Texas PACS: 2008

The 12 percent increase in Business PAC spending fell short of the 34 percent increase posted by the Ideological and Single Issue PACs discussed above. Yet the $63 million that Business PACs spent in 2008 eclipsed the $50 million spent by Ideological and Single Issue PACs. This section discusses the five Business sectors that spent more than $6 million apiece: Lawyers & Lobbyists, Energy & Natural Resources, Real Estate, Health and Construction.

Lawyers & Lobbyists

The $10.8 million spent by Lawyers and Lobbyists PACs was the most spent by any sector other than Ideological PACs. Nonetheless, spending by this business sector was down 12 percent from 2006. This sector’s largest PAC swung the other way, increasing its spending by 36 percent. Texans for Insurance Reform spent much of its $2.7 million on Democratic candidates for the legislature. Trial lawyers such as Watts Law Firm, Michael Gallagher, Nix Patterson & Roach, Provost & Umphrey and Williams Kherkher Hart & Boundas armed this war chest.

Spending by the Texas Trial Lawyer Association (TTLA) dipped slightly to $866,051. TTLA mostly backed Democrats running for the legislature. In a notable exception, it reported bankrolling a $12,290 poll for Republican Senator Kim Brimer in 2007. After Democratic challenger Wendy Davis snuffed Brimer in the 2008 election, TTLA sped $15,000 in late-train money to the victor. Trial lawyer Mikal Watts’ Good Government PAC, which ranked among the largest PACs in 2006, was one of 2008’s fastest-shrinking PACs.¹⁶

Corporate defense firms accounted for most of the attrition by Lawyers & Lobbyists PACs. Akin Gump cut its PAC expenditures by more than 50 percent. Baker Botts, Gardere and Thompson & Knight all cut their PAC spending more than 20 percent. The last dying spasms of Jenkens & Gilchrist occurred in the 2008 cycle. That firm went extinct in 2007 after acknowledging that it had sold wealthy clients on fraudulent tax-evasion schemes.¹⁷ Corporate firms that expanded their PAC spending significantly include Andrews & Kurth, Brown McCarroll, Jackson Walker and Winstead.

Taking one-third of its money from Houston homebuilder Bob Perry, HillCo’s lobby PAC dipped below $1 million in spending.¹⁸ HillCo gave $101,000 to five Supreme Court incumbents, $71,282 to Lieutenant Governor David Dewhurst, $45,000 to Comptroller Susan Combs, $27,500 to new GOP Senator Joan Huffman, and a total of $34,000 to three House Democrats who previously supported Craddick as Speaker.¹⁹ HillCo also backed Senator Brimer with $21,000, before loading $15,000 on the late train to Senator-Elect Wendy Davis.

Top Lawyers & Lobbyists PACs

*Absorbed Dallas-based Hughes & Luce in late 2007.

Energy & Natural Resources

The price of oil cleared $125 a barrel in the summer of 2008, before the recession drove it down to $33 by year’s end. PACs in the extractive Energy & Natural Resources increased their spending one-third in the 2008 cycle, falling just shy of $10 million. The two Texas oil companies topping the list are misleading because their PACs reported nationwide political expenditures to the Texas Ethics Commission. Valero Energy Corp. spent 40 percent of its $2.4 million in its home state ($971,720), led by $130,000 to David Dewhurst. Similarly, ConocoPhillips spent 36 percent of its PAC money in Texas ($233,079), led by $17,500 to Speaker Craddick and $8,500 to Dewhurst. (Burlington Resources PAC became one of the 2008 cycle’s largest vanishing PACs after ConocoPhillips acquired this competitor.) The PAC of the state’s top energy trade group, the Texas Oil & Gas Association, increased expenditures 23 percent, spending more than $400,000.

The main PAC of Texas Energy Future Capital Holdings (TEFH), which bought out electric utility giant TXU Corp. in 2007, ranked as one of 2008’s largest new PACs, spending more than $180,000. Five PACs affiliated with TEFH and its Luminant subsidiary ranked among Texas’ top energy PACs, collectively spending $1,352,197 in the 2008 cycle. Most of these TEFH PACs are renamed retreads of former TXU PACs.

