Let’s see. The City of H-Town rules on campaign fundraising say an individual can give up to $5,000 per election. A PAC can give up to $10,000.
Yesterday, Chris Bell lost his fight against State Rep. Sylvester Turner on campaign financing. Here is from Teddy Schleifer of the Chron:
The Houston Ethics Commission has rejected Chris Bell’s complaint that City Hall was letting Rep. Sylvester Turner start the mayoral race with a $900,000 head start in fundraising.
The ethics board ruled last week that it did not have jurisdiction over Bell’s case because he could not show improper ethical conduct by a city official, leaving the former congressman and city councilman with one less legal option to restrict Turner’s advantage. Bell filed his complaint last month after failing to win an injunction against the city in state district court in January.
Bell argues that Turner should not be allowed to transfer more than $10,000 from his legislative campaign account to his mayoral account, the most a third-party group can donate to a candidate. The city attorney’s office and Turner have said he should be allowed to transfer each individual donation that falls under the maximum cap set out by the city’s fundraising ordinances.
He opened his mayoral account late last month and starts with about $900,000, according to his campaign.
Here is what Commentary wants to know. If Jane Doe forked over $5,000 to Rep. Turner last October, can she give another $5,000 this July? Or is the $900,000 that Rep. Turner starts out with considered funds raised from a different or previous election.
I have the same question for a $10,000 contribution from a PAC.
If that is the case, it would appear that the Rep. Turner campaign gets two bites out of the apple while everyone else just gets one bite. I had a discussion about this recently with some folks in the know and I mentioned that it might violate the so-called “spirit of the law.” One of the responses I got was there is no longer a “spirit of the law” when it comes to fundraising at City Hall thanks to the folks that were in charge of looking out for the rules. That’s too bad since I thought for all these years that we had a pretty good system in place.
Oh, well, so now we operate under the spirit of the flaw. That is not what they had in mind when the original ordinance was first adopted.
Last night’s event was well attended.
How many combined seasons did Killer Bs Bagwell, Berkman, and Biggio spend in a ‘Stros uniform?
When is this going away? I am talking about this from the Chron:
The ongoing legal battle over Houston Community College Trustee Dave Wilson’s residency is poised to pit one source of taxpayer dollars against another, as the college may be on the hook for his legal fees and the county continues to pay to pursue a case it has lost twice.
HCC has an insurance policy that covers legal fees for trustees, but the deductible is $300,000 – much higher than the $36,980 Wilson’s case has cost him so far, meaning the college probably will have to pay the full bill.
Really? Folks certainly know how I feel about this dog chasing its own tail.
Teddy also put out this yesterday:
Deputy City Controller Chris Brown will run for his department’s top job, he said, becoming the fourth candidate to commit to the race for the city’s top financial officer.
This will certainly make things more interesting on the Dem side.
Killer Bs Bagwell (15 seasons), Berkman (12 seasons), and Biggio (20 seasons) spent a total of 47 seasons in a ‘Stros uniform of course.
The April 6 Opening Day game versus Cleveland will be carried by ESPN at 6pm as part of their Opening Day quadrupleheader coverage. That’s Prime Time!
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