Complaint Filed On Behalf Of Leo Berman Against His Primary Opponent

State Rep. Leo Berman (R-Tyler) has been in the news a great deal of late as a result of the anti-immigrant measures that he’s filed for the 80th Legislature.

Now, he’s in the news for an entirely different reason:

A local Republican official has filed an ethics complaint against former Texas House candidate Gus Ramirez, alleging that during his primary race against state Rep. Leo Berman, he failed to report more than $26,000 in donations from a Democratic-leaning political action committee.

Ramirez responds that he’s unaware of any violations, and that the complaint is a political attack.

Ashton Oravetz III, vice-chairman of the Smith County Republican Party, filed the complaint on behalf of Berman, R-Tyler.

“I filed because it really irks me he didn’t report this,” Oravetz said. “Personally, I am against any limits on campaign donations, but for that to work, it’s important to know who you’re getting money from.”

So, he’s against limits, but wants to make sure that any moderate Republican who challenged Berman gets shown the “what for.”

Ramirez, a popular Tyler business man, came within 514 votes of unseating the radical right wing Berman in one of the state’s most Republican counties in the Republican Primary last March.
The PAC contributions in question are from Texans for Insurance Reform. Like many PACs in the present environment, it has ventured from being a strictly Democratic to also giving to moderate Republicans in contested primaries. This PAC, in particular, targeted Republicans that supported tort reform.

The PAC also supported the primary opponent of Rep. Betty Brown (R-Terrell).
The complaint alleges that the PAC made an in-kind donation to Ramirez’s campaign of $10,875.69 in the form of a mailer, as well as other in-kind donations of $11,939.58 and $22,787.16 and that Ramirez failed to report the expenditures made on his behalf properly.
Ramirez says that his campaign reported everything that was donated:

“I didn’t know a mistake was made; as far as I know, we reported what we were told was spent (on my behalf),” he said. “If there was a mistake, I take full responsibility.”

It’s harder to keep track of in-kind donations, he added.

“There was no check given to me,” Ramirez said. “We’re talking about things done out of Austin.”

His campaign treasurer, Tyler accountant Stephen Hudnall, said the campaign must rely on the PAC to know what was spent.

“Nobody gave me any information on a $26,000 figure,” Hudnall said. “We did all we were supposed to do.”

And, check this out. Ramirez says the complaint is a “pre-emptive move” by Berman because Ramirez is planning another run:

Ramirez also says the complaint is a pre-emptive move on the part of Berman, who narrowly beat out the Tyler restaurateur in March. Berman won 5,942 votes, for 52.33 percent, to Ramirez’s 5,412 votes, or 47.67 percent.

“It’s all politically motivated; they’re trying to discredit me because they know I have talked about running again,” Ramirez said. “I only lost by a few hundred votes last time. That scared some people.”

Very interesting.

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