Some local politicos don’t like me to write the following because it doesn’t fit their politics. Commentary is talking about the Patriot Majority PAC that was created just for the 2021 HISD races.
Under Texas elections financial reporting and disclosure laws, an entity like Patriot Majority must file with the Texas Ethics Commission. Canidates for HISD trustee positions file with the HISD Board Services office.
Patriot Majority filed four monthly reports. In their final report posted last week, they disclosed that they were dissolving. They ended up raising and spending $637,000 on three HISD races. The $637,000 all came from one source, the American Federation of Teachers.
Patriot Majority put serious dough into the campaigns of incumbent trustees Elizabeth Santos, Anne Sung and Holly Flynn Vilseca. Santos benefitted with $215,000 for field, digital ads and mail.
The way Texas elections financial reporting and disclosure laws work, a PAC or campaign can list a $50,000 expenditure for “field” to a vendor and not have to itemize the expenditure. The public doesn’t know how many canvassers were hired, how many supervisors, how much for print – you get the picture.
To my knowledge, this is the second time the American Federation of Teachers has weighed in with this much money in HISD races. I am talking about approaching or surpassing half a million dollars in a cycle. They did in 2017. In 2017 and 2021, there weren’t any City of H-Town municipal races. Just the constitutional amendments and elections in smaller cities and HCC trustee races. The money has a bigger impact.
Full disclosure. Commentary’s client, the Janette Garza Lindner for HISD trustee campaign also received PAC money from outside of H-Town, but nowhere near what Patriot Majority spent.
Two of the Patriot Majority supported candidates lost, the other won by 48 votes.
I was at my Dad’s last night and surfing the flatscreen when I came across a Transformer movie. It got me to thinking that Omicron could have very well been the name of the next bad guy in an upcoming sequel.
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