[ Report Home | Previous Page | Next Page ] Texas PACs 2000 Election Cycle IV. PAC Trends

A. New PACs

The 2000 election cycle spawned 111 active new PACs that did not file reports with the Texas Ethics Commission in 1998. These new PACs spent $3,971,213.

A huge new trial lawyer PAC, Texas 2000, spent more than $2 million, which accounted for more than half of all new PAC expenditures. Two other large new PACs discussed in the Education section helped pass an initiative that lets the University of Texas System tap the capital gains of its endowments.²⁷

Businesses sponsored several large new PACs, led by the corporate law firm Haynes & Boone. Texans for Affordable Vehicle Leasing is an auto leasing industry vehicle that tried to lower its taxes through a constitutional amendment. Union Pacific’s PAC spent little of its money in Texas. The HillCo lobby PAC is led by ex-legislator Neal “Buddy” Jones, whose top 2001 lobby clients were oil refiner Holly Corp., Alcoa, AT&T and General Motors.

B. Vanishing PACs

Some 210 PACs that spent $2.4 million in 1998 either did not register with the Texas Ethics Commission in 2000 or reported no spending in that election cycle.

After spending $824,434 in 1998, the Eight in Ninety Eight Committee was the largest vanishing PAC. This successor to the “76 in ‘96” PAC took its name from the net number of new House seats that the GOP needed to gain to win a majority in that chamber in 1998. This PAC is close to Republican Rep. Tom Craddick, who has long coveted Democratic House Speaker Pete Laney’s job.

Four large vanishing PACs were merger casualties. The Locke Purnell Rain & Harrell PAC vanished after this defense firm merged into Locke Liddell & Sapp. BetzDearborn’s PAC dissolved after Hercules, Inc. bought out this chemical company. Texas Amoco PAC vanished with the formation of BP-Amoco. The Edwards Perry & Haas PAC folded when this plaintiff firm split in two.

Two school voucher PACs controlled by religious-right sugar daddy James Leininger also were put on ice in 2000 after spending a total of $166,087 in 1998. The A+ PAC for Parental School Choice was folded into Putting Children First PAC, which reported no expenditures in 2000. The union-backed, anti-voucher ABC Group also spent just $250 in 2000 after spending $172,006 in 1998. This voucher cease-fire may reflect the conventional wisdom that vouchers will not fly in Texas while Democrat Pete Laney is House Speaker. The interests behind these PACs may have shifted their resources to this broader partisan battle.

Texas Ethics Commission records suggest that two other PACs that spent more than $50,000 in 1998 reported no spending in 2000. These PACs were the Cortez PAC that is run by the San Antonio Mexican restaurateur family of that name and Government Interests, Inc. In fact, Government Interests, spent thousands of dollars in 2000—but failed to disclose this political activity, as required by law (see page 5).
 

C. Growth-Spurt PACs

Seventeen PACs increased their spending by more than 1,000 percent from 1998 to 2000. Most of these PACs spent negligible amounts in 1998 and continue to be small players. Nonetheless, six fast-growth PACs spent more than $25,000 apiece in 2000.

Of these, the Texas Association of Dairymen PAC had the most explosive growth, with its spending jumping 22,129 percent. Funding for this PAC comes from 18 Dutch immigrant families whose dairies in the Bosque River watershed help produce 625,000 tons of manure a year. Some of this waste enters Lake Waco, which supplies drinking water to more than 100,000 people. Polluted Lake Waco water has become expensive to treat in recent years, pitting dairymen against city residents.²⁸  The Texas Legislature passed 2001 legislation that requires the region’s dairies to devise manure clean-up plans if they expand their herds.

The fast-growing Texas Capitol Area Builders Association got its money from homebuilders, lumber yards and mortgage bankers. While it spent much of its money on fundraising events, it also spent $6,000 on the successful effort to derail a 2000 light-rail initiative in Austin. Although Duke Energy Corp had the largest growth-spurt PAC ($389,177), this out-of-state PAC spent little of its money in Texas.