BOR: - steve mostyn

TLR Trying to Buy Democratic Senate Seat With Carol Alvarado

Katherine Haenschen — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 22:15:18 GMT

The ethics commission financial reports for the SD-6 runoff were released earlier this week, making clear where Carol Alvarado's financial support has come from in the last month of this expensive race to replace Sen. Mario Gallegos.

Carol Alvarado raised almost half of her run-off money from Texans from Lawsuit Reform, Stand for Children PAC, a teacher's union-busting organization, payday lenders, and several Republican PACs and mega-donors.

Her campaign is being heavily funded by organizations and individuals that work every day to block our core Democratic values.

Sylvia Garcia, on the other hand, is primarily funded by trial lawyers and labor organizations, the tradional donors to our Democratic candidates and causes.

Before we get into the details of who's giving to who, here's a quick run-down of the notable donors and links to each candidate's runoff report.

February 22 Runoff Reports for SD-6 Special Election Covering January 17-February 20
Carol Alvarado Runoff Report Raise: $581,969 Spend: $463,496 COH: $99,432 Report available here. Alvarado's Major Donors: $184,000 from TLR PAC $54,317 from Stand for Children PAC (in-kind) $20,000 from Barbara and John Nau $14,000 from payday lenders $10,000 from HillCo PAC $10,000 from Ryan Texas PAC	Sylvia Garcia Runoff Report Raise: $662,686 Spend: $641,435 COH: $119,227 Report available here. Garcia's Major Donors: $356,750 from the Mostyn Firm $117,000 from Texas Organizing Project (in-kind) $8500 from AFSCME's federal PAC $5000 from the Teamsters $5000 from the Plumber's union $2500 each from ILA Local 24 & 28 $2000 from SEIU's federal PAC

Below the jump, find out more about Alvarado's donors and their long history of working against Democratic ideals and -- and usually candidates, too.
Who Are Garcia's Donors?

Reading Sylvia Garcia's report, it's clear that the bulk of her support comes from the trial lawyers and labor groups, the traditional source of funding for Democratic candidates here in Texas. She also has some solid support from engineering firms. Texas Organizing Project also in-kinded an extensive field organizing campaign to boost their endorsed candidate. There isn't much that's too surprising here, and nothing that gives me serious qualms about who wants her to get elected.

Who Are Alvarado's Donors?

Not familiar with all of the players on her list? HillCo PAC has a primarily Republican donor history, is primarily funded by Republican mega-donor Bob Perry, to the tune of $2 million. Ryan Texas PAC supports primarily Republican candidates. Perry appointee John Nau is a major donor to Rick Perry, Greg Abbott, and David Dewhurst, as well as to the Beer Alliance of Texas PAC in efforts to maintain his corporate interests as one of the Big Beer distributors.

Alvarado also seems to have won the support of the vast majority of corporate donors here in Texas. She's receiving substantial money from the oil industry, namely BP Corporation, ConocoPhillips, Marathon Oil Company, Valero. She received $7,500 from Cash America International, $1500 from EZCORP, and another $5000 from Texas Consumer Lenders PAC. She's even taking money from "Big Beer" -- i.e. the wholesale distributors that have worked hard to block deregulation of Texas beer laws to enable craft and microbreweries to flourish and expand their market.

Earlier today, Texans for Public Justice reported that Alvarado's #2 cumulative contributor is Stand for Children PAC, which gave over $54,000 to Alvarado. The organization's founder boasted about spending millions to destroy teachers' collective bargaining rights in the Illinois legislature.

Then, of course, there's TLR.

Texans for Lawsuit Reform, or TLR, is dedicated to "tort reform," which has delivered none of its promised cost savings, and so far only managed to deny individuals the opportunity to seek redress in our civil court system.

TLR wakes up in the morning dedicated to serving the interests of corporations over the individuals who might have cause to pursue legal action against them. They're also dedicated to shutting down the trial lawyers themselves -- traditionally the most significant donors to Democratic candidates and causes in Texas -- preventing from making any money off jury verdicts. The direct result of their efforts is that Democrats have a harder time getting elected.

Whether barriers to justice or destruction of the Democratic party rankles you more, we can agree that TLR doesn't have Texans or Democrats' best interests at heart.

Look at TLR's 2012 General Election endorsements. This is the very group that specifically endorsed the likes of Donna Campbell for State Senate and Debbie Riddle for State Representative. They endorsed Mark Shelton over Wendy Davis. They endorsed Robert Thomas over Donna Howard. Dee Margo over Joe Moody. They didn't endorse in every race, but when they did they overwhelming endorsed Republicans over Democrats in crucial races.

Earlier this week we reported that State Senator Larry Taylor, a Republican Senator, was blockwalking for Carol Alvarado. It appears that we have the answer: Taylor, a TLR stooge, apparently wants Alvarado in the Senate as bad as their shared financial backers do.

For TLR and the special interests listed here, it's all about their bottom line, and they think their interests will be better served with Carol Alvarado in the State Senate.

This is a staunchly Democratic district. Strong districts like this are where we as partisan Democrats can elect those who will be most true to our principles and stand up for what we believe in. The finance reports make clear that Alvarado has taken substantial cash from individuals and organizations that usually devote their efforts to defeating Democrats or fighting our core progressive values. That gives me serious pause about her ability to advance our Democratic goals.

