Rep. Denny Should Step Aside In Corporate-Reform Fight
Committee Chair Again Appears To Protect Corporate Money That Aided Her Election
| For Immediate Release: | For More Information Contact: |
| April 15, 2005 | Craig McDonald, 512-472-9770 |
“Rep. Mary Denny is dragging her feet on a reform bill to ban unregulated ‘issue ads’ in the weeks preceding an election--the very kind of ads that aided Rep. Denny’s 2002 reelection,” said Texans for Public Justice Director Craig McDonald. “A bipartisan reform bill has languished in Denny’s House Elections Committee for more than seven weeks. Through inaction, this member of Speaker Craddick’s leadership team has the power to quietly kill HB 1348.”
“Those who benefited from corporate electioneering by TRMPAC and TAB, which includes Denny, Elections Committee Vice-chair Dwayne Bohac and Rep. Bryan Hughes, the sub-committee chairman in charge of HB 1348, have a conflict of interest with this legislation. They need to get out of the way of House members who want to ban secretive attack ads once and for all. If Rep. Denny or other members do not want to bite the corporate hand that fed them, then they should leave this bill to those who are free of conflicts. HB 1348 is co-sponsored by 63 Democrats and 30 Republicans, yet Denny has said the bill's prospects are 'iffy'.”
“Evidence produced in a recent civil trial revealed that TRMPAC secretly paid $10,200 for issue-ad mailers that promoted the House campaigns of Reps. Denny and Jerry Madden. These TRMPAC mailers—which misleadingly appeared to have been paid for by the TAB—were mailed shortly before the 2002 primary. This mailer helped Rep. Denny overcome a strong primary challenge from Clayton Downing, who won 40 percent of the vote. HB 1348 would ban such issue ads 30 days before a primary or 60 days before a general election.”
“Since TAB and TRMPAC failed to report their corporate expenditures as contributions to Texas regulators, the Denny campaign may have received additional aid from these groups. The Denny campaign reported raising $105,961 in the 2002 cycle, with most of this money arriving before the primary. Denny took $15,000--14 percent of all her money--from donors who also gave to TRMPAC. Donors who gave to TRMPAC or TAB gave Denny $16,500, or 16 percent of her 2002 war chest.”
“Denny’s inaction is doubly disturbing given the fact that she authored a bill earlier this session that would interfere with local prosecutors who try to enforce state election law violations. That Denny bill [HB 913] appeared to target criminal probes such as the pending one that Travis County prosecutors launched into how Texans for a Republican Majority PAC (TRMPAC) and the Texas Association of Business (TAB) used corporate money to influence Texas’ 2002 House elections. Rep. Denny’s own 2002 reelection campaign benefited from legally questionable expenditures of corporate money by both TRMPAC and TAB.”
Sixteen Percent of Denny's 2002 War Chest
Came From Donors Who Also Supported TRM or TAB
| Contributor | Amount To TRMPAC in '02 | Amount To TAB in '02 | Amount To Dennyin '02 |
| Bob Perry (Perry Homes) | $165,000 | $105,000 | $1,000 |
| Farmers Insurance PAC | $150,000 | $0 | $500 |
| Louis Beecherl, Jr. (Beecherl Investments) | $35,000 | $0 | $2,000 |
| J. Ralph Ellis/Belmont Oil | $25,000 | $0 | $1,000 |
| Philip Morris PAC | $25,000 | $0 | $500 |
| Reliant Energy PAC | $25,000 | $0 | $500 |
| Texas Association of Business BACPAC | $13,126 | $0 | $500 |
| Ben Streusand, Jr. (Home Loan Corp.) | $10,000 | $0 | $2,000 |
| Locke Liddell & Sapp | $500 | $0 | $1,500 |
| Gulf States Toyota PAC | $250 | $0 | $1,000 |
| Rep. Kenny Marchant | $250 | $0 | $500 |
| Texans for Lawsuit Reform | * | $57,000 | $3,000 |
| Compass Bancshares PAC | † | $0 | $1,000 |
| CIGNA PAC | $0 | $15,000 | $250 |
| Valor TELPAC | $0 | $1,500 | $500 |
| American Insurance Assoc. PAC | $0 | $650 | $250 |
| Bracewell Patterson | $0 | $500 | $500 |
| TOTALS: | $449,126 | $179,650 | $16,500 |
*TLR coordinated strategy with TRM in the 2002 campaign; the TRM probe subpoenaed its PAC director.
†TRM-backed candidates received $22,000 from Compass Bancshares PAC four days after TRM solicited a Compass executive.
Note: TAB discloses contributions to its PAC, which reported spending $275,956 in the 2002 election. But TAB has refused to disclose corporate donors to a separate slush fund that spent $1.9 million on issue ads in the 2002 election cycle. Several PACs that gave to that slush fund independently reported their contributions to the Texas Ethics Commission. Those disclosed contributions are included in this table.