Top Energy & Natural Resources PACs

TEFH = TX Energy Future Capital Holdings Corp. (formerly TXU Corp.)
*Oil-rich Bass Family of Fort Worth.

TXU’s takeover prompted legislative debates over TXU’s reliance on filthy coal plants and about whether or not Texas needs to rollback its deregulation of electric markets. Cities Aggregation Power Project (CAPP), which represents Texas municipalities pushing for lower rates, commissioned recent studies that found that Texas electric rates skyrocketed after deregulation took effect in 2002.²⁰ CAPP-backed bills introduced in 2009 would decrease the market shares of power wholesalers and allow cities to negotiate power deals for their citizens.²¹ Other electrical power PACs ranking among the top Energy PACs include CenterPoint, Reliant, American Electric Power and NRG Energy.²² One month after rebuffing a hostile takeover bid by Exelon Corp., NRG Energy announced in March 2009 that it would buy Houston-based Reliant Energy.²³ Increasing its spending more than 1,300 percent, NRG’s PAC ranked among 2008’s fastest-growing PACs.

The PACs of natural gas companies rapidly expanded in the 2008 cycle, including two Oklahoma companies that are developing the Barnett Shale formation that covers 18 Texas counties. Recent drilling advances and price spikes triggered a Barnett gas boom in and around Fort Worth. Houston-based Mitchell Energy pioneered development of the Barnett Shale before being acquired in 2001 by Devon Energy, which ranked among 2008’s fastest-growing PACs. Another major Barnett driller, Chesapeake Energy, was one of 2008’s largest new PACs.²⁴ Nonetheless, falling gas prices are taking a toll on Barnett drilling in 2009.²⁵ Gas giant El Paso Corp. also ranked among the top Energy PACs.

A few downstream gas companies also made the grade. Duke Energy spun off its gas operations in 2007 to create Houston-based Spectra Energy, which ranked among the largest new PACs of 2008. Atmos Energy also had a major gas PAC. Investigative reporting by WFAA-TV of Dallas implicated Atmos and the Texas Railroad Commission in a cover-up of faulty pipeline couplings that appear to have caused explosions that killed five Texans in recent years. Under media pressure, two of the three commissioners voted in late 2007 to order the replacement of the suspect couplings.²⁶

Energy companies were leading beneficiaries of recent activist rulings by the Texas Supreme Court. In April 2009 the court reaffirmed its 2007 ruling in Entergy Gulf States Inc. v. John Summers. The ruling holds that owners of industrial facilities that provide workers compensation insurance cannot be held liable for on-site injuries of contract workers. In the six years preceding their initial Entergy decision, that court’s nine justices collected $724,863 in campaign contributions—or 10 percent of their total—from the energy and chemical industries that most benefited from the decision.²⁷ Denouncing this decision for violating legislative intent, lawmakers of both parties have introduced legislation to undo this ruling.²⁸

Electric cooperatives ostensibly are owned and governed by member customers. Yet members of the Johnson City-based Pedernales Electric Cooperative recently fought a bruising battle to overthrow the entrenched, inept, secretive and corrupt leaders of that utility. The Rural Friends of TX Electric Cooperatives trade group increased its PAC spending 63 percent. It is lobbying to undermine 2009 bills that would subject co-ops to open records and open meting laws, as well as regulation by the Texas Public Utility Commission.²⁹

Real Estate

From 2006 to 2008 Real Estate PAC spending increased 56 percent to $9.9 million. Real Estate was the only business sector that grew more than Ideological and Single-Interest PACs. The Texas Association of Realtors (TAR) and its sister PAC, the Texas Association of Realtors Issues Mobilization PAC, collectively spent $7.2 million. These twin PACs accounted for 75 cents of every Real Estate PAC dollar and made the Realtors association the state’s fattest trade group. Increasing its spending by 235 percent from 2006, TAR’s Issues Mobilization PAC ranked among 2008’s fastest-growing PACs.

