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Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Baron remains major funding force for Democrats (updated)
Make no mistake — the most important donor in Texas Democratic politics these days, and arguably the most important person in Texas Democratic politics, is Fred Baron, a no-longer-practicing trial lawyer from Dallas.
Since the beginning of 2007, Baron has poured more than $1.5 million into the Texas Democratic Trust, which he set up a few years ago. The Trust then gives that money to the state party, the House Democratic Campaign Committee and similar groups.
Democrats, led by former chairman Charles Soechting and operatives Mike Lavigne and Kelly Fero, were already making headway before Baron became a major party donor in the 2006 election cycle. But the money that Baron has poured in over the last four years (now more than $3 million) has fueled a party resurgence that, while not yet evident in statewide races, has allowed Democrats to cut significantly into Republicans’ advantage in the Texas House.
Baron is no longer funding the Trust alone. This cycle, Houston trial lawyer John Eddie Williams has given the group $400,000.
Baron, who specialized in asbestos cases was finance chairman for John Edwards’ presidential campaign. He’s been far more willing to talk about his political activity than his big-donor counterparts on the Republican side, James Leininger and Bob Perry.
Here’s a story that I wrote about Baron just after the 2006 election — the first article to thoroughly discuss his efforts with the Democratic Trust.
Update: Ken Hoagland, who does PR work for Leininger, kindly reminded me that Leininger sat for a lengthy editorial board interview at the Statesman in 2007. I was there and wrote a story out of it. Hoagland has a good point, but that followed several years of resistance on Leininger’s part to speaking to the press. By contrast, it took just a couple of calls to Baron to get him to sent down with me for a lengthy interview in fall 2006 over breakfast in Austin.
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Payne’s group had contract with Pakistan after 9/11
Stephen Payne, the Houston businessman whom the Sunday Times of London caught on video suggesting a donation to the Bush library could help land a meeting with key White House officials, was part of a group hired by the government of Pakistan after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks to improve relations with the U.S.
According to records available through the U.S. Department of Justice, Payne was part of a group, called Team Barakat, that Pakistan hired to provide strategic advice, interface with the U.S. government and members of Congress and try to strengthen relations between the two countries.
In materials promoting his business, Payne claims that he helped Pakistan negotiate a five-year, $3 billion aid package from the U.S., and that he “coordinated the removal of economic and military sanctions imposed on Pakistan under the Clinton administration.”
Payne worked for U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison in the mid-90s. He claimed to have a lofty title in her 2006 campaign, but Matt Matthews, the campaign manager that year, said Payne’s boast is not true.
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Payne’s past role with Hutchison remains murky
We learned a little more today about Stephen Payne, the Houston businessman caught suggesting that a donation of $200,000 or so to the Bush library could help get a meeting with Vice President Dick Cheney or others in the Bush administration (an assertion the White House and other Bush folks have vigorously denied).
Payne boasts in his business materials that he was the 2000 and 2006 vice chairman of U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison’s campaigns. But Matt Matthews, an Austin lobbyist who managed Hutchison’s campaign in 2006, said that isn’t true.
“He was not the vice chairman of the campaign,” Matthews said. “I really can’t recall any role that he had.”
We do know that Payne worked in Hutchison’s Senate office from 1993 to 1996, with about a six-month break in 1994.
What also remains murky is Payne’s role in a 2005 opinion piece that Hutchison authored for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. It was headlined “Azerbaijan: Opportunity for America,” and in it Hutchison writes that the country “holds great promise” as an oil source in the wake of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
Payne brags in materials for his business that he “developed” a series of op-eds promoting the country, including one by Hutchison.
Hutchison’s current staff contends that it does not know the precise origins of the column she wrote promoting Azerbaijan, although her spokesman says she was heavily involved. Chris Paulitz, her communications director at the time, declined to comment today on Payne’s role in writing the piece.
Also, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee has opened an investigation into what role, if any, Payne is playing in soliciting donations for the Bush library.
Finally, the Sunday Times of London posted a series of photos of Payne, including one with Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas.
“Mr. Payne, as the media reports state, has been active for many years in Texas political circles and has contributed to a number of Texas political campaigns including Senator Cornyn’s,” said Cornyn spokesman Brian Walsh. “The senator has met him several times and probably has had his picture taken with him at various events over the years.”
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Strama leaps ahead in campaign money
Rep. Mark Strama, D-Austin, has a big money advantage over Republican Jerry Mikus in the House District 50 race, the most recent campaign reports show.
Strama, who was first elected to the Texas House of Representatives in 2004, has on-hand almost $53,800 and raised about $48,000 in the past six months. Mikus reported collecting about $8,600 with over $2,400 remaining as of June 30.
Campaign fund raising totals were not available for Libertarian Jerry Chandler, who is also vying for the District 50 job. He said in an e-mail that he was out of town.
