From the Texas Tribune: Despite beer and lobby ties, Speaker Dennis Bonnen sees no need for recusals or new disclosures Bonnen, who married into a beer distributing family, says he doesn't need to recuse himself on alcohol issues and won't name the lobbyists who own a piece of his bank — a list that is much longer than previously reported.

For 2306 - this highlights the conflicts created by a "citizen" legislature.

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When Republican state Rep. Dennis Bonnen was looking to raise money for his bank a decade ago, he turned to familiar faces for some of the investment capital: lobbyists who get paid to influence people like him.

More recently, when a restaurant in Tyler was concerned about the slow processing of its liquor permit, members of Bonnen’s beer-distributing family sought assistance on its behalf — and soon the Angleton lawmaker’s office asked state regulators what was taking so long.

Now that the bank CEO has risen to one of the highest offices in state government — speaker of the Texas House — his financial ties to lobbyists and the permit "status check" he provided at the request of his wife’s family highlight two potentially fraught areas for the new GOP leader, particularly during a legislative session in which alcohol laws could undergo major revision.

Bonnen told The Texas Tribune he sees no conflicts of interest, no reason to take any formal steps to distance himself from beer or banking issues, and no need to tighten disclosure rules that make it impossible for Texans to know for sure which lobbyists have invested in his Heritage Bank of Pearland — a list that is much larger than what has previously been reported.

“We’re a citizen legislature, and what our constitution and what the people of Texas have wanted for over a hundred years is people to be elected, come to Austin for a short period of time, and live and work under the laws that we pass,” Bonnen said in an interview at the Capitol last week.

But ethics watchdogs say that at a minimum, Bonnen should disclose the full list of lobbyists and Texas lawmakers who invested in Heritage while taking clear steps to distance himself from any legislative issues that could conflict with any personal or family business.

“Texans have a right to know who has the potential to influence legislators,” said Carol Birch, legislative counsel for the liberal watchdog group Public Citizen of Texas. “If the disclosure requirements aren't requiring that type of information, then we’ve got a problem.”