TAR PAC is a traditional PAC that supports candidates’ campaigns. It gave: $75,000 apiece to the governor and lieutenant governor and $40,000 apiece to the comptroller, attorney general and Senator Tommy Williams. It sunk $38,250 into Sen. Kim Brimer’s failed reelection campaign. Sen. Judith Zaffirini was the top Democratic recipient of TAR money, bagging $27,500. TAR’s 2009 legislative priorities include: Killing proposals to tax real estate agents or real estate transfers; Preventing public disclosures of property sales-prices; and Smothering bills mandating green-building standards and expanding county land-use regulations.

Fueled by $5.7 million in corporate funds from the Texas Association of Realtors, the TAR Issues Mobilization PAC reported $2.9 million in expenditures as nothing more than “issues advocacy.” Texans for Tax Relief, which helped pass a 2007 constitutional amendment allowing individuals to exempt one personal vehicle from business value-added taxes, reported receiving $803,865 of this money (see Specific-Purpose PACs). Sometimes TAR Issues PAC specified the purpose of its expenditures, which typically promoted local road-building bonds or opposed development restrictions. Issues Mobilization PAC spent more than $50,000 in 2008 to oppose Austin’s Retrofit proposal mandating audits to improve energy efficiency. It spent $25,000 pushing $236 million in Collin County road bonds and $5,000 promoting road bonds in Hays County. It paid the Bryan College Station Homebuilders $5,147 in 2008 to oppose a City of College Station proposal to set a minimum lot size for development in the city’s extra-territorial jurisdiction (ETJ). Area realtors and homebuilders became agitated in 2007 after a city-hired consultant recommended adopting 20 acres as the minimum ETJ lot size. The ordinance that the city adopted in late 2008 whittled this down to a one-acre standard. With money to burn, the Texas Association of Realtors even gave $4,000 to the powerful Texas Medical Association PAC.

Top Real Estate PACs

2008 Spending	PAC	2008 Rank	2006 Spending	2006 Rank	06-08 Growth
$4,113,444	TX Assn. of Realtors	5	$3,334,075	2	23.38%
$3,118,794	TX Assn. of Realtors Issues Mobilization	6	$929,601	20	235.50%
$424,000	TX Apartment Assn.	52	$382,733	52	10.78%
$276,651	Houston Apartment Assn.	94	$230,660	88	19.94%
$255,930	Houston Realty Breakfast Club	105	$185,073	111	38.29%
$211,134	Apartment Assn. of Greater Dallas	119	$170,347	119	23.94%
$203,150	MetroTex Assn. of Realtors	123	$86,700	222	134.31%
$141,088	Real Estate Council of Austin	166	$95,253	208	48.12%

Health PACs

The $7.4 million that Health PACs spent in the 2008 cycle marked a 10 percent increase over the preceding election cycle. The Texas Medical Association’s $1.4 million led the herd, despite the fact that TMA PAC spending dropped 26 percent from 2006 levels. A remarkable $657,591 of the money flowing into TMA PAC came from corporate contributions from the Texas Medical Association itself. TMA PAC’s largest expenditures included a $93,400 contribution to the American Medical Association’s federal PAC, contributing $40,000 to Dr. Mark Shelton’s successful GOP challenge to Democratic Rep. Dan Barrett and spending a total of $33,709 on the three Republican Supreme Court Justices who stood for reelection in 2008.³⁰ TMA PAC also contributed $25,000 apiece to Governor Perry, then-Speaker Tom Craddick and Senators Jane Nelson and Judith Zaffirini. It paid almost $210,000 in political consulting fees to the Eppstein Group and contributed $15,000 to the Texas Bipartisan Justice Committee, which funnels doctor and defense-attorney money to judicial candidates.

During the 2009 session, TMA is trying to: Enact tough health-insurer regulations;³¹ Expand insurance coverage; Boost immunizations and Medicaid payments; Counter tobacco and the obesity epidemic; and Increase med-school subsidies. TMA and the Texas Society of Anesthesiologists opposes trial-lawyer efforts to rollback caps on medical-malpractice damages. This doctor trade group perennially suppresses competition from non-physicians, clashing with the likes of the Texas Optometric PAC and the Texas Podiatric Medical PAC.³² TMA also opposes restrictions on physicians profiting from patient referrals. The Texas Radiological Society, for example, advocates a TMA-opposed study to determine if doctors who own interests in CT and MRI scanning equipment order more scans. Some radiologists argue that self-serving scans drive up costs and needlessly expose patients to excessive radiation.³³

