Single-Issue” PACs ($17 million) and “Labor” PACs ($3 million) combined.

 

 

Business PACs
 

• The largest and fastest-growing Business sector was Lawyers & Lobbyists PACs ($8 million). This sector shot up on a surge of trial lawyer PAC spending. Nonetheless, corporate defense PACs still outspent trial lawyer PACs by more than $1 million.

 
• The next-largest Business PAC sectors were: Energy & Natural Resources ($5.6 million); Health ($3.5 million); Construction ($3 million) and Finance ($2.4 million).

 

 

Ideological & Single-Issue PACs
 

• Ideological & Single-Issue PACs spent $17 million. Partisan PACs dominated this sector, with Democratic PACs spending $8.2 million and Republican PACs spending $6 million.

 
• The two other Major Ideological and Single-Issue sectors were Tort Law PACs ($1.5 million) and Education PACs ($542,389).

 
• Eight Minor Ideological and Single-Issue sectors spent a total of $708,542. Although these sectors include PACs active on such hot-button issues as homosexuality, guns and abortion, just two Minor sectors cleared $100,000 in spending: Minorities & Women and Environment.

 

 

Labor PACs
 

• Labor PACs spent $2.7 million, led by Public Safety PACs ($959,264). In addition, teachers dominated White Collar PAC spending ($895,902) and transportation unions drove Blue Collar PAC spending ($577,542). Finally, the AFL-CIO led Multi-Sector Labor PAC spending ($273,740).

 

 

PAC Trends
 

• The 2000 election cycle spawned 111 active new PACs that spent $4 million. The largest of these were: a trial lawyer Texas 2000 PAC ($2 million) and Texans for Proposition 17 ($259,669), which promoted a constitutional amendment that lets state universities tap the capital gains of their endowments.

 
• 210 PACs that spent $2.4 million in 1998 were no longer active in 2000. Notable among them were: the Eight in ’98 Committee ($824,434 in 1998); Putting Children First ($86,499); and A+ PAC for Parental Choice ($79,588). The first of these failed to win a GOP House majority. The other two promoted school vouchers, which are considered dead in Texas as long as Pete Laney is House Speaker.

 
• The Texas Association of Dairymen had the fastest-growing PAC, soaring from $125 in 1998 to $27,697 in 2000. The 18 Dutch families funding this PAC own dairies suspected of polluting Lake Waco—the water supply of more than 100,000 people.