October 28, 2004 |
Republican Brethren Where ART Thou?
Donors Who Gave Associated Republicans $2 Million
Also
Gave $560,839 To High Court Candidates
Just six days after a Democratic state judge issued a temporary restraining order barring Associated Republicans of Texas (ART) PAC from spending more corporate funds until after the November election, the all-Republican Texas Supreme Court unanimously vacated that order this week. The court's ruling officially reopened the ostensibly illegal corporate electioneering season.
The plaintiffs1 in the case are two Democratic candidates for the Texas House who cite Texas' prohibition on corporate political contributions to demand that ART PAC be barred from raising or spending more corporate funds. The case (IN Re Norman F. Newton) aims a double-barrel shotgun at the high court's perilous claim to impartiality. After all, Texas' seven sitting justices are all Republican politicians--most of whom have taken campaign money from the same donors who bankroll ART.
Over the past decade, ART PAC has given nine successful Texas Supreme Court candidates $38,352. Three current justices who backed ART in the recent ruling walked away with $13,186 of this money. The author of this opinion, Justice Nathan Hecht, is the current court's top recipient of ART cash. (Current and former justices took $5,900 more from ART's attorneys at DeLeon Boggins & Icenogle.)
These direct PAC contributions greatly understate ART's influence over the Texas Supreme Court, however, given that much of ART's money comes from wealthy donors who also bankroll the justices directly. ART PAC has raised almost $2 million since 2000 from just 26 major donors who gave that PAC between $20,000 and $338,500 apiece.
ART PAC Contributions To Justices (1993-2004)
|
| ART
PAC Amount (2000- Present) |
Amount
To High Court Justices & Current Court Candidates* |
Contributor |
Company/Interest |
City |
| $338,500 | $24,000 | William McMinn | Sterling Group (chemicals) | Houston |
| $307,150 | $1,750 | Mike Boylan | Houston Property Mgmt. Co. | Houston |
| $250,000 | $8,563 | Governor Bush Committee | Commander in Chief | Austin |
| $140,000 | $6,350 | David & Doug Hartman | Hartman & Assoc. (investments) | Austin |
| $115,000 | $98,000 | James Leininger | Kinetic Concepts (hospital beds) | San Antonio |
| $110,000 | $8,500 | John McGovern | McGovern Allergy Clinic | Houston |
| $100,000 | $0 | Altria Corp. Services | Formerly Philip Morris tobacco | New York |
| $75,000 | $67,000 | Gordon Cain | Sterling Group (chemicals) | Houston |
| $68,000 | $23,482 | Boone Pickens | BP Capital, Inc. (energy speculator) | Dallas |
| $57,500 | $14,750 | Frank Liddell, Jr. | Locke Liddell & Sapp attorney | Houston |
| $37,800 | $12,500 | American Insurance Assoc. | Insurance | Austin |
| $35,450 | $100 | Kent Grusendorf | State representative | Arlington |
| $27,000 | $1,700 | Verne Philips | Attorney | Austin |
| $25,000 | $0 | Gregory Barnes | Self-Employed lobbyist | Austin |
| $25,000 | $0 | Jack Hamilton | Davis Hamilton Jackson (investing) | Houston |
| $25,000 | $0 | Jon Huntsman | Huntsman LLC (chemicals) | Salt Lake |
| $25,000 | $44,150 | Robert McNair | Cogen Technologies Energy Group | Houston |
| $25,000 | $15,000 | Pfizer | Pharmaceutical giant | New York |
| $25,000 | $0 | Bill Ratliff | Ex-Senator, lobby consultant | Mt Pleasant |
| $25,000 | $89,000 | Reliant Energy | Electricity | Houston |
| $25,000 | $93,844 | TX Civil Justice League | Protecting businesses from lawsuits | Austin |
| $24,200 | $0 | William H. Giesenschlag | Rancher | Somerville |
| $24,000 | $1,650 | Tom B. Hudson | Graves Daugherty Hearon attorney | Austin |
| $20,775 | $500 | Harry Lucas | Lucas Petroleum Group | Austin |
| $20,000 | $50,000 | Albert Huddleston | Hyperion Resources (energy) | Dallas |
| $20,000 | $0 | Prudential Financial | Insurance | Charlotte |
| $1,970,375 | $560,839 | (TOTALS) |
In his ART opinion, Justice Nathan Hecht seems to anticipate that his ruling could be construed as a partisan hatchet job. In explaining why the Supreme Court allowed ART to bypass the usual stop at an intermediate appeals court, Hecht invokes a 1990 ruling in which the high court similarly leapt directly into the electoral fray. In that case (Sears v. Bayoud), the court granted a Democratic Supreme Court candidate's request that his Republican opponent be struck from the ballot because he lacked constitutionally prescribed qualifications for the office. Hecht's subtext seems to be that the court rules on the basis of law--not partisanship.
Unfortunately, the case that Hecht cited supports the opposite conclusion. When the Texas Supreme Court struck down a Republican's candidacy for the high court in 1990, a Democratic majority controlled that court. In fact, the three Republican members of that court (Hecht, Tom Phillips and Eugene Cook) all joined a lone Democrat's scathing dissent that thrashes the majority for reaching "back into the historical record for something--anything--to support the conclusion it wants to reach." The Republican-dominated dissenters would have left the disputed Republican on the ballot.
The chief difference between the court then and now is that the current justices are all from one party and not a single justice strayed from the party line. In a way, Justice Hecht is correct to suggest that the court consistently followed a stare decisis doctrine, albeit one based on human nature rather than the law. The timeless precedent that the court invoked in 1990 and again this week is the one whereby the justices take care of their own.
Donations To High Court Justices & Current Court Candidates
From Top ART PAC Patrons
| Justice/Candidate | Amount ('93-Present) |
| Greg Abbott | $72,100 |
| James Baker | $15,863 |
| *Scott Brister | $6,500 |
| John Cornyn | $20,850 |
| Craig Enoch | $35,000 |
| Alberto Gonzales | $18,353 |
| †Raul Gonzalez | $49,845 |
| ‡Paul Green | $12,872 |
| Deborah Hankinson | $36,600 |
| *Nathan Hecht | $63,403 |
| *Wallace Jefferson | $37,828 |
| *Harriet O'Neill | $32,100 |
| *Priscilla Owen | $48,135 |
| Tom Phillips | $23,656 |
| Xavier Rodriguez | $16,303 |
| Mike Schneider | $21,206 |
| †Rose Spector | $2,500 |
| ‡†David Van Os | $0 |
| *Jesse Wainwright | $47,725 |
| TOTAL: | $560,839 |
‡Current candidate
†Democrat
1 Note: The plaintiffs' attorney, Cristen Feldman, is the former staff attorney for Texans for Public Justice (TPJ). Feldman continues to represent TPJ in some legal matters, but TPJ has no role in the Associated Republicans of Texas case.
