From the Texas Tribune: GOP operative John Colyandro to lead "school choice" lobbying group

The doors keep on revolving.

- Click here for the article.

Longtime GOP political operative John Colyandro has been tapped to head a new organization that will aggressively push Texas lawmakers to approve education savings accounts, the latest controversial proposal in private "school choice" and a priority of Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick.

The advocacy group Texans for Education Opportunity announced Colyandro's hiring in a press release Thursday morning as a key move in their push for legislation that will allow parents to send their children to private schools using tax money.

Now the executive director of the Texas Conservative Coalition Research Institute, Colyandro "easily rose to the top" of a large talent pool of prospective leaders, said Stacy Hock, TEO's board chair. "As we are moving into session, we found that John has been a trusted voice and a champion of smart policy in and around the capitol for decades now. As he started to engage from a board perspective, it became clear that his engagement became more and more active," she said.

Colyandro has had an up-and-down career in Texas politics. In 2004, he was indicted by a Travis County grand jury on charges of money laundering after serving as the director of former U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay's political action committee. DeLay, Colyandro and aide Jim Ellis were accused of illegally funneling corporate contributions to GOP candidates in key 2002 Texas legislative races. DeLay was convicted in 2011, and the conviction was overturned in 2013 by the Texas 3rd Court of Appeals. Colyandro pleaded guilty to lesser misdemeanor charges, was hit with a fine and his record was expunged after a year.

From the Texas Tribune: Analysis: In Texas, Lawmakers Regulate Their Own Regulators

In 2306, while walking though Article 3 of the Texas Constitution, we looked at the language that established the Texas Ethics Commission. We looked at the factors that made it toothless.

Here's more on that subject.

The author argues that one of the reasons ethics is tough to police - not surprisingly - is that people don't pay attention.

- Click here for the article.

Texas legislators apparently think the people appointed to regulate campaign finance and officeholder ethics are “haughty.”

God bwess their widdle hearts.

Seriously, senators made it clear at a State Affairs Committee meeting this week that they are riled up at the Texas Ethics Commission — and reveled in an opportunity to jab and poke at the officials who police their industry.

It’s an interesting setup, where the people who are being regulated are also the people in control, more or less, of the regulators. The hearing was also a great exhibition of lawmakers doing one of the things they do best: Bullying unelected state officials and employees.

They said the commission spends too much time on nickel-and-dime infractions — paperwork errors and the like. They griped about a commissioner who rejected a resignation request from Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick. Patrick wanted to appoint someone in Hugh Akin’s place and let him know; Akin let Patrick know, in a letter, that he’ll serve until his term ends 13 months from now.

This is an insiders’ fight. One reason it’s hard to write ethics laws is that most Texans don’t pay much attention to the mechanics of elections, lobbying or the everyday business of being an elected officeholder in Texas — except when there is a scandal big enough to stay in the news for a while.

For more:

- In Texas, a Collapse of Ethics Reform.
- Conservatives Call For Reform or Abolition of the Texas Ethics Commission.
- Ethics reform fight flares anew.
- The brutal death of ethics reform in Texas.
- Republican Senators Grill Texas Ethics Commission.

From the Texas Tribune: Analysis: "Smitty," a Texas Lobbyist for the Small Fry, Retiring After 31 Years

While John Boehner begins his lobbying career in DC, another ends his in Austin.

As you'll see below, Smith advocated for issues that tend to cut against the grain of Texas' political culture. It's worth noting that the organization he headed was originally set up by Ralph Nader - not a Texan. The Wikipedia on Smith - see the link below - Mentions that he serves on the boards of the following advocacy groups: Clean Water Action, the Texas Wind Power Coalition, Texans for Public Justice, and Campaigns for People. All pro-regulation.

- Click here for the article.

In the early 90s — the heyday of consumer rights legislation and regulation in Texas — Robert Cullick, then a reporter at the Houston Chronicle, gave Tom “Smitty” Smith of Public Citizen Texas an unofficial title: Everybody’s Third Paragraph.

Smith, 66, announced his retirement Tuesday from his official post after 31 years, ending a long run of organizing and lobbying on behalf of consumers and citizens on a range of issues like utilities, insurance and political ethics. He was often the voice of the opposition in legislative fights and in the media, which earned him that reporter's epithet.

He’s from that part of the Austin lobby that doesn’t wear fancy suits, doesn’t drive the latest luxury cars and doesn’t spend its time fawning over and feeding elected officials. Smitty has a beard, an omnipresent straw hat and, often, a colorful sheaf of flyers making his points on whatever cause he’s pushing at the time.

Smitty has been a leading voice for government intervention and regulation of big industries and interests in the capital of a state with conservative, business-friendly politicians from both parties who pride themselves on light regulation, low taxes and a Wild West approach to money in politics.

. . . His causes over the years have included food security, decommissioning costs of the nuclear reactors owned by various Texas utilities, insurance regulations, ethics and campaign finance laws. He’s lobbied on environmental issues and product safety.

He counts the ethics reforms of 1991 as one of his big wins. As unregulated as Texas political ethics and campaign finance might seem today, things were a lot looser before reformers used a flurry of scandals and attendant media coverage to force changes. Smith is proud of a medical bill of rights that gave consumers some leverage with their doctors and their health insurers.

Public Citizen was a key player in the creation of the State Office of Administrative Hearings, which took administrative courts out of several regulatory agencies and put them in a central office, farther from the reach of regulated industries and elected officials. Smith now points to the Texas Railroad Commission, which still has its own administrative hearings, as an example of a too-close relationship between regulators, the companies they regulate and the judges supposed to referee their differences.

