Lobby Watch: Drew Darby Requites Nuke Waste King's Love

Rep. Drew Darby recently introduced a sweetheart bill that would exclusively benefit just one company: nuclear-waste king Waste Control Specialists. Serendipitously, no other lawmaker has received more money from Waste Control's PAC.

Lobby Watch explores what $15,000 in protection money can buy in Austin - or San Angelo.

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.

Lobby Watch:Chicago Firm Counsel's Abbott and Simmons

The Chicago law firm that Attorney General Greg Abbott hired for Texas' latest redistricting fight has unusually close ties to one of Abbott's top contributors: Dallas billionaire Harold Simmons. Long before Abbott paid Bartlit Beck Herman Palenchar & Scott hundreds of thousands of tax dollars, the firm reaped half of its total revenue by defending Simmons from toxic-tort claims.

Read about the Chicago boys who advise Simmons and Abbott in the new Lobby Watch.

Lobby Watch: Perry & Simmons Arm Hance Scarborough PAC

A PAC formed by a GOP-friendly Austin law firm in 2008 didn't get much traction until two of the nation's top three donors began dumping a quarter million dollars into it. Lobby Watch digs into Hance Scarborough's HS Law PAC as it begins to flex political muscle on behalf of its powerful sponsors: Bob Perry and Harold Simmons.

Read the new Lobby Watch.

Lobby Watch: Simmons' Lobby Money Shifted From Texas to DC

Harold Simmons' Waste Control Specialists long concentrated its lobby power in Austin as it sought to open its West Texas nuclear dump. The company's federal lobby spending then briefly matched its Texas expenditures in 2009 and 2010, as Simmons pressed Democrats in Congress and the White House to send more radioactive junk to Texas. When that lobbying effort appeared to strike out Simmons quickly established himself as the nation's No. 1 contributor to anti-Obama super PACs.

Read TPJ's radioactive new Lobby Watch.

Lobby Watch: Can Billionaire Simmons Bury Nuke Waste & Obama 'Socialism'?

Dallas billionaire Harold Simmons has given $15.4 million to GOP super PACs in the past year in an effort to keep that "Socialist Obama" from realizing his schemes to "eliminate free enterprise." Lobby Watch finds that since 2000 Simmons has given $32 million to state and federal politicians as he hungrily expands his nuclear dump in West Texas.
Read the Lobby Watch.

Simmons PAC Admits Illicit Contributions

The treasurer of Harold Simmons Texas PAC admitted that TPJ's allegations that the PAC acted illegally in giving 18 lawmakers a total of $65,000 were correct. The PAC will ask the 18 legislators to return the contributions.

Read the story at the New York Times.

TPJ Files Complaint Against Simmons PAC

TPJ filed a formal complaint with the Texas Ethics Commission today alleging that a new PAC funded by Dallas billionaire Harold Simmons illegally contributed $65,000 to 18 Texas lawmakers in 2011.

Read the full TPJ press release.
Read the TPJ complaint filed with the Ethics Commission.

Lobby Watch: Simmons' Campaign Money Predicted Nuke Waste Vote Outcome

A review of Dallas billionaire Harold Simmons' campaign contributions proved to be a reliable prognosticator of how representatives would vote on opening his Andrews County nuclear dump to waste from around the nation.


Find out who took Simmons' money and who voted to give him a nuclear monopoly.

Lobby Watch:Nuclear-Waste Kingpin Helps Anti-Lawsuit PAC Raise $6.9 Million

Texans for Lawsuit Reform (TLR) PAC raised a record $6.9 million in the 2010 election cycle with help from its No. 1 donor: nuclear-waste kingpin Harold Simmons. To reduce the cost of negligently harming other people, the PAC took 12 cents of every dollar it raised from Simmons. Not coincidentally, this billionaire is imposing unprecedented liabilities on Texans by importing staggering volumes of toxic and radioactive waste into West Texas.

Lobby Watch also finds that many of TLR's biggest new donors are righteously litigious dudes.

Read the new Lobby Watch.

Lobby Watch:Simmons Raises Stakes at Nuke Dump

Before he contributed $500,000 to Governor Perry in the second half of 2010, Dallas billionaire Harold Simmons previously gave Perry another $620,000. This $1.1 million pile of cash is dwarfed by the enormity of what Simmons demands in return. Soon six Perry appointees will vote on Simmons' application to turn Texas into the nation's low-level nuclear waste dump.

Read the new Lobby Watch:
Don't Trash Texas--Unless You Pay Perry $1.1 Million