Texas’ No. 2 individual political donor, conservative Republican activist Dr. James Leininger, injected more than $5 million into Texas state politics this election cycle—none of which went to a Democrat. This spending quadrupled what Leininger pumped into previous state elections.

Leininger spent heavily going into the primaries to promote conservative challengers to moderate Republicans who had stiffed his school-voucher agenda. Yet his aggressive checkbook politics flunked this year’s primary and general elections. The next legislature looks even less receptive to vouchers than its predecessor.

Meanwhile, Leininger’s meddling has fostered support for a pending bill (HB 111) that would bar any individual from dumping more than $100,000 into an election cycle.

Leininger moved $1,819,564 of his money directly, while funneling $3.2 million more through three pet PACs that depended on him for 98 percent of their funds. To track the final destination of Leininger’s money, this report treats contributions made by these three Leininger-controlled PACs (Texas Republican Legislative Campaign Committee, Future of Texas Alliance and Texans for School Choice) as if they came directly from Leininger himself.

Leininger contributed $1,557,531 of his $5 million total to 14 general-purpose PACs that he does not control. These conservative PACs bolster Texas’ Republican majority, push vouchers, seek weaker tort laws and oppose gay unions and abortion.

Leininger gave his remaining $3.5 million to 64 Republican candidates, with 90 percent of this money going to House candidates. Twenty losers accounted for 59 percent of Leininger’s total candidate contributions.

Candidates who lost in the GOP primary ate up 47 percent of all the money that Leininger gave to candidates in the 2006 cycle. Of the 10 House candidates that received $50,000 or more from Leininger, five perished in the primary and just two survived the general. These two winners, Nathan Macias and Wayne Christian, may not have survived with their independence intact.

Both candidates amassed war chests of more than $500,000 apiece, with Leininger providing 84 percent of Macias’ total and 85 percent of Christian’s. Leininger also bankrolled a stunning 96 percent of the $542,130 that Mark Williams raised for his failed primary challenge to incumbent Tommy Merritt of Longview.

The heavy attrition rate of Leininger’s candidates reflects his high-stakes strategy of trying to replace incumbents who resisted his voucher agenda with candidates who will play his game. Challengers accounted for almost 70 percent of all the money that Leininger gave to candidates.

Placing his biggest electoral bet to date, Leininger largely crapped out. With a couple notable exceptions this appears to leave vouchers to stand—or fall—next session on the merits.