For more:

- Tribpedia: Tom "Smitty" Smith.
- Wikipedia: Public Citizen Texas.
- Public Citizen: Tom "Smitty" Smith.
- State Office of Administrative Hearings.
- Sunset Review: State Office of Administrative Hearings.
- Government Code: State Office of Administrative Hearings.
- Texas Ethics Commission.

For 2306 today - all from the Texas Tribune

- Federal Regulators Take Teladoc’s Side in Medical Board Suit.

Teladoc, the Dallas-based company that sued Texas over its telemedicine regulations, has a new ally in the Federal Trade Commission.

In a letter sent to the U.S. 5th Circuit Court late Friday, the federal antitrust agency sided with Teladoc in the company’s legal battle, criticizing the Texas Medical Board for allegedly misinterpreting case law.

The telehealth company sued last year to block board rules that in most cases require face-to-face contact between a patient and a physician before a physician can issue a prescription.

That threatened Teladoc’s business model, which virtually connects Texas patients to remote, Texas-licensed doctors, some of whom are based out-of-state. The company says its physicians consult patients over the phone for routine medical issues, and patients can upload photos or other information describing their symptoms and medical history.

Teladoc filed an antitrust lawsuit against the regulatory Texas Medical Board in federal courtlast year, alleging that the 19-member board made up mostly of doctors had behaved like a cartel by passing rules intended to limit competition.

- Empower Texans Escalates Battle With Ethics Commission.

The influential conservative group Empower Texans is escalating its long-running battle against the Texas Ethics Commission, accusing a former member of the state watchdog agency of improperly seeking to influence state legislation.

Empower Texans President Michael Quinn Sullivan on Thursday lodged a criminal complaint against Tom Harrison, who abruptly resigned in June as the commission's vice chairman. The complaint, filed with the Travis County district attorney's office, alleges that Harrison illegally gave gifts to lawmakers in his role as deputy director of the Texas County and District Retirement System, one of the state's largest pension funds.

Sullivan says that activity should have required Harrison to register with the state as a lobbyist. And even if Harrison did register, he still would have been in violation of another rule saying lobbyists cannot serve on the ethics commission.

- Lawmakers to Examine Ballooning Cost of Tuition Program for Texas Veterans.

State university leaders have long complained about what they call an underfunded mandate to provide an increasing number of veterans and their dependents a free college education under the Hazlewood Act. After failed attempts in the last legislative session to restrict eligibility, school officials will meet with House lawmakers Tuesday at the Capitol to discuss ways to pay for it, including tapping the state’s savings account.

From the Texas Tribune: Ethics Commission Approves Pay Increase for Lawmakers

I completely missed this story in the spring. My bad.

- Click here for it.

The Texas Ethics Commission gave approval on Friday to a $40 increase in what lawmakers are given to cover daily expenses while in Austin, which amounts to a $5,600 increase in their pay over the course of the 140-day regular session.

Lawmakers are paid an annual salary of $7,200. In addition, they receive the per diem, which will be $190 a day, up from $150. Over the course of a regular legislative session, they will receive $26,600 for daily expenses. They also receive per diems during special sessions.

The ethics commission had originally proposed increasing the per diem to $210. But it revised that to $190 at the insistence of legislative leadership.

Under state law, increasing the per diem triggers an increase in the amount of money lobbyists can spend on meals for lawmakers before they have to submit a detailed report on the expense. The threshold for detailed reports is 60 percent of the per diem.
The vote on Friday increased that threshold from $90 to $114. Lobbyists would still have the ability to split meal tickets multiple ways to spend more on a lawmaker without triggering the reporting requirement.

House Administration Chairman Charlie Geren, R-Fort Worth, has filed legislation that would de-link the detailed reporting requirements from legislative per diems. Under his bill, that threshold would be set at $50.

And in other Texas Ethics Commission news ....

Here's a bit on an ongoing dispute it has had with a leader of an influential Tea Party affiliated activist. The Texas Ethics Commission thinks he's a lobbyist and should be subject to rules related to lobbying in the state. He disagrees.

- Click here for "Ethics commission wins at appeals court in lobbying case."

A state appeals court has ruled against a powerful conservative activist locked in a long-running legal feud with Texas’ campaign finance regulator, ordering a case that centers on a fine for breaking lobbying laws to be transferred to Travis County. 

Empower Texans President Michael Quinn Sullivan, an influential figure in tea party circles, was fined by the commission in July 2014 for not registering as a lobbyist after it found “evidence of direct communications intended to influence legislative action.”

He appealed in state district court. However, shortly after the fine was levied, Sullivan claimed Denton County as his primary residence in a move that allowed the legal challenge to play out in North Texas as opposed to Travis County.

The Fort Worth-based 2nd Court of Appeals issued a ruling Wednesday to overturn a lower court that had determined Sullivan was a resident of Denton County. The appeals court also ordered the case to be transferred to Travis County, which the court described as the “mandatory venue.”

In the roughly 15 months that the case has bounced around state courts, residency has emerged as a key issue in the case. The commission had long charged that Sullivan plotted to evade a state fine for breaking lobbying laws by claiming residency outside of traditionally liberal Travis County and taking his case up north, where it was dismissed by a judge in Denton earlier this year.

Sullivan’s lawyers, who argue that his actions never amounted to lobbying, said he had long-standing roots in North Texas before claiming Denton as his residence, including family ties and an Empower Texans office.

The three-judge panel at the appeals court rejected that, along with an affidavit Sullivan signed attesting to Denton residency, saying the argument “is nothing more than a legal conclusion unless it is supported by facts that establish such residence.”

For more:

- Wikipedia: Michael Quinn Sullivan.- Tribpedia: Michael Quinn Sullivan.
- Wikipedia: Texans for Fiscal Responsibility.
- Appeals Court Backs Ethics Commission Over Activist.