Large Donors Having Impact On Governor's Race

The Houston Chronicle has an excellent article today about "mega-donors" in the race for governor of Texas. They tell us that 40% of the $25 million donated to the candidates in the first six months of this year comes from less than 125 people. These people contributed amounts ranging from $50,000 to $850,000. Of course, Texas is one of the few states that has no limit on the amount of money a donor can give a candidate for state office.

Governor Perry has raised $13 million in the last two years. One third of that came from 75 donors who gave $50,000 or more.

Grandma Strayhorn has raised $7 million, with half of that total coming from 29 people. Two of those donors were attorneys who received a $3 billion fee for representing Texas in litigation against the tobacco companies. These two attorneys gave a total of about $910,000.

Chris Bell has raised about $2 million. About one-third came from seven individuals and an attorney's PAC.

Even Kinky Friedman has a large political donor. It is his personal friend of 20 years, John McCall. McCall made his fortune selling beauty supplies. He currently lives on a 10,000 ranch in Uvalde. McCall was willing to talk about his donation. He said, "I don't want the state to buy any of my shampoo. I don't want them to buy any of my cattle." He said if he hadn't given Friedman close to $850,000, "his voice would not be heard".

Several groups have called for a limit on political contributions in Texas. I think we need to go even further. Maybe it is time for publically financed campaigns, and cut the big donors out altogether. This would be much fairer for those battling an incumbent, since one of the perks of incumbency is the ability to raise large amounts of money, usually from those who want something from government. Simply capping donations at $100,000 or so would do little to change the current situation.