Home > Trail Blazers Blog

Tag Archives: campaign finance

Simmons’ widow, daughter split picks for lieutenant governor

Serena Simmons Connelly, center, is a major Democratic donor, despite being the daughter of the late GOP uber donor Harold Simmons. (2008 photo by Lara Solt/Staff photographer)

The late Dallas billionaire Harold Simmons may have been a Republican mega donor but his family is splitting its political bets this fall.

In checks written on the eve of the election, Simmons’ widow, Annette, gave Republican lieutenant governor hopeful Dan Patrick $25,000, while his daughter, Serena Simmons Connelly, gave Democrat Leticia Van de Putte $10,000. For the year, that brought Serena’s financial backing of Van de Putte to $17,500, according to Texas Ethics Commission records.

In this election cycle, Annette Simons has given Republican candidates $120,000, the commission’s records show. Half went to unsuccessful attorney general candidate Dan Branch of Dallas.

Since January 2013, Serena Connelly has given more than $358,000 to state Democratic causes, according to commission records. Of that, more than $120,000 went to gubernatorial nominee Wendy Davis and the Texas Victory Committee, the Davis campaign’s joint project with voter-organizing Battleground Texas; more than $90,000 to ActBlue, the Democratic internet fundraising tool; and $25,000 each to the Planned Parenthood Texas Votes PAC and the Texas Organizing Project.

Annette Simmons, shown with her late husband Harold at a Dallas ball in 2013. (Kelly Alexander)

Her sister, Lisa Simmons, also has supported Democrats, though without as many zeroes on her checks.

Lisa Simmons, president of the Harold Simmons Foundation, has given Davis and Battleground Texas $4,000 since May. Serena Connelly is the foundation’s executive vice president.

The sometimes surprising “left turns” of the foundation and Simmons’ daughters were chronicled last year in this piece by the Center for Public Integrity. Among them was its donation of $600,000 to Planned Parenthood and its North Texas affiliate.

Serena Connelly and Lisa Simmons together control nearly 94 percent of Dallas-based Contran Corp., a closely held company with subsidiaries producing a chemical used in house paint and rayon clothing as well as manufacturing security products and recreational marine components, according to this February story by Bloomberg BusinessWeek.

Since Oct. 25, when candidates filed their last detailed reports on contributions and expenditures, Patrick has raised about $330,000 in late money, to Van de Putte’s $211,000. That’s not out of line with their overall financial effort. Though Patrick has outraised and outspent her, Van de Putte has kept it relatively close. And while Patrick aides complain she’s received major in-kind donations from Planned Parenthood, TOP and Battleground Texas, it was a major gift from one conservative PAC, $125,000 from Texans for Lawsuit Reform, that kept Patrick ahead in the “telegram” reports on last-minute contributions.

Carona makes peace with Patrick, Van de Putte pulls more Planned Parenthood help

Sen. John Carona talks with a supporter in Dallas on primary night in March. (Kye R. Lee/Staff photographer)

Update at 3:25 p.m.: Have corrected date of Paul Reyes’ and Helen Carona’s contributions to Patrick: They gave on the same day in 2013, not this year.

Original item at 12:43 p.m.: Dallas state Sen. John Carona has continued to make peace with fellow Republican and lieutenant governor candidate Dan Patrick.

The political action committee at Carona’s business Associa Inc., which manages homeowners’ assocations across the country, gave Patrick $5,000 earlier this week, according to telegram reports to the Texas Ethics Commission.

As my colleague Terrence Stutz reported here nearly 2 1/2 years ago, Carona called Patrick a “snake oil salesman” and a “narcissist that would say anything to draw attention to himself.”

Patrick, R-Houston, said in an email to all senators that Carona had spread a false rumor that Patrick and his wife, Jan, were divorcing. Carona, R-Dallas, replied that Patrick should have first checked with him regarding the allegations before contacting their colleagues. Carona also raised the ante, mentioning rumors about Patrick’s sexual orientation as well. Patrick dismissed as “a lie” suggestions he is gay and demanded Carona apologize.

At the time, Carona didn’t. Late last year, though, the Associa PAC gave $30,000 to Patrick, even as Carona didn’t personally endorse him in the GOP lieutenant governor primary.

In March, Carona lost his Senate seat to tea party-backed Republican Don Huffines in a GOP primary. Since then, he has endorsed Patrick.

