Texas PACs 2000 Election Cycle: Texas PAC Spending

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Texas PACs 2000 Election Cycle

II. Texas PAC Spending

Some 865 active Texas political action committees (PACs)¹ reported a total of $53,996,975 in campaign contributions and other political expenditures in the two-year 2000 election cycle. To put this amount into perspective, Texas’ statewide and legislative candidates raised a total of $67.2 million in the 2000 election cycle.² Continuing a consolidation trend noted in previous editions of this report,³ the number of active PACs declined in 2000—even as total PAC spending increased. The number of PACs reporting expenditures fell 5 percent from 910 PACs in 1996 to 865 PACs in 2000.
FEWER PACS SPEND MORE MONEY

Remarkably, PAC spending in 2000 exceeded 1998 levels. This is significant because 1998’s gubernatorial election featured several other high-profile, statewide races (including lieutenant governor, attorney general and comptroller). One factor driving this increase in PAC spending was the realization that candidates elected in 2000 would have a hand in redistricting Texas’ political boundaries based on 2000 census data. This—coupled with general campaign inflation—fed the 25 percent increase in PAC spending from the previous non-gubernatorial election of 1996, when Texas PACs spent $43 million.

1 “Active” PACs registered expenditures of at least $1 with the Texas Ethics Commission.
2 These Texas Ethics Commission data are imperfect. PACs based outside Texas are not required to file disclosures. Hence some of these PACs did not report significant activity that they had here. Some out-of-state PACs that did file disclosures (e.g. Coca-Cola) pose other problems. Their total PAC expenditures are counted here, even when little of this money was spent in Texas. Finally, the data contain certain double-counting problems. If the Ramjak Corp. PAC moves $100,000 to the Puritan Party PAC which gives this money to a state candidate, the same $100,000 is counted twice—each time a PAC spends it.
3 In October 1998, Texans for Public Justice published an analysis of Texas PAC spending covering the period 1995 through 1997. It released an analysis of 1998 election cycle PAC spending in June of 1999.