Lieutenant Governor David Dewhurst spent more than $1 million in the first half of 2007, accounting for 48 percent of all spending by the six statewide officials studied here. At the other end of the spectrum, Agriculture Commissioner Todd Staples spent $27,153—less than the average House member.

 

Spending By Statewide Officials

Category	Gov. Perry	Lt. Gov. Dewhurst	A.G. Abbott	Compt. Combs	Land Com. Patterson	Agricult. Com. Staples
Staff & Consultants	$259,089	$739,136	$94,568	$45,406	$4,173	$3,216
Rent Payments	$44,980	$62,684	$29,219	$14,593	$5,390	$697
Travel & Lodging	$112,926	$9,316	$69,234	$7,999	$23,884	$5,553
Admin./Office Expenses	$48,874	$75,278	$27,123	$15,898	$9,426	$4,358
Gifts/Charitable Contributions	$14,681	$3,667	$3,262	$6,605	$4,961	$1,082
Campaign-Related Spending	$90,149	$34,959	$6,455	$14,238	$2,525	$106
Food, Drinks & Events	$14,673	$13,938	$6,374	$5,624	$11,581	$1,160
Miscellaneous	$152	$0	$110,833	$34,510	$3,172	$10,981
Unspecified Loans	$0	$158,023	$0	$0	$286	$0
Political Contributions	$0	$0	$13,500	$6,560	$2,400	$0
Unknown	$0	$170	$1,280	$800	$0	$0
Unitemized Credit Cards	$0	$0	$0	$0	$0	$0
TOTALS:	$585,524	$1,097,171	$361,848	$152,233	$67,798	$27,153

 

 

Governor Rick Perry’s campaign spent $585,524 in early 2007, accounting for 26 percent of the money spent by the six statewide officials studied. Compared to the statewide norm, the governor spent a relatively large share of his funds on Travel & Lodging and Campaign-Related Expenditures.

Flights, which accounted for two-thirds of all Travel & Lodging expenditures by the six statewide officials, accounted for 85 percent of the governor’s Travel & Lodging expenses.  In his biggest Travel outlay, the governor spent $13,586 in May for himself and an aide to fly to Turkey, where the governor addressed the Bilderberg Conference. The penchant for secrecy by this private, international clique of business and political leaders feeds numerous conspiracy theories, prompting gubernatorial spokesman Robert Black to joke that the governor was “looking forward to learning the secret handshake.”⁸ Just two weeks after returning from Turkey, the governor promoted the aide who accompanied him to Bilderberg to be Texas Secretary of State.⁹ Because Perry’s spokesman has declined to explain what transpired at Bilderberg to prompt this promotion, conspiracy blogs have dubbed him “Black-Helicopter Bob” and “Bob the Bilder.”¹⁰  

Perry spent $6,747 in February, flying himself, his wife and four aides to Washington for conferences of the National Governor’s Association and the Republican Governors Association (Perry will head the latter group in 2008). The governor booked some of this travel on commercial flights but also paid $3,884 for a plane provided by El Paso refining executive Paul Foster. Perry also racked up $6,541 in bills at Washington’s Willard Intercontinental Hotel in February and March.

Governor Perry paid Houston auto magnate Thomas Dan Friedkin $4,599 in April to fly himself and two press aides to Pittsburgh, where the governor addressed a Boy Scouts convention. This former Eagle Scout has written a forthcoming book about scouting values—thrift apparently not among them. Perry also paid Houston energy executive Robert Mosbacher $2,854 to fly Texas’ First Family to Washington for the fun-loving dinner that the Alfalfa Club organizes for Washington’s power elite each January.

The 15 percent of his budget that Perry spent on Campaign-Related Expenditures in early 2007 also was unusually high. Perry’s top expenditures in this category include: $36,632 to consultant Delisi Communications for printing; $21,636 to several voter-contact firms; $15,210 to Weeks & Co. for “media production;” and $11,103 in postage. He also paid $35,000 for consulting to David Carney’s Norway Hill Associates; these expenditures were classified under Staff & Consultants.

 

Staff & Consultants accounted for a hefty two-thirds of all the money Dewhurst spent in early 2007. During this period Dewhurst paid $378,717 in “consulting” fees to an entity called AGI via an Austin postal box. AGI accounted for a little more than half of all the money that Dewhurst spent on staff and consultants in early 2007. Dewhurst has paid AGI a stunning $2.1 million since his first lieutenant-governor election in 2002. That same election, attorney-general candidate Greg Abbott paid $43,090 to something called “W.P.D.C. LLC” at the same postal box.¹¹ Spokespeople for Dewhurst and Abbott said political consultant Buddy Barfield was behind both entities. Barfield has worked for both the lieutenant governor’s campaign and state staff. He recently invested some of his prodigious cash flow into start-up Austin Exploration, Ltd., which is prospecting for oil in Australia.¹²

Dewhurst also paid $21,000 for consulting to Jeffrey Danzinger at a California-based entity called “Stemwinder.” Danzinger served as Governor Arnold Schwarznegger’s deputy director of communications until 2006, when “the Governator” appointed this aide to be vice chair of the California Integrated Waste Management Board. Danzinger apparently advises Dewhurst when not wrestling with the 92 million tons of waste that California produces each year.

