There’s not been a lot of local news coverage of State Rep campaigns so far. One way to get covered is to spend lots of campaign money without documenting what it’s for.
Republican state Rep. John Davis has represented the Clear Lake area for eight years, but there are questions about what happened to nearly $100,000 in campaign donations.
Like every member of the Texas House of Representatives, Rep. Davis collects campaign donations and is required to report them to the Texas Ethics Commission.
11 News tracked Rep. Davis’s campaign finance reports for the last six years and found that unlike most members of the Texas House, Rep. Davis is unusually vague about what happens to much of that money.
Most of his reports are specific and follow the rules: $50 for the electric bill in his Austin apartment; $300 for a sponsorship of the NASA area little league team.
But there were also entries such as, $5,490 for “miscellaneous expenses,” paying of an American Express bill. In fact, credit card charges that contained no explanation as to what the card actually purchased total $48,734 in the last six years.
After receiving a citizen complaint about that, the Texas Ethics Commission sent Rep. Davis a letter announcing an investigation and asking him to provide copies of the American Express bills.
Rep. Davis says he is complying.
More entries included John Davis paying John Davis with campaign donations. He lists them as reimbursements for “out of pocket expenses,” but the ethics commission rules are clear on that: Politicians need to specifically say what they’re purchasing, and why they need to be reimbursed with campaign donations. And Rep. Davis never does. In six years, those out of pocket reimbursements add up to $50,135.
Rep. Davis told 11 News by phone, “I made a mistake, and we’ll get it corrected. It’s incumbent on me to know what the rules are.”
He said all the expenses were for legitimate campaign or legislative purposes.
I’m sure you didn’t need another reason to vote for Sherrie Matula, but here it is anyway. Much of the legwork (though not the actual complaint) on this has been done by Muse – well done! PinkDome provides some artwork for the story (there’s video at the KHOU link above), while John Coby and PDiddie join in.
At this point, these seem to be minor technical violations, not necessarily evidence he’s abusing his campaign fund and trying to cover it up. But when the AmEx bills are produced – or when Rep. Davis refuses to do so, we’ll have a clearer idea. Keep us posted.
I’m sure you didn’t need another reason to vote for Sherrie Matula, but here it is anyway.
For me – and, I suspect, for most of your readers – the fact that he’s a Republican is reason enough, at least absent compelling evidence to the contrary!
There are some awfully big expenses at a boot shop in South Houston that don’t look campaign related.