Not all of Alvarado's donors and supporters oppose our Democratic causes. I like and respect many of the Democrats lined up behind Alvarado. But I have serious qualms about the willingness of anti-Democratic causes to line up behind her and marshal such substantial resources -- resources that are usually directed at defeating Democrats.

Some people seem to think that compromise is the best we can do as Democrats. I disagree.

On the backs of which Texans do we make these compromises? Our core values and constituencies are not to be sold to the highest bidder. Especially now, with renewed interest and support for turning Texas blue, we have an obligation to build the strongest, most progressive caucus we can, and grow it every step of the way, so that when we are in the majority, we have leaders ready to fight for our core values and never back down.

This is a strong Democratic district, and it's our duty to fight like hell to elect the best Democrat that we can, one who will stand up for her constituents and against the special interests who care only about profit and not our shared public good. It's clear that the worst special interests have chosen their side.

Let's hope Democratic voters know who's more likely to be on theirs.

Steve Mostyn Named Treasurer of Gabby Giffords' Americans for Responsible Solutions

Katherine Haenschen — Sat, 12 Jan 2013 18:35:17 GMT

Former Congresswoman Gabby Giffords' new organization calling for sensible gun policies will have strong ties to Texas. Giffords and her husband, former astronaut Mark Kelly, formed Americans for Responsible Solutions on the two-year anniversary of the shooting in Tucson that wounded her and killed six. Giffords named Texas attorney Steve Mostyn treasurer of the Super PAC, which has a goal of raising $20 million by the 2014 elections. Mostyn has already contributed $1 million towards the goal.

Mostyn told Politico that he met Kelly when the former astronaut was based in Houston, and that they reconnected after the horrible shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut. Americans for Responsible Solutions is planning to go toe-to-toe with the NRA in campaign spending in the 2014 cycle. The group will also advocate for universal background checks and a close of the gun show loophole, as well as a pan on high-capacity magazines.

Giffords and Kelly announced the group in a pointed op-ed in USA Today that's worth a read. They write:

Special interests purporting to represent gun owners but really advancing the interests of an ideological fringe have used big money and influence to cow Congress into submission. Rather than working to find the balance between our rights and the regulation of a dangerous product, these groups have cast simple protections for our communities as existential threats to individual liberties. Rather than conducting a dialogue, they threaten those who divert from their orthodoxy with political extinction.
As a result, we are more vulnerable to gun violence. Weapons designed for the battlefield have a home in our streets. Criminals and the mentally ill can easily purchase guns by avoiding background checks. Firearm accessories designed for killing at a high rate are legal and widely available. And gun owners are less responsible for the misuse of their weapons than they are for their automobiles.

Mostyn's a great choice for treasurer, since he's not only a prominent donor, but also a gun owner who can speak credibly on the need for sensible reforms that won't impede hunting and rifle sports. As Mostyn told Politico, "I'm a gun-owner, but I'm also a father of a five-year-old who I take to school everyday. We aren't anti-gun, but we also aren't anti-common sense."

There's definitely a need for a broad range of organizations calling for measures to prevent gun violence. It's great to see one of Texas's most prominent donors step up and lead the most significant of these efforts to emerge in the wake of the Newtown tragedy.

More Primary Updates: Super and Not-So-Super PACS, Endorsements, and Do This Thing

Katherine Haenschen — Wed, 23 May 2012 21:00:00 GMT

Well, with election news coming fast and furious, it's time for another update.

Vote for A Texan: Joaquin Castro, Nick Lampson, and Pete Gallego are in a contest with other DCCC candidates to win a fundraising email. Vote for them here. The winner gets a sweet fundraising email.

Ron-Paul-Supporting SuperPAC supporting... Michael Cargill? Yes, the crazy gun nut in the Democratic primary for Travis County Constable in Precinct 2 has picked up support from the "Liberty for All" SuperPAC. The SuperPAC was started by John Ramsey, a 21-year-old college student from Nacogdoches, and apparently has substantial cash in it -- they spent a half-million in a Kentucky Congressional race and won an open primary. Yikes.

CD-21: Some of the Anti-SOPA folks have organized to buy a billboard outside of Internet freedom-hater Lamar Smith's office, which reads "Don't mess with the Internet." There is also a kick-ass tee-shirt.

CD-23: The national League of Conservation Voters is going hard against Ciro Rodriguez in the CD-23 primary. First they spent $95,296 on a mail program, and now they're spending $100,000 on TV. Here's the ad:

Harris County Board of Education: Diane Trautman was endorsed by Democracy for America. Trautman previously ran for Harris County Tax Assessor Collector.

SD-11: Democratic donor Steve Mostyn has donated $275,000 to one of Larry Taylor's Republican primary opponents, Dave Norman, in the open race for SD-11. No surprise, since Larry Taylor's main funders are Texans for Lawsuit Reform, who have given Taylor $800,000. Taylor is basically a wholly paid subsidiary of TLR, as he helps the group their efforts to fight consumer-focused insurance reform, gauge insurance purchasers, and not pay insurance claims. While it may be surprising, remember that given our gerrymandered state and basic lack of competitive general election districts, often the only way to get rid of bad Republicans is to knock them out in the primaries. The Texas Tribune has more.

Do This Thing: Last reminder, go vote in the DCCC contest!