Posted on 02/10/2004 11:11:54 AM PST by SwinneySwitch
Other officeholders faring better going into primaries, financial reports show.
Steven Wayne Smith was something of an unwelcome guest at the Republicans' party when he first won election to the Texas Supreme Court in 2002.
Now, campaign finance reports show that political action committees for many of the state's largest law firms and big-money GOP donors appear eager to defeat the quixotic justice in next month's primary, which will probably determine who wins Smith's current seat because no Democrat has filed for the November general election.
The high court contest is the most high-profile in a year of down-ballot races for state offices. Candidates facing opponents in the March 9 primaries had a midnight deadline Monday to file campaign finance reports electronically or have paper reports postmarked.
Predictably, most of the action is on the Republican side of the ballot, where GOP primaries will effectively decide eventual winners of seats on state courts and the State Board of Education.
In the race for the Republican nomination for Railroad Commission, incumbent Victor Carrillo reported raising more than $112,000 in January. He also said he had $825,000 on hand at the end of the month.
Carrillo, who was appointed to the commission in 2003, faces three other Republicans for his party's nomination next month.
Doug Deffenbaugh, an oil and gas industry executive from San Antonio, reported raising $5,750 last month and said he had just more than $8,000 on hand at the end of January. The other candidates did not respond to phone calls.
The winner of the Republican primary will face Bob Scarborough, a retiree from Fort Worth. He didn't return a telephone call Monday.
In the Supreme Court race, the reports show that Republican Paul Green, a San Antonio appeals court judge, is raising almost $7 for every one of Smith's.
Green has raised about $280,000 since July, compared with about $42,000 raised by Smith. Smith has also lent his campaign $20,000.
But Smith's campaign manager said money is an unreliable barometer when it comes to forecasting his political fortunes.
"Last time, when Justice Smith won the primary, he was outspent 85-to-1," David Rogers said. "We had expected all along that we would be out-fund-raised."
In that 2002 primary, Smith defeated Xavier Rodriguez, who had been handpicked for the court by Gov. Rick Perry and enjoyed backing from the GOP leadership. Smith was relatively unknown, and his victory was largely chalked up to voters opting for an Anglo name over a Hispanic one.
As an incumbent, Smith is raising money at a faster clip than before but still lags far behind Green.
Since July, Smith has garnered some of his biggest contributions from political action committees affiliated with Fort Worth's Bass brothers, Rogers said.
Political action committees for large law firms including Baron & Budd, Baker Botts and Thompson & Knight have also kicked into Smith's coffers.
Green has drawn money from numerous law firms and business executives, his reports show.
Large law firms that have donated include Akin Gump, Hughes & Luce, Jackson Walker, Locke Liddell, Baker Botts, Thompson & Knight and Bracewell & Patterson.
Green also received hefty contributions from Charles Butt, president of the H-E-B grocery chain; Lowrey Mays, chairman and chief executive officer of Clear Channel Communications; and independent investor Harold Simmons.
Green said the fund-raising imbalance reflects concern that Smith's election to the court was a fluke.
"I don't think he took it seriously. He just threw his name up there against (Rodriguez) to see what would happen," Green said. "This is a serious court that requires serious people."
In other races:
* State Board of Education incumbent Gail Lowe reported $1,600 in contributions and $90 in expenditures for January, with $2,564 cash on hand. Totals for her opponent in the District 14 race, Denton property manager Andrea Williams, were not available Monday.
* Wimberley businessman Alan Askew, a GOP candidate for a Texas House seat now held by Patrick Rose, D-Dripping Springs, reported having $107,889 in the bank, including $70,000 in loans from himself.
Askew faces Buda lawyer Martin Harry for the Republican nomination. Harry said Monday that he has accepted no contributions and has spent about $3,000 on his campaign.
Rose, unopposed for the Democratic nomination, was not required to file a report.
Why would that be? Liberals are always beating their chests over that and I've never had a problem with it and the Texas courts have been reasonably reasonable.
It's a far better model than any of the other states I've lived in that use other methods, I think it's probably about the best we'll get from imperfect humans but if there's something I've missed I'd sure like to know what it is.
Yeah, we need a Texas version of "McCain-Feingold" to take that nasty ol' money oout of our politics, so the newspapers can be the only ones to have a say who's elected!
Good, conservative newspapers like the Dallas Morning Spew or the Houston Chronicle!
</sarcasm>
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