If It Were A Taste Test, 14 Out Of 15 Would Be Great

Why am I totally unsurprised by this:

Fourteen of the 15 people that Gov. Rick Perry named Monday to a task force reviewing property appraisals have given money to Republican candidates and groups in recent years, mostly in relatively small amounts.

Only one is a major Perry donor, according to an Austin American-Statesman review of Texas Ethics Commission records. Six also have given to Democrats, although most of their money has gone to Republicans.

Although I didn’t have time to go trolling through Texas Ethics Commission records the other day, do please keep in mind that Capitol Annex brought you other information on these folks hours (days?) before the MSM did.

Of course, Kathy Walt says the donations are unrelated to the appointments. Perry just wanted to appoint people who “have a commitment to public service,” meaning they like to write checks to GOP politicians, think Democrats are baby killers and believe no one should pay taxes except Liberal Trial Lawyers.
In all, his task force only gave him about $164,00 directly, with Michael Stevens of Houston giving the most ($150,000 since 2000). So, it is small potatoes. The total would have been more but James Leininger was too busy putting up billboards to serve and Bob Perry was too busy building crappy houses and consoling David Wallace.

More:

Five other task force members have donated to Perry’s campaign, although none has given more than $1,000 since his last election. They include Amarillo real estate agent Robert E. Garrett, who gave $1,000 last year; San Antonio lawyer Rolando Pablos, who gave Perry $1,000 in 2001 and $1,000 in 2005; and Hidalgo Mayor John David Franz, who gave Perry $9,500 during his 2002 campaign.

Brooke Rollins, president of the pro-small-government Texas Public Policy Foundation and a former Perry adviser, gave him $250 last year and $100 in 2003.

While this should be in the media spotlight anyway, it’s extra amusing because Perry has complained about One Tough Grandma receiving money from groups that represent people before the Comptroller’s Office, like Ryan and Company. Of course, in Strayhorn’s case, the donors gave and then got better deals for their clients—two things which Strayhorn says have no relation. In Perry’s case, they gave money and then got seats on nice state boards in commissions—two things which Perry says have no relation.

Perhaps the Legislature should consider a law forbidding a governor to appoint anyone to a board or commission that has ever given his political campaign (directly) more than $1,000. That’d go a long way toward making the state’s boards and commissions more about the work they do and less about blatant partisanship and favoratism. Better yet, once the people are on the commissions, perhaps they should be barred from donating all together.
Questions of what donors are getting in return for their money have swirled around this year’s race for governor, with the Perry campaign raising questions about other candidates, most notably Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn, while defending its own record.

“It’s now become routine that if you want your voice heard in Texas government, you have to be a donor,” said Craig McDonald with Texans for Public Justice, which follows campaign finance. “The bigger donors get heard more than the smaller donors.”

Some members of the task force have ties to other Perry donations.

For example, John Nichols of Freeport, a tax expert for Dow Chemical Co., gave Perry $30 in 2002. But a political action committee representing Dow employees has given Perry $12,500 since he beat Tony Sanchez that year.

For the most part, the task force members who have given to Republicans other than Perry have done so in relatively small amounts, less than $1,000 at a time.

The one member who appears to have no history of political donations to state campaigns is L. Curtis Culwell, superintendent of the Garland school district near Dallas.

Of course, since money talks, that’d probably violate their free speech.

/paging Nathan Hecht, paging Nathan Hecht.