Top Health PACs

2008 Spending	PAC	2008 Rank	2006 Spending	2006 Rank	‘06-‘08 Growth
$1,409,775	TX Medical Assn.	12	$1,896,648	8	-25.67%
$940,440	Border Health PAC	19	$667,788	25	40.83%
$655,269	TX Optometric PAC	29	$576,722	32	13.62%
$477,510	TX Dental Assn.	40	$367,010	54	30.11%
$319,076	TX Pharmacy Assn.	74	$155,268	137	105.50%
$258,229	TX Society of Anesthesiologists	104	$216,284	96	19.39%
$242,500	TX Health Care Assn.	107	$136,950	156	77.07%
$238,828	Medical Defense PAC	109
$233,185	TX Hospital Assn.	113	$206,734	100	12.79%
$200,000	Heart Place PAC	127	$146,000	141	36.99%
$189,978	TX Homecare PAC	132	$120,191	174	58.06%
$189,332	TX Radiological Society	133	$87,719	220	115.84%
$160,690	TX Ophthalmological Assn.	153	$212,070	97	-24.23%
$147,889	Friends of Baylor Med	160	$139,250	153	6.20%
$141,500	TX Podiatric Medical PAC	165	$123,289	169	14.77%
$103,329	HCA TX	207	$126,814	167	-18.52%
$100,130	American College of Cardiology	211	$109,592	183	-8.63%

Border Health PAC also operates a federal PAC that has fought bills to impose referral restrictions on physician-owned hospitals.³⁵ The PAC paid more than $100,000 in salary and reimbursements to Doctors Hospital’s Humberto Garza, who is active in the Rio Grande Valley Partnership. Weeks after Speaker Craddick toppled, this business group brought a delegation of lawmakers led by new Speaker Joe Straus to the valley in January 2009.³⁶

Medical Defense’s favorite candidate was Dr. Mark Shelton, Fort Worth’s newly elected GOP representative. Medical Defense PAC was partial to Republicans in close legislative races. Apart from giving $10,000 apiece to Perry, Dewhurst and Craddick, it also contributed $10,000 to Bryan Daniel, John Davis, Joan Huffman, Ken Legler, Dee Margo, and Bill Zedler.

The Texas Health Care Association (THCA) PAC increased spending 77 percent as the nursing-home trade group pushes to increase Medicaid reimbursements. Texas’ daily nursing-home reimbursement rate ranks 49th in the nation at $113.³⁷ The Texas Homecare PAC also promotes higher Medicaid and Medicare payments. Top contributors to THCA PAC were HealthMark Partners owner Greg Lentz, P&M Healthcare executive Bill Jacobson and MCK Holdings owner Craig Kelly. THCA PAC gave $25,000 apiece to Perry, Dewhurst and Craddick and $7,500 apiece to Attorney General Greg Abbott, Rep. Warren Chisum and Senators Robert Duncan, Steve Ogden and Judith Zaffirini.

Bexar PAC, which San Antonio doctors used to finance local judicial campaigns, ranked among 2008’s fastest-shrinking PACs, spending just $36,889 this round. Bexar PAC’s biggest expenditures were two $10,000 contributions to GOP state district Judges Joe Brown and David Berchelmann. San Antonio voters threw out Judge Brown, while Judge Berchelmann prevailed with just 50.07 percent of the vote.³⁸ The Texas Supreme Court then selected Judge Berchelmann in April 2009 to preside over the trial of Court of Criminal Appeals Presiding Judge Sharon Keller. The State Commission on Judicial Conduct has accused Judge Keller of dereliction of duty in a death penalty case.³⁹

Construction

Construction PACs raised 2008 cycle spending 22 percent to $6.9 million, led by the Texas Association of Builders Home PAC. Home PAC boosted its spending 18 percent to $436,766. The Texas Association of Builders subsidized Home PAC with $99,389 in corporate contributions. Home PAC also received $80,000 from the Home Builders Association of Greater Dallas PAC, which was one of four local residential construction PACs to rank among the top construction PACs. These five homebuilding PACs spent a combined total of almost $1.2 million.⁴⁰

