Questions Remain as Election Day Approaches

The Chronicle has published a story about an ethics complaint filed against the Save Our Teachers PAC by John Eberlan.  Read it here. 

Now that an 8-day report has been filed, where is the missing $88.68?  The report is here.  Perhaps we need to elect Mrs. Horsley to the school board, since she was able to pay a $900 bill with $838.11.       :-)

So many questions remain unanswered as we rapidly approach election day. The treasurer for the Unity PAC (it paid for a mailer that was sent on behalf of Mrs. Blackman and Mrs. Majors) has not returned my calls.  His name is Curtis Williams, Jr., and he, as well as a Michael Harris are listed on the PAC establishment documents I received in response to a PIR as the "contribution and expenditure decision makers."  I'd like to know their connection to Katy ISD, and who contributed the money to mail these fliers.

Also of note:  as I read the election laws, Unity PAC was also required to report their activities to Blackman and Majors so they could report it on their own campaign finance reports.  I wonder if they are trying to figure out who is behind Unity PAC?

By the way, hurrah for new law that requires the school districts to post on-line the campaign finance reports of the candidates and PACs.  So much easier than public information requests, and more cost-effective for school districts, too.

VOTE! 

ELECTION DAY: SATURDAY, MAY 12, 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.  

Find your precinct location at the bottom of this page. 

Questions About the PACs Supporting Blackman & Majors

The purpose of the Campaign Finance Laws is to ensure transparency as to who is financing a particular candidate, so that voters can make an informed decision when they go to the polls.  So who is backing Majors and Blackman? Their campaign finance reports can be found here.  They show an interesting line-up of people. Also interesting is what is MISSING from their reports: Political Action Committees.

Two different PACs have spent a lot of money trying to get Mrs. Blackman and Mrs. Majors elected, including a series of ads on Instant News Katy and a expensive flyer.  There may be others, but until they are reported, we won't know.  Fortunately, PACs who support a candidate are required to report contributions and expenditures in their own campaign finance reports. That's how we get an idea of who is funding a particular candidate.

• The "Save Our Teachers" PAC, which had not filed anything in months and is the subject of an ethics complaint, did file an 8-days-before-the-election report, reporting it had bought $900 ads in INK.  The PAC actually only had $811.32 in contributions, so who paid the additional $88.68?  Did John Pape and INK advance them that amount?  How was that bill paid if they didn't have any money? Something is missing from this report...
• The "Unity" PAC paid for a bulk mailing of slick flyers.  As of this writing, they have not filed their required 8-days-before-the-election report (due 5/4/12).  You can check here to see it when it gets filed.  Hopefully, it will reveal who is willing to bankroll these ladies' candidacy.  These flyers are very expensive to mail, even more so to produce.

In their defense, if Mrs. Blackman and Mrs. Majors were unaware of the mailings and ads, they did not have to report it on their own campaign finance reports.  But, whoever proofed the copy knew an awful lot about them!

Frankly, I don't mind people contributing money to candidates and financially supporting their efforts to get elected.  That is an expression of free speech, too. However, the campaign finance laws are there to enable us to know WHO likes a particular candidate, and when they don't file reports that are complete or in a timely manner, we don't know what we need to know.  What I DO mind is having people who do not have a stake in our community (either children in schools, a home, a business, or work in the district) throwing money around to get someone elected to the Katy ISD board.  And I find hypocritical those candidates who beat the "transparency" drum so loudly while not insisting their own backers be transparent by following the laws on campaign finance reporting.