[ Report Home | Previous Page | Next Page ] Cornyn's Corporate Sponsors Top Overall Donors: Business Dominates

From September 1997 through June of 2001, John Cornyn raised $10.6 million. This report analyzes the $9.7 million (92 percent of the total) that he raised in checks of at least $500. Cornyn raised 62 percent of this big-check money ($6.1 million) for his 1998 attorney general race and raised the remaining $3.7 million after he became attorney general.

Cornyn’s campaign funds came from highly concentrated sources. The PACs and executives of the top 25 sources of his money chipped in $2.9 million—or 30 percent of all big-check donations. Almost all of this money came from powerful business interests or the law firms that represent them. Often a single executive provided all—or virtually all—of the money that Cornyn received from these sources. Seventeen of these top 25 sources of Cornyn’s money have ties to Texans for Lawsuit Reform (see next section).
 
 

Top 25 Overall Cornyn Donors (Includes contributions from PACs, employees
and their immediate family members.)

Employer/PAC Interest City Cornyn Contributions *Sterling Group Chemicals Houston $310,500 *Enron Corp. Energy Houston $193,000 *Bob Perry Homes Construction Houston $185,500 *Bass Family Energy Fort Worth $172,352 *Kinetic Concepts, Inc. Hospital beds San Antonio $146,500 *Texans for Lawsuit Reform Ideological Houston $145,000 Associated Republicans of Texas Ideological Austin $144,000 Texas Medical Association Health Austin $138,429 *Vinson & Elkins Law Houston $121,554 *Cogen Technologies Energy Houston $116,000 *Baker Botts Law Houston $112,020 *HEB Grocery Grocery chain San Antonio $103,611 Dell Computer Computers Austin $89,028 *First City Bancorp (retired exec.)  Banks Houston $85,500 *Everen Securities Investments Houston $84,570 Thompson & Knight Law Dallas $80,666 Locke Liddell & Sapp Law Houston $80,360 *Hicks Muse Tate & Furst Buyouts Dallas $80,000 *HD Vest Financial Services Accounting Irving $80,000 *Beecherl Investments Investments Dallas $79,000 Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld Law Dallas $73,800 Haynes & Boone Law Dallas $71,500 TX Automobile Dealers Assoc. Automobiles Austin $70,640 *Enterprise Products Co. Energy Houston $70,000 *SBC Corp. (Southwestern Bell) Communications  San Antonio  $67,250     TOTAL: $2,900,780

* Close ties to Texans for Lawsuit Reform (TLR): An affiliated PAC or executive is a big TLR donor and/or sat on TLR's board.