Almost $3 Million In June & July! |
September 24, 2003 |
Big Bets Cast In Texas'
GOP Elephant Fight
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Donors Line Up As Strayhorn Battles Perry and Dewhurst For Money and Power.
As mapmaking pens—wielded like swords—clove a bipartisanship legislature in two, Texas’ top GOP officials mustered their collective leadership to embrace one another--with steely knives.
Ostensibly, Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn has spent the year clashing with Governor Rick Perry and Lieutenant Governor David Dewhurst over bean-counting disputes. But such theatrics fail to hide the fact that these politicians are less interested in cutting budgets than they are in cutting up each other—even when the next major statewide election is in late 2006!
As former Governor Bush is learning, wars are expensive. The hardest wars to finance are the internecine kind where opponents fight over the same pots of money. These three state politicians raked $2,850,999 into their war chests just in the months of June and July. In fact, while Strayhorn was raising money in early June, Perry and Dewhurst had to wait for the gubernatorial-veto window to close on June 23 to restart their fundraising machines.
Governor Perry has kept these machines primed with repeated special sessions for redistricting. This has kept Perry and Dewhurst in the news as partisan warriors struggling to throw their base more red meat. These same sessions have challenged Strayhorn to find creative ways to thrust herself into the news—a task made easier by the Governor Perry-backed special-session bill to strip away some Comptroller powers.
| Politician | Money
Raised Since Regular Session Ended |
| Governor Perry | $425,971 |
| Lt. Governor Dewhurst | $1,342,260 |
| Comptroller Strayhorn | $1,082,768 |
| TOTAL: | $2,850,999 |
Against this tawdry backdrop, Lobby Watch investigates which big donors exclusively backed Strayhorn in recent months at the expense of Perry or Dewhurst--and vice versa (ignoring contributions of less than $1,000).
Strayhorn
Comptroller Strayhorn raised almost $1.1 million in June and July, more than twice what Governor Perry raised and not far behind indebted Lieutenant Governor Dewhurst. Her top Strayhorn-only donors include: Hard-right heavy weights James Leininger and Lonnie Pilgrim; Energy interests that may reflect her Railroad Commissioner years (Patrick Moran and Duer Wagner); and investment firm heads Geoffrey Raynor, Fayez Sarofim and Charles Miller. Strayhorn appointed UT System Regent Miller to head her “e-Texas” education task force. Now her enemies want to take Strayhorn’s e-Texas program away from her. Perhaps the most intriguing Strayhorn contribution is the $10,000 she received from the lobbyist brother of Texas redistricting kingpin Tom DeLay.
Perry & Dewhurst
Lieutenant Governor Dewhurst led the fundraising blitz, taking in $1.3 million in the five-week period that ended on July 28th. Yet he is hardly ahead of the game. Dewhurst’s campaign reported a staggering $13 million debt left over from his squeaker election in 2002. The campaign spent $282,748 in the first half of the year just paying interest on these loans--which Dewhurst personally secured. Just to break even, this wealthy candidate must either raise frightening amounts of money or raid his personal piggy bank.
Being over the barrel can yield strange bedfellows. Dewhurst’s top non-Strayhorn donors range from nuclear-waste king and tort warrior Harold Simmons to plaintiff firm Gallagher Lewis Downey & Kim (many more plaintiff lawyers surface in Dewhurst’s second tier of donors).
Compared with Governor Perry, Dewhurst has raked in more non-Strayhorn money from GOP lions like Simmons and the Wyly brothers. In contrast, Perry’s top non-Strayhorn supporters come from a secondary tier of Texas donors. Perry also received no money from institutional donors such as PACs and businesses and his office says that he did not eschew such money. It is not clear if these differences arise because these interests actively favor Dewhurst over Perry or because Dewhurst’s huge debts have prompted him to panhandle more aggressively.
To be sure, a core of partisans and pragmatists gave both to Strayhorn and to one of the men whose offices she covets. Risk-adverse Houston real estate magnate Ned Holmes gave to all three politicians.
