David Porter, the little known Republican nominee for the Texas Railroad Commission, has been the treasurer of the Texas Republican Legislative Campaign Committee (TRLCC) since 2006. That's when school-voucher activist James Leininger used Porter's PAC as a $2 million vehicle to attack the GOP incumbents who had opposed Leininger's agenda. Most incumbents survived the Leininger-funded primary challenges but the episode highlighted the overt attempt by one man with unlimited money to try to buy a half dozen seats in the legislature for his pet issue- school vouchers.
Created by GOP consultant Jeff Norwood, GOP activist Bill Crocker and Porter, the now-dormant TRLCC PAC may provide Texas' best-documented case of a candidacy operating as an almost wholly owned subsidiary of a single PAC, consultant and donor. As if losing every newspaper endorsement to Democrat Jeff Weems, wasn't enough of a reason to vote against David Porter, here is another.
