(Austin)//Democratic Candidate for Governor Chris Bell, who has made “Don’t mess with Texas ethics” the cornerstone of his entire campaign, is currently in violation of Texas election law. Though required by Texas law to file by February 13th, Bell has failed to file his personal finance statement with the Texas Ethics Commission. Just what does he have to hide?
“Maybe this is the bold ethics reform Chris Bell is talking about – just ignore the law,” Gammage Communications Director Jeremy Warren said. “Mr. Bell should learn to follow the current law before he proposes any new ones.”
Bell, who has pledged to “put real teeth in the enforcement [of] our ethics laws,” has been bitten by failure to file mandatory paperwork in the past. According to the Houston Chronicle, in 2001, “Bell temporarily lost his law license after he failed to pay his State Bar of Texas dues.” (Houston Chronicle, October 26, 2001) Bell, who received three notices from the State Bar, blamed an administrative error for the suspension of his law license for failure to pay his bar dues.
Bell's law license suspension, and his refusal to disclose his income tax returns, became issues in his Houston campaigns. The Houston Chronicle later speculated that Bell didn't want to disclose his tax returns because they would show an IRS lien for failing to pay some $13,000 in back taxes. (Source: Houston Chronicle, September 10, 2001)
Bell admitted the existence of the lien only after reporters questioned him about it. He said he hadn't paid enough taxes because he had unexpectedly large earnings in his private law practice. He said it took him four years to pay off the IRS debt. In later Congressional financial disclosure statements, Bell reported he still was paying off two large loans he took out to discharge the debts of that law practice, as well as a loan for "personal debt consolidation."
As Chairman of the Houston City Council’s Ethics committee, Bell helped eliminate the “blackout period” in which people doing business with the city were prohibited from giving contributions to council members. Chairman Bell also was criticized for accepting an 85-piece set of gold-plated flatware from a Houston businessman who had recently received a $6 million city contract. (Houston Chronicle, September 12, 1999; January 14, 2000)
“This is pretty outrageous,” Warren said. “Chris Bell has virtually staked his entire campaign on ethics reform yet it repeatedly seems he can’t be bothered with ethics laws himself. Texans need to ask themselves how seriously they can take an ‘ethics reformer’ who has a penchant for violating ethics laws.”
Gammage, a member of the “Dirty 30” reform group, has made ethics reform one of the top priorities of his campaign. He has pledged to pass an Ethics Reform Act to make it illegal for any state legislator or high agency official to become a lobbyist for at least two years after leaving state service. Gammage wants to shut the revolving door between state officials and the industries they regulate and strengthen campaign finance laws to prevent corporations and the elite from buying our elections.
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