Wikimedia Commons / Gage Skidmore
Ken Paxton (proper) has used public funds to advertise the pursuits of the Texas Public Coverage Basis.
Editor’s Notice: The next is a column of opinion and evaluation.
This text was initially printed by the Texas Observer, a nonprofit investigative information outlet. Join their weekly e-newsletter, or observe them on Fb and Twitter.
Ken Paxton has spent nearly the whole lot of his decade main the Workplace of the Texas Legal professional Common whereas additionally underneath felony indictment for alleged securities fraud. But, like each different time Paxton has confronted allegations of wrongdoing, together with misuse of workplace, retaliatory firings, and legal misdeeds, he has as soon as once more managed to evade actual punishment. By no small measure, this has been enabled by Paxton’s masterful use of state assets to court docket (and to bolster) the affect of extraordinarily well-funded conservative authorized organizations and networks, on the expense of the general public pursuits he’s speculated to signify, and to defend.
Notable amongst these longstanding collaborations is Paxton’s use of public funds to advertise the pursuits of the Texas Public Coverage Basis (TPPF).
The Texas Public Coverage Basis is a part of of the State Coverage Community (SPN), a nationwide community of hard-right affect peddlers engaged on each the state and nationwide stage to advance excessive right-wing agenda gadgets like defunding public training, gutting environmental regulation, and slashing taxes for the nation’s wealthiest individuals.
Functionally, SPN operates nationwide as a litigation wing of the American Legislative Alternate Council, often known as ALEC, and the pursuits of the community are inextricable from different right-wing organizations, foundations, and billionaires who help it. TPPF is maybe the community’s crown jewel, and is thought to be a very energetic and profitable department of the community. Credited with having large affect in Texas state politics and coverage, the group has secured an array of wins in state and federal courts and prime state leaders like Texas Governor Greg Abbott typically headline TPPF occasions. The group’s CEO was appointed to Abbott’s 1836 Fee. The 1836 Fee, named after the 12 months Texas gained independence from Mexico, is “largely a conservative backlash to The New York Occasions’ publication of ‘The 1619 Undertaking,’” and intends to craft a white-washed, right-wing historical past of Texas.
It’s arduous—or inconceivable—to know nowadays who funds TPPF because the group doesn’t disclose its donors; the most-recent publicly obtainable lists of its monetary backers are actually greater than a decade previous. That, after all, makes the method of holding public officers accountable for his or her relationships to the group (and the group’s personal motivations) harder to establish. Traditionally, its donors have included a “‘Who’s Who of Texas polluters, big utilities and large insurance coverage firms’” akin to ExxonMobil, Koch Industries and the Koch Basis, and Luminant Vitality, in addition to conservative megafunds such because the Lynde and Harry Bradley Basis, the Coors Basis, and the Donors Capital Fund (nicknamed the “dark-money ATM of the proper,”) and Donors Belief Fund. Guided by the pursuits of their donors, TPPF has gotten concerned in myriad public coverage fights, starting from faculty selection insurance policies to coordinated assaults on renewable power.
All through these fights, Ken Paxton has been a superb buddy of the inspiration, routinely attending its occasions. In 2015, Paxton introduced on the group’s Vitality and Local weather Summit, the place he spoke extensively about efforts to dam the Environmental Safety Company’s (EPA) proposed enlargement of the federal definition of the “Waters of america” rule. That proposal was, on the time, known as by some environmentalists the largest win for clear water in a decade. As an alternative, Paxton’s problem was legitimized by the Trump Administration, and the foundations have been rolled again.
In 2018, Paxton intervened in a TPPF-led lawsuit towards the Metropolis of Austin’s short-term rental ordinances, which sought to restrict the circumstances and frequency underneath which a property could possibly be rented out. In 2019, Paxton gave the keynote at TPPF’s coverage orientation. In 2021, he appointed TPPF attorneys to guide one other assault on EPA’s Clear Air Act exercise.
Paxton has additionally backed TPPF’s makes an attempt to erode Texans’ authorized protections. In 2022, Paxton and TPPF collectively supported Senate Invoice 1111 (SB 1111), an anti-voting rights invoice, which was rapidly challenged by The League of United Latin American Residents and Voto Latino for its strict residency necessities, new voter ID necessities, and “obscure, onerous restrictions on the voter registration course of.” The U.S. District Court docket for the Western District of Texas agreed with the civil rights organizations, and prevented the enforcement of these residency necessities. Sadly, Paxton and TPPF attorneys finally gained a reversal of the District Court docket’s ruling within the notoriously partisan Fifth Circuit and Texas continues to pursue more and more extreme voter suppression legal guidelines, insurance policies, and extra.
A few of TPPF’s board members are additionally Paxton’s greatest backers. Tim Dunn is TPPF’s present board vice chairman, and one of many greatest gamers in Texas politics. He’s the biggest supply of marketing campaign donations in Texas, has swaths of the state Legislature “financially beholden” to him and desperate to adequately show their fealty, and helms a number of non-public organizations within the state ever-focused on pushing coverage constantly rightward. Dunn has additionally been investing large sums into Paxton’s campaigns since 2002. Dunn additionally funneled marketing campaign money to defend Paxton main as much as and following his impeachment trial earlier than the Texas Senate. These included loans and contributions to Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, who presided over Paxton’s impeachment trial, and extra big-money donations into races to oust GOP state representatives who voted to question Paxton final 12 months.
Doug Deason, who additionally sits on the TPFF board, donated $50,000 to Paxton in June 2023—almost a month after Paxton was (briefly) faraway from workplace whereas awaiting his Senate trial. After all, we will’t overlook Kyle Stallings, one more TPPF Board Member, who donated $100,000 to Paxton final 12 months.
As this net of connections point out, Paxton has oriented Texas’ state assets across the pursuits of TPPF, and empowered TPPF actors to behave as in the event that they carried the complete authority of Texas. In so doing, Paxton has confirmed himself to be little greater than an operative masquerading underneath a public title for the non-public curiosity(s) of Koch-backed corporations and their mates.
Paxton’s sample of wielding state assets to serve the pursuits of such conservative corporate-funded teams undermines his workplace’s dedication to all Texans, and undercuts the general public curiosity.
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