Texas Money Helps Fuel Susana PAC

Gov. Susana Martinez may not be “una Tejana,” but the governor continues to raise lots of money from Texas donors.

Over six months, $1 in $3 collected by Martinez’s political action committee – Susana PAC – came from Texas. Less than half of the $336,000 raised by the PAC came from New Mexico donors.

The Texas contributors, who donated more than $115,000, include some of the biggest financiers of Republican Party politics in that state and nationwide.

The Texas money is helping Susana PAC, formed by the governor in 2011, support Republican candidates in elections this year for the New Mexico Legislature, where Democratic majorities in both houses have frustrated the GOP governor on education, immigration and other issues.

Of course, it’s not unusual for New Mexico politicians and PACs to be funded in part by out-of-state dollars. A current example: Albuquerque-based Independent Source PAC, a Martinez critic, has received $190,000 from the Communications Workers of America in Washington, D.C.

Martinez political adviser Jay McCleskey says, “National fundraising is necessary to counter out-of-state special interest groups on the left who are already spending big to fight reforms.”

Susana PAC is separate from Martinez’s gubernatorial campaign committee, which also pocketed Texas money from October to April but in a much smaller amount – about $29,000, compared to $232,000 in total contributions.

McCleskey said about 93 percent of the contributors to the gubernatorial campaign were New Mexico residents.

Both Susana PAC and the governor’s campaign committee recently filed six-month finance reports with the Secretary of State’s Office.

During the gubernatorial campaign in 2010, an attack ad labeled Martinez, who was raised in El Paso but has lived in New Mexico since 1986, as “una Tejana” who “is bought and paid for by a Texas billionaire.”

The billionaire referred to was Bob Perry, a Houston homebuilder. He and his wife gave $450,000 to Martinez in 2010.

Since the 2010 election, campaign contributions to a statewide candidate or PAC have been limited to $5,000 per primary or general election, or a maximum of $10,000 in an election cycle.

Here is a look at the major Texas contributors to Susana PAC and Martinez’s gubernatorial campaign committee in the six months ended in early April:

♦ Dallas billionaire Harold Simmons contributed $10,000 and four companies affiliated with him gave $10,000 each to Susana PAC, for a total of $50,000.

One of the companies was Waste Control Specialists, which is owned by Simmons and has a nuclear waste dump in Andrews County, Texas, which borders far southeast New Mexico.

According to the Center for Responsive Politics, Simmons and his wife have given $13.7 million to super PACs, making him the nation’s second-largest donor to the new political beasts that operate independently but in support of candidates. Most of that money has gone to American Crossroads, the super PAC of Republican strategist Karl Rove.

Simmons also helped finance the Swift Boat attack ads against Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry in 2004 and the ads during the 2008 presidential campaign that linked Barack Obama with a 1970s left-wing radical.

♦ Perry, the Houston homebuilder, was another financial supporter of the Swift Boat ads.

He and his wife donated $4,000 each to Susana PAC and $5,000 each to Martinez’s gubernatorial campaign committee.

Perry has contributed about $80 million to various federal and state campaigns over the past decade, according to research by National Public Radio.

He is ranked No. 3 in super PAC support nationwide, with $6.6 million in donations. Perry is a supporter of Restore Our Future, the super PAC backing Mitt Romney, the presumptive Republican nominee for president.

♦ Dallas oil and gas man Trevor Rees-Jones, whose net worth was recently estimated at $3.6 billion by Forbes magazine, contributed $10,000 to Susana PAC.

Rees-Jones also is a financial supporter of Rove’s American Crossroads.

♦ Businessman Stanley Harper of the Dallas/Fort Worth area contributed $10,000 to Martinez’s gubernatorial campaign committee and his wife, Linda, gave $10,000 to Susana PAC.

Harper, owner of an auto loan company, has a 100,000-plus-acre cattle ranch in northeast New Mexico. He also was a supporter of Martinez’s campaign in 2010, donating at least $28,000.

♦ William Spears of Dallas and his wife each contributed $5,000 to Susana PAC.

Spears is the chairman and founder of Energy Education, a company that develops energy-conservation programs for schools.

♦ The employee PAC of El Paso Electric donated $3,500 to Susana PAC.

♦ The PAC for Apache Corp. of Houston contributed $5,000 to Martinez’s gubernatorial campaign committee.

Apache is one of the largest oil and gas producers in the Permian Basin of southeast New Mexico and west Texas.

UpFront is a daily front-page news and opinion column. Comment directly to Thom Cole at tcole@abqjournal.com or 505-992-6280 in Santa Fe. Go to www.abqjournal.com/letters/new to submit a letter to the editor.
— This article appeared on page A1 of the Albuquerque Journal