Will $1.4 Million Buy The ‘Right’ Texas House?

Buying a legislature: lock, stock, and barrell.

It’s been tried many times before. And, with success. Take a look at the millions poured into political coffers in 2002 by Texans for a Republican Majority and the Texas Association of Business. And, all this spending was in an attempt to buy the right kind of representatives to satisfy the pro-business, pro-voucher, anti-consumer Republican Party.

This time, with the help of San Antonio Millionaire James Leininger, the GOP is trying to buy the Lege again. But, this time, they don’t just want the ‘right’ kind of legislator: they want the Right kind, as in “Right” with a capital “R” for radical, Republican, Religious Righters.

Toward that end, Leininger has pourd nearly $1.4 million into GOP primary races this year, the Dallas Morning News reports.

This, says the Texas Freedom Network, is twice as much as Leininger and his family spent in advance of the Republican primaries two years ago and four years ago:

“James Leininger is so obsessed with forcing taxpayers to subsidize tuition vouchers at private schools that he has tried for years to buy a Legislature that would do it,” network president Kathy Miller said Monday.

“Now he’s moving to close the sale.”

Indeed, he is. TAB and TRMPAC started it with Leininger’s help in 2000 and 2002. Now, Leininger’s finishing the job himself.

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