Dan Patrick and Leticia Van de Putte shake hands at their televised debate last month. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

As I reported in a story in Wednesday’s newspaper, Associa executive Paul Reyes, a former Carona Senate staff aide, contributed $20,000 to Patrick. That was on top of $5,000 Reyes gave to Patrick in August 2013 — the same day Carona’s wife, Helen, chipped in $2,500 to the Patrick cause.

It appears that Associa may have some legislative irons in the fire.

Meanwhile, Sen. Leticia Van de Putte, Patrick’s Democratic colleague and opponent for lieutenant governor, reported more than three times as many late contributions as did Patrick.

This week, she took in more than $82,000, to about $23,500 for Patrick.

Just more than half of the contributions on Van de Putte’s telegram reports came from groups supporting abortion rights. Planned Parenthood’s PACs in New York City and Austin donated nearly $30,000 of staff time, phone calls and postage. Annie’s List gave the San Antonio lawmaker a $13,000 check.

As I noted in Wednesday’s story, Patrick strategist Allen Blakemore belittled Van de Putte’s matching Patrick’s fundraising haul of $2 million between Sept. 26 and Saturday. Blakemore noted that one-third of her money was in-kind donations from Planned Parenthood, the liberal group Texas Organizing Project and voter-organizing Battleground Texas.

On Thursday morning, Logan Spence, a long-time Patrick aide, seized on the late assists from Planned Parenthood PACs as a sign Van de Putte would try to lead the Senate in a very different direction on abortion than Patrick would. But then we knew that, didn’t we?

Here’s Spence’s tweet on the subject:

Van de Putte edges Patrick, barely, in recent fundraising

Lieutenant governor rivals Dan Patrick, left, and Leticia Van de Putte shake hands last month at their only televised debate (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

Update at 12:48 p.m.: I have inserted the two campaigns’ reactions.

Original item at 11:27 a.m.: Democrat Leticia Van de Putte raised more money — barely — than her GOP rival for lieutenant governor, Dan Patrick, in the latest reporting period, according to reports posted Tuesday on the Texas Ethics Commission website.

Van de Putte banked $2.086 million in contributions, compared with $2.052 million pocketed by Patrick, the reports showed. So her edge was about $34,000.

“This is what an upset looks like,” Van de Putte campaign finance director Nikki Bizzarri said in a statement. More than 5,200 different donors gave to Van de Putte during the reporting period, which was Sept. 26 through Saturday.

Patrick, though, outspent her by nearly $1 million and enjoyed a better than $1.3 million cash advantage at the period’s close.

“We’re running hard, all the way to the finish line,” Patrick said in a statement. It said nearly 1,000 individuals gave money to him during the period.

Patrick entered the period with nearly $4.3 million, to Van de Putte’s $2.2 million. He spent $3.1 million and had just over $2.8 million in the bank as of Saturday.

She spent $2.2 million during the period and wound up with just less than $1.5 million in cash.

Patrick’s campaign still owes him more than $2 million. Van de Putte hasn’t borrowed for her campaign.

Both candidates are state senators — Van de Putte, from San Antonio; and Patrick, from Houston. They are competing to succeed Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, whom Patrick ousted in a hard-fought Republican primary.

UPDATED: Patrick raises nearly $4.3 million to Van de Putte’s $2.6 million

Democratic lieutenant governor nominee Leticia Van de Putte, at her televised debate with Dan Patrick last week. (AP photo/Eric Gay)

Update at 2:12 p.m.: Dan Patrick raised $4.273 million in a recent 13-week period and spent $804,000, says his campaign’s senior strategist, Allen Blakemore.

He ended the period with $4.297 million in the bank, Blakemore said.

While Patrick did not reserve TV ad time before Sept. 25, the end of the reporting period, Blakemore said the Republican lieutenant governor nominee will air ads before next month’s election.

He offered no details.

Blakemore said, jokingly, “We’ll have Dan in camouflage or something.”

So Patrick entered the home stretch with a money edge of about $2.1 million over Democrat Leticia Van de Putte. Her spokesman, Emmanuel Garcia, said in a Monday interview that she spent “upwards of $1 million” on TV ads that have been running for about a month.

Neither side is putting out their campaign-finance reports, which may not be available online at the Texas Ethics Commission’s website until Tuesday. They have to be filed by midnight Monday.

