Attorney General Ken Paxton owes more than $11,000 in fines for filing late campaign finance reports. He was referred to his own agency for collections.
For more than a year, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has owed the state over $11,000 in fines for filing late campaign finance reports. Now, his office is charged with collecting the money. The situation presents a clear conflict of interest for enforcement of the state’s campaign finance laws, said Anthony Gutierrez , executive director of Common Cause Texas , a government watchdog group.
Ken Paxton declines to sue candidates, officials who owe $700K in unpaid campaign violation fines “If I didn't pay a parking ticket and incurred a fine as a penalty, most Texans would find it absurd if I also got to review my fine and have a role in deciding whether any action should be taken to collect that fine,” he said. The Texas Ethics Commission can levy fines against candidates who miss the deadline to disclose their campaign donors.
Texas lobbyists and politicians dodged $800k in fines, thanks to weak campaign finance laws In other states, such as Illinois, candidates who don’t pay their ethics fines cannot get on the ballot. “The scenario you describe has never happened in Illinois and the threat of being left off the ballot would almost certainly be a deterrent to an incumbent attorney general,” said Matt Dietrich, spokesperson for the Illinois Board of Elections.
Ken Paxton refuses to disclose his property addresses to the Texas Ethics Commission Paxton’s top deputy, First Assistant Attorney General Brent Webster, also owes $1,000 for missing the deadline to file campaign reports following his 2016 run for the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. His case was also referred to the attorney general’s office in April. The agency’s collections division is in charge of filing the suits.
Common Cause Texas Ethics Commission Paxton House Illinois Board Of Elections Texas Court Of Criminal Appeals AG Texas Supreme Court Republican Ken Paxton Anthony Gutierrez Texas AG Brent Webster Jay Wierenga Matt Dietrich Texans Marc Rylander Texas Illinois California New York Missouri $700K Constitution
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