The homebuilding industry had a big hand in the 2003 legislation creating the Texas Residential Construction Commission (TRCC). Billed as a consumer-protection agency, the industry-dominated TRCC forces lemon-home buyers to spend more time and money before they get their day in court. TRCC recently came up for periodic review by the Texas Sunset Advisory Commission, which reviews state agencies with an eye to eliminating wasteful bureaucracy. Last year the Sunset staff recommended eliminating this “fundamentally flawed” agency, with consumer groups also calling for its abolition.⁴¹ Yet the 10 lawmakers who control the Sunset Commission urged the legislature to preserve this builder-friendly bureaucracy after taking $223,050 from the industry over three years. Houston homebuilder Bob Perry—who gave Home PAC $10,000—supplied 63 percent of this money. Perry’s general counsel helped draft the bill that created the TRCC.⁴²

Top Construction PACs

2008 Spending	PAC	2008 Rank	2006 Spending	2006 Rank	‘06-‘08 Growth
$463,766	TX Assn. of Builders Home PAC	42	$390,639	50	18.72%
$314,597	HDR, Inc.	76	$206,075	102	52.66%
$308,525	Assoc. General Contractors of TX	80	$256,316	79	20.37%
$282,935	TX Architects Committee	91	$311,011	70	-9.03%
$280,100	Greater Houston Builders Assn.	92	$254,400	82	10.10%
$264,400	Assoc. General Contractors TX Building Branch	100	$203,000	103	30.25%
$259,486	TX Aggregates & Concrete Assn.	102	$274,704	75	-5.54%
$244,532	TX Manufactured Housing Assn.	106	$262,970	77	-7.01%
$189,327	TCB PAC	134	$191,285	107	-1.02%
$177,231	Home Builders Assn. of Greater Austin	140	$61,878	279	186.42%
$161,066	TX Construction Assn.	151	$42,530	360	278.71%
$150,031	Zachry Construction Corp.	158	$163,716	126	-8.36%
$145,954	Houston Council of Engineering Co’s	161	$101,027	199	44.47%
$141,927	Owens Corning	163	$95,342	207	48.86%
$141,578	TX Industries, Inc. PAC	164	$142,774	147	-0.84%
$134,357	Lockwood, Andrews & Newnam, Inc.	174	$117,404	176	14.44%
$131,227	American Subcontractors Assn. of TX	176	$10,950	650	1098.42%
$129,200	PBSJ Corp.	178
$121,514	Trinity Industries Employee PAC	184	$144,600	146	-15.97%
$121,325	Raba-Kistner	185	$141,367	149	-14.18%
$118,230	Temple Area Builders Assn.	190	$85,718	224	37.93%
$117,038	Halff Associates	192	$107,386	187	8.99%
$115,775	Home Builders Assn. of Greater Dallas	193	$129,039	162	-10.28%
$109,550	Houston Associated General Contractors	197	$86,275	223	26.98%
$109,300	PSI PAC	199
$107,198	Houston Contractors Assn.	203	$99,450	201	7.79%
$105,716	Jacobs Carter & Burgess, Inc.	205	$150,801	140	-29.90%

The Home Builders Association of Greater Austin (HBAGA) increased its 2008-cycle PAC spending 186 percent to $177,231—a remarkable expansion during a collapsing housing market. HBAGA paid $43,900 to Kelly Fero’s political consulting firm Fero Hewitt Global. It contributed $15,000 in 2007 to a Chamber of Commerce PR campaign promoting toll roads and mass transit as a solution to local gridlock. It paid Kolar Advertising the same amount for “media placed at net” in mid-2007. It paid lobbyist Lisa K. Anderson $22,500 and contributed $12,500 to Keep Austin’s Word PAC, which led opposition to a citizen’s initiative to rollback taxpayer subsidies to a shopping mall.⁴³ It gave $5,000 apiece to two PACs promoting Hays County road bonds: Hays Families for Safe Mobility and Hays Future Now. Hays Future Now also took money from a couple highway contractors on the top Construction PACs list: Carter & Burgess and Lockwood Andrews & Newnan.