Update at 12:43 p.m.: Democratic lieutenant governor candidate Leticia Van de Putte raised more than $2.6 million in the latest reporting period, her campaign announced Monday.

Even after making “a substantial television ad buy” for her fall race against GOP rival Dan Patrick, Van de Putte closed out the period with almost $2.2 million in the bank, said spokesman Emmanuel Garcia. He has declined to say how big the ad buy was.

“Senator Van de Putte has posted another strong fundraising report,” Garcia said in a statement. More than 6,000 people contributed to her campaign between July 1 and Sept. 25, he said.

While Van de Putte has made “bold policy proposals on every major issue,” Patrick “continues to defend his reckless education cuts and hide from general election voters,” Garcia said.

Original item at 11:34 a.m.: Republican state Sen. Dan Patrick has raised at least $3.4 million for his lieutenant governor bid since July 1.

On Monday, Patrick’s campaign announced that at the end of the latest reporting period, it had $4.3 million in cash.

GOP lieutenant governor candidate Dan Patrick answers questions after televised debate with Democrat Leticia Van de Putte last Monday night. (AP Photo/The Daily Texan, Ethan Oblak)

As of June 30, after a costly but smashingly successful primary battle against incumbent Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, Patrick’s campaign cash dwindled to $947,000.

Patrick did not release his latest report. It was due Monday at the Texas Ethics Commission and covers July 1 through Sept. 25.

He hasn’t aired TV commercials in his fall contest against Democrat Leticia Van de Putte, a fellow state senator. Unless Patrick bought time in advance, it’s likely that his spending was light in the latest reporting period.

Senior Patrick campaign strategist Allen Blakemore said in a written statement that Patrick surpassed his fundraising goal for the period. Blakemore, though, did not specify either the goal or the amount actually raised. If the overhead was virtually zero, Patrick would have added at least $3.4 million to the $947,000 he had on June 30 — and perhaps more.

“We remain on track with our plan for victory,” Patrick said in a statement.

Blakemore said that since July 1, 2013, Patrick received more than 6,000 contributions totaling more than $12 million. Of that, as much as $2 million was loans from the candidate, who co-owns two radio stations.

On June 30, Van de Putte had nearly $1.2 million in cash, after raising slightly more than $2 million in the first six months of the year.

Asked how much cash she now has, Van de Putte spokesman Emmanuel Garcia demurred.

“We will have our release coming out soon,” he said.

Entrepreneurs worried about education bloat, “late train” lobbyists fill Patrick’s coffers

Sen. Dan Patrick, at WFAA studios in Dallas earlier this month (Michael Ainsworth/Staff photographer)

Up until Tuesday, the case study for “getting right” with Sen. Dan Patrick has been Texans for Lawsuit Reform.

The group that has successfully crusaded for lawsuit limits, with Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst dutifully helping carry its water every session, flip-flopped soon after Patrick bested the incumbent by 13 percentage points in the March primary for lieutenant governor. It backed Patrick.

But with the release of the two men’s latest money reports on Tuesday, we have a wider view of which interest groups and Austin insiders have scampered to hand checks to Patrick. He is the favorite to win next week’s GOP runoff, which has been tantamount to election in statewide races. I had this story in Wednesday’s paper that detailed some of the “late train” maneuvers.

Dallas tax consultant Brint Ryan and his company’s PAC laid down a large mea culpa, giving Patrick $200,000. Some gambling and booze interests also got religion.

Austin lobbyists leaping to support Patrick included the Hillco PAC, led by Buddy Jones and Bill Miller, with $15,000; Mike Toomey, $5,000; Bryan Eppstein, $2,500; the Delisi Communications PAC, $2,000; and former Sen. Tommy Williams, who now represents Texas A&M University.

Williams, who clashed bitterly with Patrick during and after last year’s session, gave him $10,000 from his campaign account. Earlier in the year, Williams contributed $5,000 from that account to Dewhurst, as well as another $10,000 from personal funds, Ethics Commission records show.

The Hillco and Delisi PACs also gave to Dewhurst earlier in the cycle.

More than expedience, though, has driven Patrick’s successful fundraising. In the last 12 weeks, he raised $3.9 million in contributions and received another $500,000 in loans, his report showed.

