Still a crook any way you look
The top Democrats on three U.S. House committees are going after Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, accusing him of ignoring consumer complaints about the Republican organization WinRed’s online fundraising tactics, while filing a lawsuit against the site’s Democratic counterpart ActBlue.
The lawmakers — U.S. Reps. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, Robert Garcia of California and Joseph Morelle of New York — have demanded his office turn over any documents related to complaints about WinRed’s use of a pre-checked box to draw repeated campaign donations from donors without their knowledge.
“While you have done nothing to investigate dozens of such complaints from Texans about being defrauded by WinRed, the platform used to process campaign contributions to Republican candidates and political committees, your office has opened an investigation into an unrelated entity, ActBlue, which processes donations to Democratic candidates and causes,” the lawmakers said in a letter to Paxton, who on Tuesday became the Texas Republican nominee for U.S. Senate.
The letter cites a May 12 report by Hearst Newspapers that 27 complaints had been filed with Paxton’s office against WinRed, a platform he and other Texas Republicans use to raise campaign funds. Several complainants told Hearst that they had received no acknowledgement from the attorney general’s office, despite some saying that the fundraising platform had siphoned much of their life savings from their bank accounts.
The letter, signed by Raskin of the House Judiciary Committee, Garcia of the Oversight and Government Reform and Morelle of the Administration Committee, asks Paxton to turn over complaints and related internal communications by June 8. However, because Democrats are in the minority in the House, they have no formal power to force compliance by Paxton or his office.
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Hearst Newspapers found that Paxton’s office had received dozens of complaints over recent years about WinRed from Texans, or family members on their behalf, who suspected the pre-checked box had allowed the platform to continue charging them for months, or even years. One donor said $15,000 had been taken from her account without her knowledge; another said nearly $11,000 had been taken from his account before he had noticed the missing funds.
“Didn’t realize they were sucking my life savings out of my bank account,” Charlene Allmon, 87, said in her complaint.
Paxton’s office received similar complaints about ActBlue, although there were fewer. One disabled, 83-year-old Vietnam War veteran told Paxton’s office that he had racked up $4,600 in costs and hundreds of dollars in overdraft fees from unnoticed monthly donations.
In 2021, following a New York Times investigation into political organizations using pre-checked boxes for recurring donations, the Federal Election Commission urged Congress to outlaw the practice. So far, Congress has not acted on the recommendation.
ActBlue has since forbidden candidates from pre-checking recurring donation boxes unless donors already agreed to set up repeated contributions. WinRed has not.
It’s a gift link, so read the rest. This isn’t about whether Reps. Raskin, Morelle, and Garcia are able to drag Ken Paxton before a committee to testify. In the world we are hoping for, while they will be in the majority, Paxton will be out of office, and there will be higher priorities. This is about fighting against vermin like Paxton on as many fronts as possible. Bring every aspect of his lawless behavior to light, and make sure the people who might not know much about him as well as the people who should know better are fully informed. Just making the effort is worth it, because the rest of us want to see elected Dems engage in these battles. Now don’t let this be a one-and-done. Keep up the pressure, and get your friends involved, too.