PIRG: Mortgaged House: Limit the Size and Source of Contributions

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Mortgaged House

1. Limit the Size and Source of Contributions

How can government belong to all of the people if a few wealthy interests fund most of public officials’ costly campaigns? Special interests make single contributions to single candidates that exceed the average Texan’s annual income.¹³ House members raise 95 percent of their money in contributions of $100 or more and 37 percent of their money in contributions of $1,000 or more. This system excludes regular Texans from the political system that they themselves are supposed to control.

To return control of government to regular Texans, the Legislature should enact the following reforms:

Limit the size of contributions
Contributions to candidates for state offices should be limited to a reasonable amount that is generally affordable to most Texans. Citizens in Austin, Texas enacted $100 limits for Austin City Council races in November 1997. Citizens in Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, California and Maine recently enacted maximum contribution limits of between $100 and $250 for legislative races. U.S. law has limited contributions to federal candidates to $1,000 since 1974.
Limit contributions to political action committees
To prevent big money from simply entering the system through the back door or through independent political action committees, contributions to PACs also must be strictly limited.
Limit the source of contributions
Legislative candidates should be required to raise most of their money from sources within the district that they seek to represent. These candidates should only be allowed to raise a small fraction of their funds (between 15 percent and 20 percent) from out-of- district sources that cannot vote for the candidate.

¹³ This figure was $21,118 in 1995. Rep. Clark received larger contributions from “76 in ’96” and Texans for Lawsuit Reform. The latter in-kind contribution was not reported until six months after the election.