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Updated UPDATE:
Betty's Contributions (from Campaign Finance Report, July thru December 2007 AND latest 30-day report)
Betty's "Putting Austin First" strategy is paying off--literally. Her cozy relationships
with Political Action Committees (PAC's) and lobbyists are turning out to be extremely lucrative for the incumbent representative.
Almost half of her contributions came from PAC's and individuals with interests in Austin. Take a look at the nearly
$21,000 she raked in from special interest groups in the last six months:
| $500.00 | A&M PAC | | $500.00 | AEP PAC | | $200.00 | Cammack & Strong | | $250.00 | Centerpoint
Energy | | $250.00 | Dallas TSCPA's | | $500.00 | TXU PAC | | $250.00 | Embarq PAC | | $250.00 | Erben & Yarbrough | | $1,000.00 | Hillco
PAC | | $1,000.00 | Koch PAC | | $250.00 | Legislative Solutions | | $500.00 | Independent Insurance Agents PAC | | $1,000.00 | QPAC | | $500.00 | TEX DEN PAC | | $5,000.00 | TLR PAC | | $5,482.24 | TLR PAC | | $100.00 | TAL PAC | | $500.00 | Tx Consumer Finance Assn PAC | | $300.00 | Tx Dairymen
PAC | | $1,000.00 | TMA PAC | | $1,000.00 | Tx Veterinary Medical Assn PAC | | $250.00 | USAA PAC | | $350.00 | Wholesale Beer Distributors PAC |
TOTAL PAC contributions: $20,932.24.
Total she received from regular constituents: $21,224.00.
Betty received almost exactly the same amount of money from PAC's and lobbyists as she did from folks like
you and me (-$291.76 difference).
PAC's and lobbyists have greater spending power than you or I do.
On average, Betty's constituent contributors gave her $210per person. PAC's/Lobbyists averaged
$910 per organization. There is nothing inherently wrong with taking PAC money--as long as you
are true to your constituents. But Betty's position on issues doesn't always benefit the people who
live in her district:
**Voted for the Trans-Texas Corridor; later voted to postpone it
**Said she had
delivered a 1/3 reduction of property taxes; as you have since discovered, that is simply untrue
**Promised to
"hold the line on runaway spending"; the budget has increased by 50% in the last 7 years
I could go on,
but the rest of the website has already dealt with these topics. The end result is clear: Betty Brown,
State Representative for District 4, does not represent us.
--She represented TORCH when her consultants were lobbying for it,
--She represented Tom Craddick when he claimed "absolute
authority" (his words, not mine) in running the House of Representatives,
--She represented herself when she put out phone calls asking for money from
PAC's and lobbyists.
But she was not representing my husband when she yelled at
him during a Republican function and those of you who have contacted me with similar stories about Betty's treatment of
you, she was not representing us when she refused to answer simple questions about her voting record, and
she does not represent you when she mangles the facts just so she can be re-elected.
Wouldn't
you prefer a representative who comes home after a six-month stint in Austin and tells us the truth? Wouldn't you
prefer an individual who tells us what she did or did not do, without having to conveniently leave out the parts she thinks
we don't want to hear? Don't you deserve a representative who doesn't have to rely on money from lobbyists
or PAC's to get re-elected?
Take a look at some of Betty's contributions since 2006:
$170,375
from Austin donors (2006)
$77,600 from Houston donors (2006)
$20,932 from PAC's/lobbyists (Jul-Dec
2007) Note: Representives are not allowed to raise money during a legislative session, which occurred Jan-Jun
2007)
TOTAL Betty has raised from special interests nowhere near District 4 in the past two years: $268,907. That is a lot of money from people who have a stake in Betty Brown, but don't
know one whit about the issues that affect her constituents.
Betty Brown may have started out long ago with good
intentions. My research has caused me to believe those intentions have been tainted by her time in Austin. She
may still believe them (in the way that a bureaucrat thinks he is too valuable to be fired), but she is not representing us
anymore, and we are the worse for it.
Our country used to guided by leaders, visionaries, people who thought
the impossible could actually be done. Considered heretics by some of their fellow countrymen, the signers of the Declaration
of Independence stood up to declare their independence from the ruling power of the day. The last line of their declaration
states, "And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we
mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor."
We inherited that pledge.
Because of their sacrifice, we don't have to pledge our lives and fortunes. All we have to do is pledge our
minds, our time, and a little bit of thought to what we want our State and our country to be. Yet, despite the
ages, their sacrifice requires our sacred honor. It demands our sacred honor. They gave up too much for us
to play games with their legacy. I am inclined to believe Betty started out on the right track, and I also believe she
has since learned to play the game in Austin.
I don't want someone who plays political games
to represent me. I want a person of integrity, I want a person who tells me the truth, I want someone who represents
us, regardless of what Austin has to say about the matter. The term "Representative" is used for a reason:
to represent us. To be our voice, to be our person at the State Capitol when we can't be there. Betty belongs
to a lot of different clubs, but she has forsaken the club that means the most: she forgot the people she is supposed
to stand up for. She forgot us, and the boatloads of money she gets from Austin has made that memory a whole lot easier
to erase.
