Perry's Heavenly Host: James Leininger

A right-wing Texas billionaire is hosting a Christian “call to action” retreat for the Perry campaign this weekend. Governor Perry is expected to address the private gathering of Christian social conservatives at the Texas Hill Country Ranch of Dr. James Leininger.

Leininger is a political king maker who is a controversial, divisive force even within his own party. Leininger's personal and political finances also have long intertwined with those of Rick Perry.

Read TPJ’s new backgrounder on Dr. James Leininger entitled Rick Perry’s Heavenly Host.

Lobby Watch:Treasurer of Notorious Leininger PAC Runs For Railroad Commission

In a likely case of GOP voters balking at a Hispanic name, David Porter overcame a huge funding advantage to knockout incumbent Texas Railroad Commissioner Victor Carrillo in the March primary.

Lobby Watch reviews Porter's previous role in spending piles of Leininger cash to back Mark Williams--a failed challenger to Rep. Tommy Merritt in the 2006 GOP Primary. It may have been Texas' best-documented case of a candidate operating as a wholly owned subsidiary of a single PAC, consultant and donor.

Read about this railroad Porter and that bizarre 2006 race in the new Lobby Watch.

Lobby Watch:TRMPAC Donors Moved Another $2 Million To Craddick PACs

Since Tom Craddick became House Speaker in 2003—with a little help from his friends at Tom DeLay’s now-indicted Texans for a Republican Majority PAC (TRMPAC)—65 former TRMPAC donors have given almost $2 million to the two main PACs defending Craddick’s tenuous grasp on the Speaker’s gavel.
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Lobby Watch:54 More Rich Donors Join the ‘$100,000 Club’

During the recent 2006 election 140 wealthy individuals donated more than $100,000 apiece to Texas state PACs and candidates. This is up 63 percent from the 86 individuals who cleared $100,000 in 2004.
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Lobby Watch:Dr. Leininger Injects $5 Million Into Election; Many Candidates Fail On His Life Support

Texas’ No. 2 individual political donor, conservative Republican activist Dr. James Leininger, injected more than $5 million into Texas state politics this election cycle—none of which went to a Democrat. This spending quadrupled what Leininger pumped into previous state elections.
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Lobby Watch:85 Donors Dropped $28 Million Into Texas’ 2006 Elections

Twenty-six percent of all the money that individuals contributed to Texas PACs and candidates in the first 18 months of the 2006 election cycle came from just 85 wealthy people (sometimes aided by spouses) who contributed anywhere from $100,000 to $4.6 million apiece.
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Lobby Watch:Leininger Clan Injected $3.1 Million into Texas Politics in Last 5 years

Conservative activist James Leininger—Texas’ No. 2 individual donor—is making headlines again for trying to defeat moderate Republican Primary candidates who opposed his school-voucher agenda. From 2001 through 2005, Leininger’s family contributed more than $3.1 million to conservative PACs and Republican candidates in Texas, second only to Houston homebuilder Bob Perry, whose family spent $11 million in that period.
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Lobby Watch:In Gay-Marital Amendment Spat, Tolerant Give More Than Intolerant

Eight political committees seeking to influence a proposed state constitutional amendment to ban gay marriages reported that they had raised more than $500,000 one month before the November 8 election. PACs opposing the amendment raised more than three times the amount reported by PACs supporting "Proposition 2."
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Dollar Docket

Do Two Gramms Tip the Scales?
Having recently unveiled a tentative $86.5 million settlement to claims that she and other Enron directors were asleep at the wheel of that $60 billion fraud, GOP VIP Wendy Gramm is facing claims that another company ran amok on her watch.


Read Dollar Docket #36

Lobby Watch:50 People, 30 Institutions Supply 26% of TX Political Money

By the end of June, 50 powerful Texas families and 30 institutional donors already had spent $35.6 million to influence this November’s state elections. By one measure, these 80 sources account for 26 percent of the state’s total political funding.
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Dollar Docket

Put Court-Reform Walk In 'Tort-Reform' Talk
New voices joining the call for judicial reform should consider stanching the special-interest judicial money flowing from their own backyards.




Read Dollar Docket #21