When you have more money than god and SCOTUS has ruled that limits on campaign money no longer apply to any important extent, what happens when you have rich people motivated to get their own way by spreading money around? Money, I might add, which they have so much of, that using some as f***k you money doesn’t put a dent in their budget for food or shelter. It’s not just the appearance that a rich person has more of a voice in political matters than an ordinary citizen, but a truism when the wealthy seek to hide all their influence behind multiple PACS. Personally, if I could fix campaign spending, I would not allow out of state or area funding for state and local races (Like Yass of PA) who spent millions to help Greg Abbott fix the last race in favor of gutting public education) I would also strengthen all laws dealing with PACS (if they’re going to stay around, I would ditch them) so that citizens can easily understand who is paying for what, otherwise it looks like money laundering. Also, everybody has different opinions on things, why should a couple of people with too much money be able to subvert the US constitution with their own wacky and bigoted religious ideas?
So many spider legs. why? In order to either get around campaign finance laws about PACS or to hide the sources for the money. Appears that Empower Texas is the hydra head of all. According to this article
Dunn has defended his spending and his group’s campaign tactics.
“Empower Texans remains outside the swamp, and the group informs voters who want their representatives to do in Austin what they promised during election season,” he wrote in a 2018 op-ed in The Dallas Morning News, responding to criticism of the group’s tactics. “If all of us outsiders stick together, we can drain the Austin Swamp.”
Zachary Maxwell has had an inside view of the billionaires’ influence. He worked for Empower Texans, Dunn’s PAC, and served as campaign manager and chief of staff for then-state Rep. Mike Lang, who received more than 60% of his campaign donations from Wilks and PACs he and Dunn were major funders of.
At what point does *outside the swamp* become *exchanged for political money-begging from billionaires*. The *swamp* surely implies corruption and a likely political club, like Republicans in the Texas Lege, that ignore constituents in favor of particular agendas, but once billionaires decide to spread money around to get THEIR goals met, they become *the swamp* to the detriment of Texas citizens in general. I would like to believe that I have the same amount of influence or at least a listening ear from elected representatives, even though I do not have boatloads of money. But that is not the case when extremely rich people seek to push their own ideologies through PACS such as Empower Texas. The article cited in 2018 in the Dallas Morning News, written by Tim Dunn, further says
There has recently been a campaign deploring the influence of “outside groups” in elections. It is important for taxpayers and voters to understand that the primary outside group the insiders fear is us — the educated and motivated voters.
What’s missing in that sentence is “educated and motivated voters that have lots and lots of money to try to influence elections based on personal viewpoints”. Certainly there are a lot of educated and motivated voters that cannot do what a Tim Dunn can do (nor do I believe they should have to) in order to get the attention and ear of the elected.
This influence peddling includes Ted Cruz
While Dunn and Wilks focus on state politics, they’ve also gotten involved in national races. Wilks, his brother Dan and their wives were among the largest donors to super PACs supporting GOP presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz in 2016, contributing a total of $15 million. And Dunn has given millions of dollars to super PACs supporting former President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans in recent years.
In a statement to CNN, Cruz called the Wilks brothers “the epitome of the American dream” and “fearless champions of conservative causes, much to the consternation of the corrupt corporate media.”
Dunn and Wilks don’t just use campaign donations to play a role in state politics. They also fund a network of organizations that have been influential at boosting conservative causes.
Texans for Fiscal Responsibility, a non-profit chaired by Dunn, has released a “Fiscal Responsibility Index” each legislative session grading state lawmakers based on their stances on conservative bills. The scorecard, which is often cited in election ads that show up in voters’ mailboxes, is known in Texas political circles for its ability to make and break Republican primary campaigns.
I received a very deceptive flyer about DeWayne Burns during this last election, where Greg Abbott was trying to get rid of any Texas Lege Republican that voted against school vouchers. The flyer was laughably false and also sought to scare people with Democratic party bogeymen.The article further says that Wilks and Dunns goal is: “People who’ve worked with Wilks and Dunn say they share an ultimate goal: replacing much of public education in Texas with private Christian schools. Now, educators and students are feeling the impact of that conservative ideology on the state’s school system.” And at the root of this is money, big bags of money, being thrown to get their way and do influence peddling. Don’t forget also that Greg Abbott took 6 million dollars from Jeff Yass, who isn’t even from Texas. That, this money peddling to do outsize influencing, IS “the swamp”.
Add another sphere of influence to the 2 already mentioned.
Last month, the Texas Public Policy Foundation, a think tank that Dunn serves on the board of, called on the legislature to ban the prescription of puberty blockers and hormone treatments for minors.
You may or may not agree with the goals of Wilks and Dunn, but you should also have a seat at the table, regardless of your personal finances. And that simply is not happening here.
