Post by pavel on May 1, 2016 1:26:00 GMT -6
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s prodigious political fundraising plummeted after his criminal indictments in the summer of 2015. This could suggest that some donors are quietly rethinking their support of the embroiled attorney general, even as top GOP leaders have refrained from commenting on the plight of Paxton — a headliner at the Texas GOP Convention that opens in Dallas in May.
Political fundraising fluctuates throughout campaign seasons. So it helps to compare Paxton’s money to that of predecessor Greg Abbott — who amassed an unrivaled $21 million war chest over three terms as attorney general. From the launch of Paxton’s attorney general campaign in August 2013 to his indictments on securities fraud charges two years later, Paxton took in $8.3 million. This exceeded the $6.2 million Abbott raised in the comparable period surrounding his 2010 attorney general campaign. After his indictments, however, Paxton raised less than $250,000 in the last five months of 2015 — a fraction of the $1.9 million haul Abbott collected in the same months of 2011.
I have a particular interest in all of this. My employer, Texans for Public Justice, filed a complaint in 2014 urging the Travis County DA to determine if Paxton committed a crime by soliciting investment clients without a license. After special prosecutors investigated, a Collin County grand jury indicted Paxton in July 2015. The attorney general has pleaded not guilty to a felony count of not registering as an investment advisor and to charges that he fraudulently failed to tell investors that he was paid to promote stock in a tech company.
The campaign finance reports Paxton filed early this year offer the first insights into which Paxton supporters are standing by their embattled man and which could be experiencing post-indictment buyer’s remorse. So far, Paxton has reported that just four of his top 28 funders have written him post-indictment checks. While some of the lapsed donors undoubtedly still support Paxton, others could be reconsidering their support.
Read more: www.texasobserver.org/big-donors-abandon-ken-paxton/
Political fundraising fluctuates throughout campaign seasons. So it helps to compare Paxton’s money to that of predecessor Greg Abbott — who amassed an unrivaled $21 million war chest over three terms as attorney general. From the launch of Paxton’s attorney general campaign in August 2013 to his indictments on securities fraud charges two years later, Paxton took in $8.3 million. This exceeded the $6.2 million Abbott raised in the comparable period surrounding his 2010 attorney general campaign. After his indictments, however, Paxton raised less than $250,000 in the last five months of 2015 — a fraction of the $1.9 million haul Abbott collected in the same months of 2011.
I have a particular interest in all of this. My employer, Texans for Public Justice, filed a complaint in 2014 urging the Travis County DA to determine if Paxton committed a crime by soliciting investment clients without a license. After special prosecutors investigated, a Collin County grand jury indicted Paxton in July 2015. The attorney general has pleaded not guilty to a felony count of not registering as an investment advisor and to charges that he fraudulently failed to tell investors that he was paid to promote stock in a tech company.
The campaign finance reports Paxton filed early this year offer the first insights into which Paxton supporters are standing by their embattled man and which could be experiencing post-indictment buyer’s remorse. So far, Paxton has reported that just four of his top 28 funders have written him post-indictment checks. While some of the lapsed donors undoubtedly still support Paxton, others could be reconsidering their support.
Read more: www.texasobserver.org/big-donors-abandon-ken-paxton/