PAC mailer causes confusion
By Matthew Waller
AUSTIN — A conservative political action group’s mailer has brought confusion to some places across the state.
The mailer comes from the Conservative Republicans of Texas PAC, and some confused the pamphlet as correspondence from the official state GOP party.
The PAC mailer, complete with a picture of a bald eagle, provides people with paperwork to request a ballot by mail, paperwork that is all filled out except for the signature. In another section highlights the candidates that the PAC wants voters to choose in the coming March 4 primary. Early voting is already underway until Feb. 28.
“Each one had the Elections office already on the address line and this has increased the confusion,” Tom Green County Republican Party Chairman Jeff Betty said in an email. “The voter saw that it had the ‘Tom Green Elections Administration’ on it and thought it was official. Others saw the ‘Conservative Republicans of Texas’ and thought the word conservative was an adjective and not part of the proper name of a political action committee. We received several calls and inquiries.”
The same type of trouble arose in East Texas, according to the Longview News-Journal, where it says the popular Houston-area practice of recommending candidates in mailouts has spread.
“We, the Tom Green County Republican Party, are responsible for running a fair and impartial election to select the Republican that will represent us in the General Election. We do not, nor should we endorse or even, in my opinion, by other action indicate any preference,” Betty wrote.
The PAC is run by Dr. Steven Hotze out of Houston.
“We’re real proud of it actually,” said Allen Blakemore, who manages publicity for the PAC. “We’ve helped thousands and thousands of people vote. It does a huge service. We’ve been doing this since the early 90s, and the law says if you’re over 65, you can vote at home.”
As for the confusion of identity with the Republican Party, Blakemore said the mailer has a picture of Dr. Hotze and describes what the PAC does.
“It’s printed in pretty large letter,” Blakemore said. “We didn’t say we were anything other than what we are.”
Aside from the confusion in the mailer, the PAC has also raised concern as receiving money from people who later get support from the PAC or those associated with the PAC.
Most notably, Barry Smitherman’s campaign for Texas Attorney General against state Sen. Ken Paxton, R-McKinney, and state Rep. Dan Branch, R-Dallas, donated $100,000 and Smitherman carries the endorsement of the PAC.
Friends of Paul Bettencourt donated $10,000 and Hotze is quoted as backing Paul Bettencourt’s Houston Texas Senate District 7 run on the candidate’s website.
Mike Schofield’s campaign for state representative of District 132 in Houston donated $5,000 and has the endorsement of the PAC.
Blakemore said that in the case of the Smitherman campaign donation, Hotze and Smitherman have been “close friends for more than 20 years,” he said, and that Hotze has at times donated to Smitherman’s campaign.
“The vast majority of all the candidates he endorses don’t put any money into the PAC at all,” Blakemore said.
Reprinted with permission from the San Angelo Standard-Times.