Texas Ethics Commission accepts complaint against Texas Right to Life for anti-Deuell radio ads

The Texas Ethics Commission has agreed to look into the way Texas Right to Life paid for radio ads that used “defamatory” language against Sen. Bob Deuell, R-Greenville, in his race against challenger Bob Hall. The complaint filed by Deuell’s Political Director Trey Bahm alleges that Right to Life misled voters about the fact that a “dark money” organization paid for the ads that helped put Hall over the top by 300 votes in the runoff election.

In a press release that quoted the group’s attorney Trey Trainor, Right to Life had said that the commission "saw through Deuell's hectoring legal tactics and dismissed the claim.” Trainor called it a disturbing trend for politicians to "use the TEC as an instrument to silence grassroots advocacy groups."

But that’s a gross misrepresentation of why the complaint was kicked back to Bahm.

In responding to the original complaint, the commission’s staff said what had been submitted did not meet certain form requirements. Specifically, it did not include the dates the alleged violations had occurred and did not sufficiently lay out the facts.

Those dates and facts were happily included by Bahm and now the complaint has been accepted, as you can see in this letter.

The issue now before the commission has to do with the legally required audio disclosures in the nearly $50,000 worth of broadcast political advertisements.

The complaint says the disclosures were illegal because they didn’t actually say they were political advertising and they mislead voters about where the money came from.

The disclosure in the radio ads said “Proudly paid by Texas Right to Life,” allowing voters to think that Texas Right to Life Political Action Committee – which discloses donors – paid for them when in fact they were purchased by the Texas Right to Life Committee, Inc., which is a 501(c)(4) non-profit organization that is not required to disclose its donors.

The way we know the ads were purchased by the so-called “dark money” non-profit is Trainor acknowledged that fact in his defense of the commercials when they came under fire for including false information about Sen. Deuell’s record in the Texas Senate.

In a letter to the radio stations, Trainor mocked Deuell’s attorneys for not knowing who had paid for the ad. You can see that letter, included in the complaint by clicking here. Trainor’s letter begins on page 33 of the complaint.

Bahm wants to know whether these ads were purchased by the Midland-based group that’s already under investigation by the Ethics Commission on allegations of unregistered lobbying and failure to make legally required disclosures. This of course is a reference to Empower Texans and its president Michael Quinn Sullivan, the primary spokesman for Midland oilman Tim Dunn. Bahm also asks whether the ads were potentially paid for by Houston-based interests that would like to divert water from Deuell’s East Texas district down to the Bayou City.


Originally posted on Quorum Report, and republished with permission. Copyright June 13, 2014, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved.

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