Strama continues to carry $85,000 in loans from his 2006 campaign.
House District 50 covers the northern stretch of Travis County.
Mikus is a Pflugerville financial consultant. He ran in the Republican primary for the same House seat in 2002, which Jack Stick eventually won and went on to win in the general election as well. Mikus also lost in the 2000 Republican primary for U.S. House for Representatives.
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Shapiro backed by a dozen Texas Senate colleagues
State Sen. Florence Shapiro alights in Austin this afternoon to reveal her exploration of a U.S. Senate bid — premised, of course, on Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison’s departure (perhaps to run for governor in 2010).
In her kickoff statement, Shapiro lists a dozen GOP colleagues in the Texas Senate as supporters, plus just-resigned Sen Kyle Janek of Houston and former acting Lt. Gov. Bill Ratliff.
Supportive senators are Jane Nelson (Lewisville); Chris Harris (Arlington); John Carona (Dallas); Kim Brimer (Ft. Worth); Bob Deuell, (Greenville); Troy Fraser (Horseshoe Bay); Robert Nichols (Jacksonville); Glenn Hegar (Katy); Robert Duncan (Lubbock); Kel Seliger (Amarillo); Kevin Eltife (Tyler); and Craig Estes (Wichita Falls).
Missing from her list: Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, who presides over the Senate. Unless his advisers say otherwise, it’s safe to assume Dewhurst wants to keep his own options open. He just might run for governor, the Senate or lieutenant governor. He could even choose to focus on his business, leaving the public stage.
The Austin press conference is at 4 p.m.
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Incumbent Bolton leading Keel in contributions
State Rep. Valinda Bolton, D-Austin, has taken an early lead in fund raising against Republican challenger Donna Keel for the House District 47 seat, according to the latest campaign finance reports.
Bolton has raised about $120,000 as of June 30 and has $86,000 remaining. Keel has collected more than $49,000 with about $34,000 still available.
Libertarian Alan Hultgren is also running for the seat but his report was not available Tuesday afternoon.
Donna Keel is a former auditor and local government analyst with the state comptroller. Bolton, who was elected to her first term in 2006, previously worked as the training director for the National Center on Domestic and Sexual Violence.
The race has been tagged as one to watch because the Southwest Travis County district is closely split between Democrats and Republicans.
Keel’s brother-in-law, Terry Keel, held the same House seat for 10 years. When he resigned, Bolton snatched it from the Republicans after a hard-fought and expensive race with Bill Welch.
Among statewide officeholders, Attorney General Greg Abbott (who might try for lieutenant governor in 2010) ended June with $8 million cash on hand.
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Anita Perry launches private fund-raising for mansion
In the shade of an oak tree hanging over the iron fence bounding the Governor’s Mansion, Anita Perry accepted a $10,000 donation this morning toward a newly created private fund devoted to restoration of the burnt landmark.
“We hope that all Texans will join us,” Perry said, saying too that there’ll be an effort to involve schoolchildren.
Perry introduced Pamela Willeford, former ambassador to Lichtenstein and Switzerland, as a key adviser to the fund-raising effort. Willeford has been a player in previous restorations of the Capitol and mansion.
Perry fielded the check from Julian Read, the Austin public-relations executive and former longtime aide to the late Gov. John Connally. Read is the president-elect of the Heritage Society of Austin, which made out the check.
Perry conceded she otherwise had little information—and Perry and other officials did not speak to any aspect of the search for arsonists believed to have caused the June 8 fire.
Perry said former governors’ families would be enlisted and that Laura Bush has expressed interest.
She said she didn’t know if she and Gov. Rick Perry will make a personal donation, that no one knows the ultimate cost of restoring the mansion, that she doesn’t know if there’ll be a target portion of the restoration to be covered by private dollars, and that she doesn’t know if expenditures from donations will be limited to paying for certain aspects of the restoration or not.
Workers have finished cleaning and shoring up the mansion’s first floor and are focused now on doing the same on the second floor. By the end of August, the building should be readied for removal of its damaged roof to be followed by the construction of a temporary roof that effectively seals the mansion up, enabling the state to maintain the interior humidity and temperature with temporary air conditioning and heating units.
About the same time, look for the State Preservation Board to settle how it wants to proceed with the restoration—including decisions related to how much state revenue to seek from the 2009 Legislature toward the project.
Read, whose daughters include Ellen Read, caretaker of the mansion, showed reporters a handwritten letter from a Georgetown veteran accompanied by $30 cash. Dan Graham wrote that he was “proud of my state and proud of my Governor’s Mansion.” He referred to his contribution as a “small, but from the heart, restoration contribution.” His money, along with $10 sent by another mansion fan, was rolled into the $10,000 check, Read said.
Donations can be made online here.
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