Dirty Sexy Money, Part II

Last week we wrote about the plight of HB 2511, which would clarify and strengthen Texas' ban on corporate money in elections. Right now, the bill's prospects are bleak.

Some of the same people who are trying to kill this reform were heavily involved in the disputed 2002 election in which corporate money helped hand the GOP an overwhelming majority in the Texas House.

(A quick digression: Some folks argue that corporate money had little effect in 2002, that redistricting had already ensured a Republican takeover. It's true that the GOP was assured of winning a majority in 2002. But the question was how big that majority would be. Some folks seem to forget that a band of "Anybody But Craddick" Republicans were working to elect a moderate Republican speaker instead of Craddick. With some moderates opposing Craddick, the GOP needed a super-majority to make Craddick speaker.. That's where the corporate money made a difference. The more than $2 million worth of corporate money spent in select districts by TAB and DeLay's TRMPAC undoubtedly helped win the 88-62 supermajority that installed Craddick, and passed mid-decade redistricting and tort reform and all the rest.)

Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst has referred HB 2511 to State Affairs -- after reporters asked him why the bill hadn't moved. But as of today, the bill lay motionless in committee, without a hearing. We hear there's been a fight between Republicans Troy Fraser and Jeff Wentworth over who will carry the bill in the Senate. It had been widely assumed that Wentworth was the Senate sponsor. But Fraser has tried to gain control of it. The campaign finance reform activists are understandably suspicious of Fraser's intentions. He is close to Gov. Perry, who has threatened to veto the bill if it passes. This is an age-old legislative tactic -- try to control a bill you want to kill and then do nothing with it, or simply bicker it to death.

The right wing of the GOP is strongly opposed to HB 2511. So Perry's opposition makes sense politically, as yet another way to curry favor with his party's right ahead of 2010. 

With time running out, it appears unlikely HB 2511 will pass the Senate. If it doesn't, the little loopholes will remain open for corporate and union money to sneak into elections.