Clearly, he has excited an increasingly active group of Texas millionaires who have strong ideological concerns about public schools and state universities.

One of Patrick’s runoff-campaign loans, for $200,000, was from San Antonio doctor and hospital-bed inventor James Leininger, who advocates for school vouchers. The Empower Texans PAC, mostly funded by Midland oilman and fiscal hawk Tim Dunn, guaranteed the other, for $300,000. The PAC also gave Patrick $450,000.

Current or former University of Texas regents Wallace Hall of Dallas, Alex Cranberg of Austin and Gene Powell of San Antonio wrote five-figure checks to Patrick, as did Austin oil and gas investor Jeff Sandefer, a key figure in recent higher education controversies.

Also backing Patrick were a slew of other supporters of staunchly conservative PACs, such as Empower Texans and the emerging Accountability First PAC. They included hotel investor Monty Bennett of Dallas, $15,000; oilman Kyle Stallings of Midland, $10,000; landscaping firm owner Rex Gore of Austin, $15,000; and janitorial services entrepreneurs Don Dyer of Austin, $15,000, and Brent Southwell of Houston, $10,000. The two PACs have criticized bond issues by several school districts and cities.

The runoff is Tuesday.

Cornyn praises Supreme Court for lifting campaign contribution limits

Minority Whip John Cornyn, R-Texas, center, after Republican strategy session on June 18, 2013. (AP/J. Scott Applewhite)

WASHINGTON– Sen. John Cornyn today praised the Supreme Court’s decision removing limits on the amount of money individuals can contribute to candidates and party committees.

“I think it was the right decision,” Cornyn said on his weekly call with Texas reporters. “This is important, and it allows people to contribute to the political process.”

Previously, contributions to candidates were limited to $48,600 per election cycle, and the overall cap on giving was $123,000. The decision issued today in McCutcheon v. FEC eliminates these caps.

Cornyn noted that the court kept in place limits to a single candidate. An individual can still give only $2,600 to a particular candidate in a race (twice that, counting the primary and general election) and $32,000 to any one party committee– but the number of candidates and committees a person can give to is now unlimited.

“You don’t have to pick just a handful of people you want to help because you hit that cap and you can’t exceed it [as] under the previous law…. This is a way of leveling the playing field and not restricting peoples’ ability to participate in the political process,” he said.

Sen. Ted Cruz also lauded the decision, calling it an expansion of free speech rights and “a victory for the First Amendment.”

“The restriction that the Court struck down benefited incumbent politicians by limiting the ability of Americans to support as many candidates as they choose,” he said in a statement.

Some have harshly criticized the court’s move, saying it weakens already insufficient campaign finance laws and opens to the door to stripping away other elements of campaign finance oversight in the future.

The court was split on the decision, which passed 5-4. In a strongly worded dissenting opinion, Justice Stephen Breyer said the decision “fails to recognize the difference between influence resting upon public opinion and influence bought by money alone; that overturns key precedent; that creates huge loopholes in the law; and that undermines, perhaps devastates, what remains of campaign finance reform.

Cornyn didn’t see the rule change benefiting either party. “I think it’s a wash,” he said, noting that Democrats are just as able to take advantage of the new rules as Republicans.

They may well need to, if Cornyn is correct in his bullish assessment of Republican’s chances of winning six Senate seats and taking control of the chamber in November.

Recent polls have suggested Democrats are losing the battle to maintain control of the Senate. Cornyn blamed the president’s push for “big government” over-regulation, and failure to curb spending. Despite a relative rise in the popularity of Obamacare, and a surge in new applications via healthcare.gov, he called that law the Achilles heel for Democrats.

“Obamacare has to be the No. 1 issue,” he said. “The president’s credibility has been damaged severely, and I think he’s taking his Democratic colleagues down with him.”

Cornyn, the No. 2 Republican as minority whip, was asked if he’d rather be majority whip.

“Yes,” he answered. “That’s an easy one.”

Race between Veasey and Sanchez got pricey

Rep. Marc Veasey, D-Fort Worth, and his primary challenger, telecommunications lawyer Tom Sanchez.

WASHINGTON — With the dust settled, Rep. Marc Veasey defeated Tom Sanchez in an expensive primary race for the 33rd Congressional District.

Sanchez, a telecommunications lawyer, spent $673,552 of his own funds, as of Feb. 12. For the 4,797 votes he received, that’s a pricey $140.40 per vote.