Unspecified Loans are the other factor setting Dewhurst apart from his statewide colleagues. In early 2007 Dewhurst paid $158,023—14 percent of his massive political expenditures—to service debts. Dewhurst arguably owes his office to loans backed by his personal energy fortune. In 2002 he leveraged millions of dollars for his first lieutenant-governor race, which he won with 52 percent of the vote. Since 2001 the Dewhurst campaign has borrowed a stunning $16.3 million from Compass Bank and another $525,000 from Dewhurst himself.

With Staff and Loans accounting for 80 percent of what Dewhurst spent in early 2007, the share of his political spending devoted to many other kinds of spending categories fell considerably below the norm for statewide officials.

 

Travel & Lodging accounted for a hefty 19 percent of the $361,849 that Attorney General Abbott spent in early 2007. While the six statewide officials collectively spent 21 percent of their Travel money on vehicles, vehicles drove half of Abbott’s Travel budget. His top Travel & Lodging expenditure was a $29,247 payment to Covert Ford for a campaign vehicle. Abbott also paid some lifestyle-enhancing hotel bills. These included a $1,566 stay at the Philadelphia Ritz Carlton during a Republican Attorney Generals Association meeting and $1,263 to Washington’s Melrose Hotel.

An elevated 31 percent of Abbott’s expenditures were classified as Miscellaneous. The bulk of these expenditures were tax payments, including $94,450 to the IRS and $14,187 to the Comptroller. No other campaign reported a Comptroller tax payment. Abbott also reported paying a remarkable $2,065 in “credit card processing fees” to Wells Fargo Bank. It would be odd if the attorney general were carrying a big credit-card debt, given that he reported $6.1 million in surplus campaign cash in the same disclosure filing.

Abbott spent 26 percent of his funds on Staff & Consultants, including making $35,000 in payments to Austin-based J2 Strategies. J2 consultant Jason Johnson is the executive director of Texans for School Choice, which promotes school vouchers. During the 2006 election Johnson ran the Texans for School Choice PAC, which spent more than $200,000 from San Antonio hospital-bed magnate James Leininger attacking moderate Republicans who opposed vouchers. Johnson is a former aide of current Agriculture Commissioner Todd Staples.

 

Comptroller Susan Combs spent $152,333 in early 2007. Like Abbott, Combs spent an elevated share of her money (23 percent) on Miscellaneous expenditures. Dominating this category was the $34,090 that the campaign paid the IRS, presumably on income it earned investing the campaign’s $1.5 million cash surplus. A relatively high share of Comb’s political expenditures also went for Rent Payments. These payments included a total of $12,610 to SWAC Real Estate and a $621 utility bill to the City of Austin in February. Combs, who spent a relatively small share of her funds on Travel & Lodging, did pay $3,609 to Austin’s Four Seasons Hotel on the eve of the January 2007 Texas inaugural.

 

Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson spent a relatively modest $67,798 in early 2007. Compared to his colleagues Patterson spent large shares of this small pie on two lifestyle-enhancing types of expenses. Travel & Lodging accounted for more than a third of his expenditures. Patterson spent $13,599 to maintain, fuel and insure a campaign aircraft. Patterson’s top vehicle expenses were $2,852 in payments to lease a Ford and $912 spent for vehicle tires and maintenance. Patterson also spent a relatively high share of his funds on Food & Events. His top expenditures in this category were a $4,226 General Land Office Christmas Party at the Doubletree Hotel and $2,615 to Pok-E-Jo’s for reception food. Commissioner Patterson, who has tried to base some agency policies on his personal reading of the Second Amendment, spent $148 on office subscriptions to Gun Statistics, Handguns and Guns magazines. He also spent $221 on NRA-related books and gifts and made small-caliber contributions to the Firearm Coalition and to the heat-packing mamas at Second Amendment Sisters.

 

Agriculture Commissioner Todd Staples spent less than $30,000 in early 2007. Staples spent a hefty 40 percent of this money on Miscellaneous expenditures, dominated by $9,441 in payments to the IRS (his campaign had a cash surplus of $262,981 at the end of 2006). Staples also spent a relatively high 20 percent of its funds on Travel & Lodging expenditures, the largest of which was a $1,190 payment for aircraft repair.

 

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⁸ “Perry off to secret forum in Turkey,” Dallas Morning News, May 31, 2007.
⁹ If this disturbs you, you are not alone. On the presidential campaign trail, Texas Congressman Ron Paul denounced Perry’s trip as a violation of a federal law that bars unauthorized U.S. citizens from negotiating with foreign governments.
¹⁰ See www.bilderberg.com and www.roswell.com .
¹¹ The Dewhurst campaign also paid WPDC $27,037 in September 2003 for “direct mail.”
¹² “Venture seeks oil down under,” Austin Business Journal, February 17, 2006.