Lobby Watch: Abbott Seizes Early Money Advantage Over Perry

Many of last year's top contributors to Governor Perry and Attorney General Abbott appear to favor Abbott in a potential 2014 gubernatorial showdown. Forty-two contributors gave more than $50,000 to Perry and/or Abbott last year. Fifteen of these big contributors gave only to the attorney general, while just one of them exclusively backed the governor.

See where the big donors are lining up in the new Lobby Watch.

Lobby Watch: School Curriculum Lobbying Dropped After Education Board Lost Clout

Lobbying by companies that produce instructional materials for schools plummeted in 2012 after Texas lawmakers finally hobbled the State Board of Education's embarrassing influence over textbooks and other instructional materials.

Read about this decentralizing reform in a subversive new Lobby Watch that lacks Board of Education approval.

Lobby Watch: Dynasty's Rolodex Delivers to George P. Bush

Ninety percent of the $1.35 million that George P. Bush raised in the last two months came from Texas and Florida, which his uncle and father once governed. George P. Bush raised 69 percent of his total haul from just 39 contributors, including 10 with close ties to George W. Bush's elite "Pioneer" presidential bundling operation. At least 13 members of the Bush family helped this relative's campaign for an unspecified state office, as did several members of the cabinets of two Bush presidents.

Scrutinize George P.'s cash in the new Lobby Watch.

Simmons PAC Fined for Illegal Contributions

The Texas Ethics Commission (TEC) has levied a $6,450 civil penalty against WCS-Texas Solutions PAC for making $64,500 in unauthorized political contributions to a bipartisan group of 18 Texas lawmakers in late 2011. The civil action was initiated by a formal complaint filed by Texans for Public Justice in February 2012.

According to the TPJ complaint the PAC, established by Waste Control Specialists and bankrolled exclusively by Harold Simmons, violated the law because a PAC cannot contribute to candidates or officials if it does not itself have at least 10 contributors. Simmons was the PACs sole contributor.

“We are disappointed in the meager size of the civil penalty,” said Craig McDonald, TPJ Director. “It represents a meaningless 10% surcharge on Mr. Simmons’ illegal contributions. The appropriate solution would be a fine at least the size of the illegal contributions.”

View the Ethics Commission’s Notice of Final Resolution. View TPJ’s Ethics Complaint.

“Let’s all pray Simmons takes more care in handling atomic waste that he does in handling his campaign contributions,” said McDonald.