Limit Campaign Contributions: A Priority for Texas

Limit Campaign Contributions:
A Priority for Texas

Texas is the largest of only six states that impose no limits on the amount of money an individual, business or political committee (PAC) can contribute to a candidate for public office. Similarly, Texas puts no limits on the amount of money that can be given to a PAC or on the overall amount an individual can give to PACs and non-judicial candidates in each election cycle.¹ Absent such limits, too few wealthy individuals and interest groups dominate Texas politics at the expense of the majority.

Special Interests and Big Checks Dominate Elections:

Contributions of $1,000 and up accounted for 37% of the money raised by winning House candidates in the 1996 election cycle. Contributions below $100 accounted for only 5% of the money raised.

Businesses and PACs directly contributed $9 million to these House members (62% of all their money).

Too Much Power in Too Few Hands:

Just 36 of Texas’ 974 registered PACs spent $37 million to influence government officials from 1995 through 1997—more than one half of all state PAC expenditures.

During the 1996 elections, the state’s five largest independent, special-interest PACs raised $4.5 million. Most of the money raised by these PACs came from a handful of donors. Had donations to these PACs been capped at $1,000 they would have raised one-fourth of the $4.5 million that they did raise.

Big Cash From the Lobby — Little From the Voters

House members in the 75th Legislature raised a staggering 80% ($10 million) of their money from sources outside of their individual districts.²

Just nine ZIP codes in Austin, Houston and the DFW area accounted for 48% of all the money that House members raised. Three Austin ZIP codes supplied $4.4 million, 35% of the total.²

Texas Needs Reasonable Limits:

In its landmark 1975 Buckley v. Valeo decision the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of limits on campaign contributions to candidates and PACs. Texas needs to adopt such reasonable limits as:

Limit all contributions to candidates and to PACs to $1,000 per election.
Limit the total amount an individual can contribute to all state candidates and candidate PACs active in Texas to $25,000 per year (similar to existing limits for federal offices).
Require legislative candidates to raise a minimal share of money (such as 70%) from the district that they seek to represent.

¹ Contribution limits to judicial candidates are much too indulgent. They allow, for instance, a single individual or corporation to funnel $300,000 to a single judicial candidate through a political committee.

² Includes all itemized contributions of $100 and above (which represents 95% of all the money raised by House incumbents).

Texans for Public Justice

609 W 18th, Ste E, Austin, 78701

p:512-472-9770

tpj@tpj.org