Texas elections: Big donors power legislative campaign contributions

Feb. 05--AUSTIN -- Massive contributions from special-interest groups led to the biggest hauls of campaign cash by El Paso candidates for the Texas House of Representatives, according to the latest round of reports.

The Texas Ethics Commission on Tuesday released campaign-finance disclosures for the period starting Jan. 1 and ending Jan. 23.

The reports were due Monday, 30 days before the March 4 primary. The next round will be due eight days before the election.

January donations for El Paso races were heavily driven by Texas trial lawyers and a group that opposes them.

Lyda Ness-Garcia, who is challenging Marisa Márquez for the District 77 seat in the Democratic Primary, raised the most of any candidate -- $59,084.

Of that, 90 percent is from groups associated with trial lawyers. Ness-Garcia received $2,123 from the law firm of Houston attorney Steve Mostyn, $27,150 from the group he created, the Texas Association of Consumer Lawyers, and $23,742 from Texans for Insurance Reform, a group funded with contributions from trial lawyers, including Mostyn.

In the last six months of 2013, Ness-Garcia received 74 percent of her contributions from the association of consumer lawyers.

By contrast, Márquez got no big contribution from Texans for Lawsuit Reform -- a group that Mostyn opposes -- in January after getting $10,000 from the group in 2013.

Márquez raised $22,528 in January. Her largest donors are former state Rep. Dee Margo and Julio Cesar Viramontes, who each gave $5,000. Ness-Garcia has criticized Márquez for saying nice things in a past campaign about Margo, a Republican, and for taking donations from some of the same people and groups who have given to leading Texas Republicans, such as Gov. Rick Perry and Attorney General Greg Abbott.

Márquez outspent Ness-Garcia $23,353 to $21,629 in the first three weeks of January, but at $18,797, her war chest is almost twice as big as Ness-Garcia's $9,694.

Ness-Garcia raised her money from a larger pool of contributors -- 48 -- than Márquez, who got money from 25 different people or groups.

In what is perhaps El Paso's most hotly contested race, state Rep. Naomi Gonzalez surged ahead in fundraising, but she relied on a single contribution for most of it.

Gonzalez received $27,500 -- or 87 percent -- of the $31,371 she received between Jan. 1 and Jan. 23 from Texans for Lawsuit Reform, which works to limit civil lawsuits.

Gonzalez received contributions from just seven separate donors while one of her opponents for the District 76 seat, Cesar Blanco, had 44 separate donors.

The third candidate, former state Rep. Norma Chávez, reported no donors, but she reported lending her campaign an additional $15,000, bringing total loans to her effort to $90,000. Chavez said last month that she was funding her campaign through an early inheritance she had received from her parents.

Gonzalez spent just more than $20,000 in the first three weeks of last month, while Blanco and Chávez spent just more than $12,000.

Most of Gonzalez's spending, $18,300, went to El Paso-based Forma Group for campaign consulting and advertising.

At the end of the reporting period, Chávez had the most cash on hand, $63,832, although that was the product of the massive loan she made to her campaign. Blanco had $29,324 and Gonzalez had $23,885.

State Rep. Mary González, who is defending her District 75 seat against a challenge by Fabens Independent School District board Chairman Rey Sepulveda, received the delegation's second largest haul in January at $52,880. And, as with Ness-Garcia, she raised most of it from groups aligned with Mostyn and the trial lawyers.

The Mostyn Law firm contributed $25,000, the Texas Trial Lawyers Association contributed $6,000 and Annie's List gave $6,000. The chairwoman of the Annie's List board is Mostyn's wife and law partner, Amber Mostyn.

Sepulveda reported only one contribution between Jan. 1 and Jan. 23 -- $250 from Javier Escalante.

In the District 79 race, state Rep. Joe Pickett reported raising an additional $16,625, bringing his war chest to $151,337.

His opponent, Chuck Peartree, reported only $25 in donations and $125 in cash on hand.

Marty Schladen may be reached 512-479-6606.

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