These politicians are due to file additional campaign disclosures on September 25th, which will cover fundraising that occurred during this year’s second special session of the legislature.
| Non-Strayhorn Donor | Amount | Company/Interest | City |
| Gallagher Lewis Downey... | $50,000 | Plaintiff law firm | Houston |
| Polan Culley Advocacy | $50,000 | Lobbyists | Austin |
| T. Boone Pickens | $50,000 | Mesa Water (water rights) | Dallas |
| Harold C. Simmons | $50,000 | Corporate takeovers, nuclear waste | Dallas |
| Kenny A. Troutt | $50,000 | Excel Communications | Dallas |
| Sam & Charles Wyly | $50,000 | Ranger Capital (corporate takeovers) | Dallas |
| Akin GumP Strauss Hauer... | $25,000 | Corporate law firm/lobbying | Austin |
| Alan Erwin | $25,000 | Lobbyist | Austin |
| Loeffler Jonas & Tuggey | $25,000 | Lobbyists | San Antonio |
| James D. Pitcock | $25,000 | Williams Brothers Construction | Sugar Land |
| Barkley J. Stuart | $25,000 | Glazer's (alcohol distributors) | Dallas |
| TX Assoc. of Realtors | $25,000 | TX Assoc. of Realtors | Austin |
| TX Farm Bureau | $25,000 | TX Farm Bureau | Waco |
| TX Medical Assoc. | $25,000 | TX Medical Assoc. | Austin |
| H. B. Zachry | $25,000 | Zachry Construction Corporation | San Antonio |
| Non-Strayhorn Donor | Amount | Company/Interest | City |
| Phil Adams | $25,000 | Phil Adams Co. (insurance) | Bryan |
| Moshe Azoulay | $25,000 | American Garment Finishers | Dallas |
| David Carter | $25,000 | Personal Way Transportation | Addison |
| Forrest Hoglund | $25,000 | Ex-Enron Executive | |
| John McStay | $25,000 | McStay Investment Council | Dallas |
| Richard Salwen | $25,000 | Retired Dell Computer executive | Austin |
| L.E. Simmons | $25,000 | SCF Partners (investments) | Houston |
| Dian Stai | $25,000 | Retired Owen Healthcare (drugs) | Abilene |
| Mort Topfer | $25,000 | Dell Computer | Austin |
| Richard Wallrath | $25,000 | Champion Ranch | Centerville |
| Donor | Company/Interest | City |
Strayhorn | Perry | Dewhurst |
| Bob Perry | Perry Homes | Houston |
$25,000 | $50,000 | |
| Louis A. Beecherl, Jr. | Beecherl Investments (oil) | Dallas |
$10,000 | $25,000 | |
| J. Dan Brown | Brown Distributing (alcohol) | Austin |
$1,000 | $25,000 | |
| Charles C. Butt | H.E.B. groceries | San Antonio |
$25,000 | $25,000 | |
| Harlan Crow | Crow Holdings (real estate) | Dallas |
$25,000 | $25,000 | |
| James D. Dannenbaum | Dannenbaum Engineering (dams) | Houston |
$10,000 | $25,000 | $25,000 |
| J. Ralph Ellis, Jr. | Ralph Ellis Co. (energy) | Irving |
$10,000 | $25,000 | |
| Robert Girling | Girling Health Care | Austin |
$25,000 | $2,000 | |
| Ned Holmes | Parkway Investments (real estate) | Houston |
$5,000 | $25,000 | $10,000 |
| Loeffler Jonas & Tuggey | Lobbying | San Antonio |
$25,000 | $25,000 | |
| Drayton McLane, Jr. | McLane Group, Wal-Mart, retail | Temple |
$25,000 | $25,000 | |
| Vance C. Miller | Henry S. Miller Co's (real estate) | Dallas |
$1,000 | $25,000 | |
| Peter J. O'Donnell, Jr. | Retired banker | Dallas |
$10,000 | $25,000 |