UPDATE: Betty received more money from PAC's during January.
In fact only two contributions (totaling $600) came from people who live in District 4--the other $35,000
(that's not a typo) came from special interests.
In addition, Paul Burka (Senior Executive Editor Texas
Monthly and a well-respected political guru) is reporting on his blog of stories "that Tom Craddick has asked Republican
members who are unopposed or do not have serious opposition to contribute $10,000 to Betty Brown, who is in a tight primary
race against Wade Gent" ("Burkablog" 1/12/08). That's right--in January 2008, Betty was able to get
only two people from this area to contribute to her, but she has no problem getting Tom Craddick, the Speaker of the House
in Austin, to ask for tens of thousands of dollars to be sent her way. The purpose is to influence voters around
here to vote for Betty. I can guarantee you Craddick has no particular interest in the people of Henderson and Kaufman
Counties--he backs Betty because he knows Betty will back him. We the people are left out of the equation--until,
of course, it's time to decide whom we want to send to Austin. Then we get to determine whether we will send Craddick's
yes-person, or an independent voice who will stand up for us. It's our choice. But Craddick/Betty are doing
their best to make sure we make the choice that benefits them.
Betty Brown is truly "Putting Austin
First," and Austin is returning the favor. Betty, the incumbent who promised to leave after 4 terms (she is currently
serving her 5th and asking for a 6th), has learned how Austin works and how Austin pays. It pays for Betty--BUT NOT
FOR US.
Who Exactly Does Betty Represent?
(from campaign finance reports through 2006)
(scroll down for
Terrell Tribune article)
Betty's contributors are many, and a large percentage of them are Political
Action Committees (PAC's) based in Austin, Houston, Dallas and even outside of the State of Texas. With so much
money flowing in, the question must be asked, "Whose interests does she represent?"
Here are some facts:
Betty has accepted contributions from numerous insurance companies, including Humana, Aetna, Farmers, United Healthgroup,
USAA, and Liberty Mutual. Have your insurance rates gone up or down?
Betty has accepted
more than $36,000 from electric/energy/phone companies, such as TXU, AT&T, SBC, Embarq and others. Have your
gas, electricity, and phone rates gone up or down?
Betty has accepted over $60,000 from homebuilders.
In 2003, Betty voted to create the Texas Residential Construction Commission, adding another layer of bureaucracy for homeowners.
Betty has accepted more than $130,000 from PAC's and lobbyists from 2006 to July 2007.
Report: Lion's share of Brown's
contributions come from Austin
By Kent Miller
The biggest share of State Rep. Betty Brown's 2006 campaign contributions came from sources
in Austin, according to a study released this week by a nonprofit group that tracks political fundraising.
Austin
donors gave a whopping $170,375 dollars - almost half of her total contributions - to the campaign of Brown, R-Athens, while
donors in Houston provided $77,600, according to online report "Money in PoliTex," released Thursday by Texans for
Public Justice. Donors from Athens - where Brown relocated her local office to from Terrell - gave $22,415, Dallas donors
contributed $16,508 and Terrell donors gave $15,071.
Of the $383,404 in contributions reported by Brown, 49 percent
($188,281) were in the $1,001-$10,000 range, 37 percent ($1143,052) were in the $101-$1,000 range, 10 percent ($36,675) were
more than $10,000 and 4 percent ($15,395) were $100 or less.
Brown's largest campaign contribution was $79,925
from the Austin-based political action committee Texans For Lawsuit Reform, followed by $47,500 from Bob and Doylene Perry
of Houston-based Perry Homes and $26,574 from the Austin-based PAC, Future of Texas Alliance. Brown received $10,000 contributions
from the Beverly Woolley Campaign (Houston), the Phil King Campaign Fund (Weatherford) and SBC Corp. (Austin).
Her
largest Kaufman County contributions came from Keith Bell of Forney-based Intex Electric for $4,144 and $3,600 from the Kaufman
County Republican Women. Brown reported campaign contributions $383,404 and expenditures of $236,327 for 2006 and listed her
cash on hand as of Jan. 1 at $44,458.
Brown announced last week that she would seek another term for
District 4 in the Texas House. She'll have at least one opponent in the GOP primary after Wade Gent, whom Brown narrowly
defeated in the last primary, also announced last week that he would again run against the incumbent state lawmaker.
Brown serves as the vice chairman of the Redistricting Committee and as a member of Local and Consent Calendars Committee
for the 80th Legislative session. Speaker Tom Craddick appointed Brown to serve as chairman of Budget Oversight for the Agriculture
and Livestock Committee for the 78th, 79th and 80th Legislative Sessions, a position that places her on the Appropriations
Committee. She was first elected in 1998.
A general practice attorney, Gent is president of the Kaufman County
Young Republicans and is a charter member of the Kaufman County Republican Men's Club. He has a bachelro's degree
in business economics from Texas Tech University and a doctoral degree from Texas Wesleyan University and was a banker in
Kaufman and Gun Barrel City before attending law school.
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