Other Texas highway contractors with big-spending PACs include PBSJ Corp, Raba-Kistner and Halff Associates. PBSJ ranked among 2008’s largest new PACs. PAC-wielding TXDOT contractors that have sought or landed Trans Texas Corridor work include HDR, Inc., TCB AECOM (formerly Turner Collie & Braden), Zachry Construction and PSI PAC.⁴⁴ The Houston Contractors Association similarly represents civil construction contractors. These PACs collided head on with People for Efficient Transportation (PET) PAC, which reduced its 2008 spending from $109,744 to $8,106. Road warrior Sal Costello formed PET PAC to turn Governor Rick Perry’s grandiose toll-road vision into road kill. Citing a troubled marriage and personal finances in 2008, Costello moved up the freeway to Illinois.⁴⁵ Top PET PAC donors in the 2008 cycle include Helotes filmmaker Bill Molina and Austin psychologist Mary Anderson. The PAC’s biggest expenditures in the cycle were $3,759 paid to Costello and $1,082 to Molina to make the documentary “Truth Be Tolled.”

Three general contractor PACs and two subcontractor PACs rank among the top construction PACs. The subcontractors’ Texas Construction Association and American Subcontractors Association ranked among 2008’s fastest-growing PACs. They are feuding with general contractors, led by the Associated General Contractors of Texas, over 2009 bills that would end the practice of making subcontractors liabile for the negligence of general contractors.⁴⁶

The fast-growth Northside Bond Committee geared up to help pass $693 million in bonds for a San Antonio school district. Top donors to this PAC are interested in more than education. Major sponsors include the bond company First Southwest, architecture firm Marmon Mok and construction contractors Bartlett Cocke, Joeris and Zachary Construction. Marmon Mok’s design portfolio includes San Antonio’s Wallace B. Jefferson Middle School.

