Bay Area Houston

This is some serious money and dirty influence.

The extreme far right Political Action Committee, Defend Texas Liberty attempted to influence voters in CCISD. CCISD voters didn’t buy it and for very good reasons. CCISD candidate Peter Lauzon accepted $5000 from this extremist organization which was the majority of his donations. Candidate Glencora Rodgers returned the $5000 they had donated. Most voters have no idea of who Defend Texas Liberty is or who funds them. Here are some details:

Defend Texas Liberty filed their first report with the Texas Ethics Committee in 2020. Since then they have raised nearly $12 Million mostly from two billionaires. Timothy Dunn donated $7.3 Million while Farris Wilks donated $3.2 million. These two individuals accounted for 88% of all the donations. Windi Grimes of Houston donated $571,000. Phillip Huffines donated $500,000, and Ken Fisher donated $100,000.

Timothy Dunn
Dunn has donated over $21 Million since 2004. His biggest donations were to Empower Texas (dissolved) for $7.7 Million, Defend Texas Liberty for $7.3 Million, Ken Paxton for $672,000, Shelley Luther for $1.7 Million, $407,000 to Tony Tinderholt and $275,000 to Bryan Slaton. Shelley Luther is known for being the hairdresser who refused to close her shop during COVID. She ended up in jail then ran for the House and then the Senate. She lost both. Tinderholt is a christian, conservative that has been married 5 times. Praise the lord. Bryan Slaton was removed from the Texas House by unanimous vote after he was found to have provided minors with alcohol and porked his 19 year old staff member. Lordy!

Farris Wilks
Wilks donated almost $15 Million since 2014. He also donated to Empower Texas for $2.4 Million, Defend Texas Liberty $3.2 Million, Ken Paxton for $776,000, and Bryan Slaton for $103,000.

Defend Texas Liberty
Defend Texas Liberty has spent $10.8 Million to various candidates and PACs including $160,000 to Representative Bryan Slaton pictured above. As I said, Slaton won his election and was recently removed from office by a unanimous vote in the Texas House for providing alcohol to minors and having unbridled sex with his christian, conservative, staff member who was 19 years old at the time.

Other notable donations:
Local State Representative Terri Leo-Wilson received $12,000 to add to her total, of which 94% came from out of district. State Representative Tony Tinderholt received $23,000.

Tim O’Hare, an extreme far right candidate, of Southlake Texas received $86,000 for his race for Tarrant County Judge in 2022. Texas Homeschool Coalition received $112,500.

Shelley Luther received $208,500 for her failed bid for Senate. Her claim to fame was.

And that is who attempted to influence the CCISD elections.

NOTE: A formal hearing on the grievance I filed against Scott Bowen was held yesterday. I want to thank the attorneys who represented Bowen and who presided over the hearing. I appreciate their professionalism. I may not agree with the results of the hearing when they are presented but I do respect what they do.

Last month I filed a grievance against Trustee Scott Bowen for his testimony in support of Senate Bill 175 which would, among other things, cut funding to the Texas Association of School Boards. In that video, posted by an anti-public education extreme right wing organization, Texas Education 911, Bowen identified himself as a CCISD Trustee and spoke on behalf of the Board. He also claimed he was representing his constituents and claimed we were in favor of vouchers, racism, and removing accountability from the district.

You can view his 3 minutes of fame here. Watch it and ask yourself if he was speaking on behalf of the Board and his constituents.

Bowen didn’t attend the hearing. Instead he left his defense to the CCISD attorney. The attorney defended Bowen saying that Bowen stated “I’m here on my own time and own dime” and therefore was not speaking on behalf of the Board even though he stated he was a CCISD Trustee. Watch the video yourself and make your own determination.

He says “TASB advocates for everything my constituents hate” using examples of eradicating racism and being against vouchers. That was his words. Literally. The attorney claims that he didn’t mean ALL constituents. Again, watch it. Make your own determination.

What also bothers me is that he signed in as representing CCISD and as an Executive Members of the Republican Party, Senate District 6. That can be found on the Senate website under SB175 here. He could have testified as “Scott Bowen” or as Mr. Joe Citizen but he didn’t. He used the weight of the title of Trustee to add credence to his testimony.

In the end the attorney claims that what Bowen did was not against CCISD policy from a legal standpoint. I might agree with this but what he did was definitely unethical and he should be held accountable.

The report from the attorney presiding over the hearing will be available in 14 days.

Michael Smith, Editor of the Galveston Daily News nailed it in his editorial, “Toxic campaigning won’t end unless voters demand it“.

“Our hope is voters are rejecting the incursion of hate-mongering, covert money, outside money, partisan ideology and partisan agendas of all sorts in their decisions about electing local people to volunteer posts.”

He references the CCISD election as well as other local races fueled by the likes of Wayne Dolcefino and outside PACs. It is well worth the read.

Thanks to the Galveston Daily News for covering the CCISD Trustee election.

The GDN did a great job reporting on the outside PACs infiltrating our local elections in support of one candidate, Peter Lauzon. Lauzon is running in District 3, in Harris County. Although I appreciate the coverage I wish the Chronicle had reported on it since it is in their area.

The Chronicle has covered other districts like Katy and HISD but posted only one CCISD article allowing the candidates to introduce themselves. The Clear Lake area has become a media desert on issues such as the CCISD elections and local politics.

GCN’s article was brutally truthful. Lauzon is the only candidate being funded solely by outside extreme PACs. Here are a couple of tidbits:

The political action committee, which has donated the bulk of Lauzon’s total campaign dollars, has expended more than $10 million in donations toward conservative Republican organizations, home-school coalitions and Republican Party state representatives and senators.

