Follow the Money; Judicial Candidate Gets Big Money from Executives

It is not uncommon to see a lot of big shots' names on campaign finance reports. 

Thats is nothing new. 

Business folks have always made contributions to candidates during election time. Some of the more progressive Democrats don't like that involvement from business and are usually pretty vocal in their opposition. 

The criticism from progressives about business being involved in politics is that they feel its an effort of businesses or "special interests" to "buy" a seat. In fact, it wouldn't be out of the ordinary if 1/3 of a candidates' funds on a campaign finance report were from business folks. 

But what is VERY unusual - and by that I mean unprecedented - is for business people to amount to 1/3 of a judicial candidate's total contributions. 

And this should scare everyone. 

Lisa Soto is a candidate for the 8th Court of Appeals. For those of you that don't know, for the vast majority of cases in our area, the 8th Court of Appeals in the last stop for cases. The Texas State Supreme Court hears very few cases per year, so odds are if you are appealing a case in the district area of the 8th Court of Appeals, the buck stops at the 8th Court of Appeals. And they hear appeals from criminal and civil cases. 

And thats the scary part - but I'm gonna circle back to that later. 

Soto out-raised each of the state rep candidates that are in a competitive race. Those are the races where the cash usually flows pretty freely from all kinds of groups, businesses, and other interests that want some influence. In fact she out-raised everyone in this election cycle with the exception of Congresswoman Escobar and Beto. 

Hell she out-raised all the candidates in several of the races in this election cycle - combined! 

Thats not an exaggeration. 

By comparison, only one other judicial candidate raised close to what Soto raised but they were from the people you typically expect to see on a judicial candidates campaign finance report - big name law firms.

And don't get me wrong, she had a slew of the big name law firms in town on her report as well. 

I went through her report and it reads like a Who's Who of El Paso's upper crust. But that isn't what is troublesome. Just so you all reading this know, I was already a little worried about her candidacy when I read her bio at the Westside Dems. I'll explain that concern in another post - but make sure you read that one too because its a problem for hard core and progressive Democrats. 

The Numbers That Worry Me

If you have ever seen judicial finance reports you know that most of the judicial candidates are funded by attorneys. Occasionally relatives and some business folks might be contribute as well. In fact judges get a little nervous when too many defense lawyers contribute to them (in criminal courts) because they are worried about the perception of being pro-defense. 

Soto was asked directly in the Westside Democrats Candidate Endorsement meeting about her campaign finances - specifically who were her biggest contributors. Her answer was that it was friends and family. Here's the video of how she answered that question. 

But her campaign finance report is a completely different story from what she told Democrats at that meeting. 

And I mean COMPLETELY different. 

Don't believe me? Go check it out for yourselves. 

As I was going through her report I kept seeing a bunch of CEO's, EVP's, Presidents, and owners of companies. So I went back to her report and went line-by-line and added up all the contributions from anyone that was listed as an owner, president, corporate officer or commonly understood high-level employee and it came out to $23,690 from 30 different people I identified on the report. And thats not counting the law firms and partnerships. 

Okay, it was back of a bar napkin math, but I think I'm pretty spot-on in terms of the numbers. 

That means 35% of the money she raised came from business. 

I knew that was outrageously inconsistent with the rest of the judicial community but I went back and checked old finance reports just to make sure I wasn't crazy. Go check them out for yourselves and you'll see what I mean - to my knowledge, this has never happened before. 

And the 8th Court of Appeals hears appeals to criminal - and civil - cases. 

Why would businesses kick in so much money to an appellate court?

By any objective standard, this raises concerns about influence over a candidate and possibly a judicial seat. 

And Ms Soto isn't shy about going after money from the business community either - 

I saw this on the Gram yesterday.

Remember what I said about El Paso's Upper-Crusters being supportive of Soto's candidacy? Well the name of the place sounded fancy-shmancy and so it stoked my curiosity. I checked out some more information about the place and here is how they describe the place in their words. 

Ooooh, memership - ay-ay! 

They tout that among their "members" are "top leaders in business, academia, law, medicine, politics, religion, and the arts."

Mira, mira.

It makes me think they sit around drinking bougie wines with their pinkies up, wearing Members-Only jackets and talking about trust funds and vacations. 

I point this out for two reasons. One, the finance report showing all over contributions from business just came out the other day, and two - she tried really hard to sound like Jenny From the Block in my interview with her a couple weeks ago. 

Okay, three. I like making fun of how self-important the wealthy are. The place has valet parking - on a Tuesday afternoon. Not like some fancy event, - literally on a Tuesday.

Anywho, back to the concern I have. That is a lot of business money being spent on her race, far more than I remember being previously spent on judicial races. 

This is particularly troubling because that court hears appeals on civil matters. Its troubling when you see money flow to a race like that. 

Anytime you see money suddenly flow were it wasn't previously, you always have to ask yourself one question. 

Why?

Any reasonable person would. 

Next post - the other thing that is bothering me...