San Antonio’s Wallace B. Jefferson Middle School

¹⁶ Good Government PAC gave to candidates for Corpus Christi City Council.
¹⁷ “How Jenkens & Gilchrist Lost Its Way,” Dallas Morning News, April 1, 2007.
¹⁸ Other HillCo PAC client donors include Dallas Cowboys owner Stephen Jones ($55,000), Kirby Corp. head Charles Lawrence ($30,000) and $25,000 apiece from HEB Grocery’s Charles Butt, Wal-Mart heiress Alice Walton and the Houston Police Federal Credit Union.
¹⁹ Reps. Kino Flores ($13,000), Kevin Bailey ($11,000) and Dawnna Dukes ($10,000).
²⁰ “Did Electric Dereg Help Texas Consumers?” Quorum Report, November 17, 2008. “Price Debate Powers Along,” Dallas Morning News, February 20, 2009.
²¹ “Bills Aim To Cut Power Prices,” Dallas Morning News, March 9, 2009. “Focus on Electric Deregulation Renewed,” Austin American-Statesman, April 11, 2009.
²² Electric company Mirant Corp. ranked among 2008’s fastest-shrinking PACs.
²³ “Power Generator NRG to Buy Reliant for $388 Million,” Dallas Morning News, March 3, 2009.
²⁴ “Devon, Chesapeake Execs Talk Leasing at Conference,” Fort Worth Star-Telegram, April 8, 2008. Two Barnett Shale Measures Clear Senate,” Dallas Morning News, April 22, 2009.
²⁵ “Energy Producers’ 2009 Spending Plans Look a Lot Different,” Fort Worth Star-Telegram, March 4, 2009. “Glut Expected to Cut Price of Natural Gas Next Winter,” Austin American-Statesman, April 11, 2009.
²⁶ “State panel orders replacement of couplings,” Dallas Morning News, November 7, 2007. The lone dissenter, Commissioner Victor Carrillo, questioned if the agency had the authority to order the replacement without more evidence that the couplings posed an immediate threat.
²⁷ “Justices in Activist ‘Entergy’ Ruling Ran on High-Octane Campaign Funds,” TPJ news release, April 28, 2008. http://info.tpj.org/pdf/entergymoneytosupremes.pdf
²⁸ HB 1657. “Justices Affirm Work Site Ruling, Irk Lawmakers,” Austin American-Statesman, April 4, 2009.
²⁹ “Bid To Open Co-ops’ Doors Gets Early OK,” Austin American-Statesman, April 8, 2009. “Focus on Electric Deregulation Renewed,” Austin American-Statesman, April 11, 2009.
³⁰ Chief Justice Wallace Jefferson and Justices Phil Johnson and Dale Wainwright.
³¹ “State Urged To Put PPOs Under License,” Dallas Morning News, May 22, 2008.
³² “Medical Doctors Beat Podiatrists in Ankle Turf War,” Austin American-Statesman, March 19, 2008.
³³ “Radiologists To Ask Legislators To Settle Dispute Over Scans,” Austin American-Statesman, January 8, 2009.
³⁴ “Hinojosa: RAHC Likely To Be Split From UTHSCSA In Order To Establish Medical School,” Rio Grande Guardian, July 9, 2008.
³⁵ “Lucio: Valley Veterans Can Raise $1 Million,” Rio Grande Guardian, December 31, 2007.
³⁶ “New House Speaker Straus, Legislators To Be Hosted on Thursday in Weslaco,” Texas Insider, January 21, 2009.
³⁷ “Nursing Homes Hope for Boost in Funding,” Houston Chronicle, February 16, 2009.
³⁸ “Party affiliation won't mean a lot when justice is the issue,” San Antonio Express-News, February 11, 2009.³⁹ “Judge Chosen for Keller Trial,” Austin American-Statesman, April 10, 2009.
⁴⁰ Note that $80,000 spent by the Home Builders Association of Greater Dallas PAC actually was transferred to Home PAC. If Home PAC gave those same dollars to Governor Perry as part of its total PAC expenditures, then the same $80,000 has been double counted. The Dallas PAC, however, was the only local homebuilder PAC listed that gave a significant amount of money to Home PAC.
⁴¹ “Critics: Texas Agency Favors Builders Over Buyers,” National Public Radio, March 29, 2009. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=102367683
⁴² “Sun Never Sets On Politicians Taking Homebuilder Money,” TPJ’s Lobby Watch, September 25, 2008. http://info.tpj.org/Lobby_Watch/09-25-08_homebuildersunset.html
⁴³ See “Imminent Domain: Will Austin Voters End Retail Subsidies?” Texans For Public Justice, October 22, 2008. http://info.tpj.org/watchyourassets/domain/
⁴⁴ See “Trans Texas Corridor: Politicians Get Burned Paving Texas Backwards, From the Top Down,” TPJ’s Watch Your Assets, January 7, 2009. http://info.tpj.org/watchyourassets/ttc/
⁴⁵ “Man Who Waged Anti-Toll Road War Quietly Leaves Town,” Austin American-Statesman, November 17, 2008
⁴⁶ SB 555 and identical HB 818. “Major Indemnity Change for Contractors OK’d,” Austin American-Statesman, March 18, 2009.

Interest Category

No. of Active 2008 PACs

2008 PAC Spending

Share of ‘08 Spending

’06 – ‘08 Change

Agriculture

29

$1,857,992

2%

-11%

Communications

16

$2,244,766

2%

-7%

Computers & Electronics

10

$408,504

0%

-25%

Construction

90

$6,872,533

6%

22%

Energy/Natural Resources/Waste

66

$9,893,515

8%

33%

Finance

40

$4,629,219

4%

-6%

Health

64

$7,381,030

6%

10%

Ideological/Single Issue

528

$50,403,265

42%

36%

Insurance

25

$2,543,859

2%

21%

Labor

121

$6,307,456

5%

23%

Lawyers & Lobbyists

52

$10,797,164

9%

-12%

Miscellaneous Business

67

$3,931,217

3%

-6%

Real Estate

44

$9,626,370

8%

56%

Transportation

30

$2,555,208

2%

6%

Unknown & Other

27

$109,764

<1%

TOTALS

No. of Active
2008 PACs

2008 PAC
Spending

Share of ‘08
Spending

’06 – ‘08
Change

2008
Spending

2006
Spending

2006
Rank