When asked whether he would feel comfortable with other candidates accepting monetary donations from political action committees, Lauzon declined to comment.

This is actually a typical response from Lauzon. If he doesnt like your questions on his Campaign site, he blocks you. When he is caught lying on his website he limits comments. GCN reported on another CCISD candidate:

Glencora Rodgers, a candidate running for Position 2 on the board, was given $5,000 from the political action committee but returned the money, according to reports.

Rodgers, who said she doesn’t have a specific opinion on other candidates accepting PAC money, was a little skeptical after receiving a check in the mail for $5,000.

“I learned that the PAC doesn’t completely align with my values,” she said. “I want my race to be about school issues. I want people in the community to know that my only loyalty is to them.”

Kudos to Glencora. Three out of the four candidates running for the CCISD Board have run honorable campaigns, raising money from the district, with no allegiance to anyone but our parents, teachers, and students.

Maybe if CCISD voters vote against the billionaires who are funding Lauzon the Houston Chronicle would be interested.

Donald Trump taught the Republican Party how to lie and they do it. Every. Damn. Day.

Far right on queue Peter Lauzon sent out a mailer, paid for by the Republican Party, that attacked his opponent with lies and misinformation. Former Trustee Laura Dupont took the time to explain the facts and debunk Lauzon’s attack:

I am sickened by the misleading statements and absolute lies that are plastered on texts and flyers against Arturo Sanchez in the CCISD District 3 School Board race. Please reach out to a credible source and learn the facts before you cast your vote on Saturday.

Here are a few facts to start with:

* The CCISD Board of Trustees has not held a vote on changing or eliminating the homestead exemption in over 10 years. In fact, it has been a board assumption each year to maintain the exemption.

* The entire board has been unanimous in voting for a tax rate CUT every year since 2018.

* The amount of school taxes we pay has been increasing because of rising property values – this is not controlled by the school board. In fact, the state uses this to their own advantage such that the state contribution to school funding has decreased every year since 2019.

* Every action the board takes is based on a vote of 7 people. One trustee cannot raise – or lower – taxes on their own.

* Every school district in this state, including CCISD, is anticipating a funding crisis next year if our legislature continues down the path of not using a cash surplus to increase the basic allotment (which has not changed since 2019!) and adequately fund public education, at least correcting for inflation. Texas is currently ranked 48th in the country for per-student funding of public education.

The Republican Party has become nothing more than a pack of damn liars much like George Santos, Donald Trump, and Peter Lauzon. It is sad.

UPDATED: I’ve added the totals for the other candidates.

Peter Lauzon
Lauson has raised only $503 from inside CCISD. He has accepted $7070 from two candidates/PACs. Alexandra Mealer who lost her election in 2022 and has sued, like trump, claiming fraud (there was none) has donated $2070 for texting services. Another $5000 was donated by an extreme far right PAC from Dallas funded by two billionaires. He donated another $1000 of his own money to the campaign for a total of $3000. He has spent a total of $8100 with $6060 going towards mailers. He has $294 cash on hand.

It is sad that he has to depend on money from outside the district. He is in this race for the far right reasons.

The Clear Lake satellite of True Texas Project, the one that was thrown out of Buzz Aldrin’s church, has entered the CCISD elections by endorsing the far right candidate, Peter Lauzon. Lauzon’s campaign is being funded by another extreme far right PAC, Defend Texas Liberty. From the Houston Chronicle:

The far-right political activism organization True Texas Project planned to hold multiple events at Webster Presbyterian Church this summer. Church authorities canceled the events and removed TTP from its schedule upon learning more about the group.

The Southern Poverty Law Center labeled TTP as an extremist anti-government group last year. They have since moved to a government community center for their anti-government meetings. (LOL) Their largest donor to their PAC is, once again, Timothy Dunn who has funded Defend Texas Liberty and was featured on a CNN investigation. Dunn is a billionaire spending his money on extreme far right organizations such as TPP specifically to take over school boards.

Expect to see lots of money from these two extremists to flood the CCISD election in favor of Peter Lauzon.

Well we all knew it was coming. And it came.

Peter Lauzon the Unqualified For Office (UFO) candidate for trustee has accepted a large donation from the Defend Texas Liberty PAC an extreme fair right PAC that has been fielding candidates against moderate Republicans, including Greg Abbott (if you can call him moderate). From the Texas Tribune:

In the Texas House, the biggest intraparty attack on Republican leadership came from the Defend Texas Liberty PAC, led by former state Rep. Jonathan Stickland, R-Bedford. Backed by hard-right donors like Tim Dunn and Farris Wilks, West Texas oil tycoons, the group spent at least $5.2 million from January onward.

Dunn and Wilks were featured in a CNN Investigation. They have contributed over $30 Million to promote gun for all and extreme far right candidates in the Republican primary. They have also contributed to extreme UFOs running for school board.

Lauzon raised a total of $7278 with $5000 from this PAC, $2000 from his own pocket, and $278 from 2 donors in the area.

I’ve said it in the past and I will say it again:

We do not need partisan politics to continue to infect our school board. CCISD is one of the best districts in the state. Our Trustees have challenges just to keep up with the constant pressure put on them concerning school funding and ridiculous mandates on our teachers, administrators, and students. They do not have time for Lauzon’s and Bowen’s political bullshit.

NOTE: Glencora Rodgers also received a donation from the Defend Texas Liberty PAC. She returned it.