By Rita Cook
Correspondent
Texas Metro News
Photos takes from candidates Campaign pages or official government images
Last week I talked about the Texas Senate seat that will be part of the mid-term elections in November.
Currently that seat is filled by U.S. senator John Cornyn who has been in the seat since December 2002.
It is certainly no secret the lobbyists, PACS and donors have kept him where he is and it is also obvious, at least to me he does not believe in term limits since he is going on his 23rd year at the job.
We also discussed last week’s Texas House of Representative’s candidate James Talarico vying for that seat and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton who is up against Cornyn in May in the GOP primary runoff.
With Paxton running for Senate that left his seat open for a new Texas Attorney General.
With that I am going to mention the same topics I did last week regarding “politics are changing and hopefully the voters are paying more attention,” with an emphasis on term limits and lobbyists.
Running for Texas Attorney General on the Democratic side are State Senator Nathan Johnson and Joe Jaworski, a lawyer and former Mayor of Galveston.
For the GOP slot U.S. Congressman Chip Roy and State Senator Mayes Middelton are both hoping their name will appear on the November ballot after one of the two will win the May GOP primary runoff.
On the GOP side Middelton is from Galveston and he has plenty of millions behind him. Nicknamed “Money” Mayes Middleton, much of his campaign money has come from his own bank account since he is an oil and gas executive.
Research indicates much of Middleton’s money other than his own came from William Oberndorf, a California billionaire who supports school vouchers.
Some are saying Middleton is trying to buy the AG seat like he did his Senate seat, and according to a report he has a $10 million loan to himself and a fundraising total of only $166,308.
If nothing else, at least if Middleton wins, he will only be beholden to himself and not the lobbyists, PACS and donors who normally run the show.
Roy, from Austin has millions in his coffers for his run for AG too, but not as much as Middleton. His campaign indicated at the end of last year that most of his donors were supporters who gave him less than $100. He also received $250,000 each from Douglas Scharbauer, a Midland rancher and horse breeder; Houston investor Robert “Hank” Seale; and the Texas Republican Leadership Fund (PAC) out of Amarillo.
Other donors from FEC records from his congressional campaign show a pattern of large individual contributions and PAC that have supported him including the Saulsbury family of Texas, the National Beer Wholesalers Association PAC, the Associated Builders and Contractors PAC, the SIG Sauer PAC and the House Freedom Fund.
On the Democratic side, Johnson, who represents Dallas, Garland, Mesquite, Grand Prairie and Irving, had some feedback early on as it was said he had campaign donations connected to legalized gambling in Texas, which he has supported during his time in the Texas Senate.
He did state the two campaign donations he received from Political Action Committees linked to the Las Vegas Sands Corporation were not part of a “coordinated effort to influence his decision to file a resolution for voters to consider legalized gambling in Texas.”
Transparency USA revealed other state leaders in Texas have also received money and not just Middleton from the gambling PAC including Texas Speaker of the House Dade Phelan, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and Gov. Greg Abbott.
The Texas Ethics Commission reported Jaworski raised $453,184 during the last reporting period researched with 65% of that coming from Texans. He has been campaigning since July 2020 and overall, since that time has raised $1,193,717. He also has a number of endorsements from Democratic State Representatives including Gene Wu, the University of Texas-Austin Democrats, the Asian American Democrats of Texas, and Save Our Public Schools Texas, to name a few. Right, left, or someone in between, be sure you know the lobbyists, the PACS, the donors and who is endorsing and bankrolling your candidate of choice since with that knowledge you can easily determine where the loyalty of that candidate will stand.
Rita Cook is a world traveler and writer/editor who specializes in writing on travel, auto, crime and politics. A correspondent for Texas Metro News, she has published 11 books and has also produced low-budget films.
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