Veasey spent $483,480, securing the Democratic nomination with nearly three out of every four ballots — or $36.40 per vote a relative bargain.

Expect these totals to change once finance data from the final weeks of the campaign are filed.

Both congressional races during the 33rd Congressional District’s short history have proved costly. When Veasey won the newly created seat in 2012, Dallas dentist David Alameel — now facing a runoff for the U.S. Senate nomination — spent $4,529,955, almost entirely his own money. That yielded 2,064 votes, at a cost topping $2,000 per vote. And he ran a distant fourth.

For the 2012 primary and runoff, Veasey spent about $926,000 — about $86 per runoff vote.

Some Texas GOP mega-donors tread softly in No. 2 race

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, the GOP's leading candidate for governor, speaks to reporters after he voted in Austin on Tuesday. (AP Photo/Austin American-Statesman, Ricardo Brazziell)

Here’s something to do while you wait for election returns:

With Monday’s release of the Forbes billionaire list, my timing couldn’t have been better for a story in Tuesday’s print editions about how Greg Abbott’s biggest contributors have handled their obvious excess of disposable income in Texas’ GOP race for lieutenant governor.

My finding: While some of Texas’ GOP high rollers have written sizable checks to one or two of the Republican candidates for the state’s No. 2 political job, many are staying on the sidelines — at least until they see who survives Tuesday’s primary.

You can see the Abbott Top 25 list below. It details how five of them stayed completely out of the lieutenant governor’s race, while eight others gave $25,000 or less to any of the four hopefuls. But some of the others gave some pretty serious money, mostly to incumbent David Dewhurst.

It’s just a snapshot, though. In a reminder of how fast-moving campaign finance can be, Abbott’s latest “telegram report” to the Texas Ethics Commission on Tuesday showed that Midland oilman Javaid Anwar tossed another $125,000 into the leading GOP gubernatorial candidate’s coffers on Friday. Had I known of that late Monday, I’d have moved Anwar into fifth place on the Abbott Top 25 list, with total contributions of $389,000.

NOTE: Due to a production glitch, the document below omitted $5,000 that John Nau donated to Jerry Patterson.

GOP heavy hitters in lieutenant governor's contest

Eric Opiela far outspending competition in agriculture commissioner race

Eric Opiela, Republican candidate for agriculture commissioner, hopes TV ads will help boost his profile in the primary.

Republican Eric Opiela, candidate for agriculture commissioner, spent $1.1 million on his campaign in the past month. That’s roughly triple the total spent by his four primary challengers combined, state reports show.

The Karnes City rancher, attorney and Republican operative has dropped over $1 million of his own money into the race. The biggest chunk of Opiela’s spending has gone toward statewide TV spots. He’s the only candidate in the race to make such a buy.

Hampton Williams, spokesman for Opiela, said there’s a large “under vote” in the agriculture commissioner race, meaning many Texans vote for the governor or lieutenant governor but fail to vote on lesser-known positions such as ag commissioner.

The goal is to “raise our candidates profile in the race,” Hampton said. “This is a five person race and you’ve got to do something to stand out. We were blessed with the resources to help us stand out.”

It’s not yet clear how Opiela’s big-spending strategy will pay off. No major polling on the race has been made public in the past month. Early voting is already under way and the primary is on March 4.

On the issues, the Republican candidates have taken similar lines. Several hopefuls have put water atop their list of priorities and spoken about improving food-assistance programs administered by the Department of Agriculture.

The candidates are also touting the importance, to varying degrees, of standard conservative agenda items such as private property rights, border security, fiscal restraint and combating federal overregulation.

Also running in the Republican primary are Uvalde Mayor J Allen Carnes, former Longview Representative Tommy Merritt, former Stephenville Representative Sid Miller and Dallas financial advisor Joe Cotten.

Merritt, a farmer and businessman, spent nearly a quarter-million dollars on advertising.

Carnes spent over $100,000 in the January-February reporting period, more than $80,000 of that went toward advertising, according to financial disclosures. Nolan Ryan recently endorsed Carnes and assisted the campaign with a radio ad.

Miller, a nurseryman, spent about $38,000 in the reporting period, much of it allotted to advertising, according to financial reports.

Cotten spent about $3,000 on his campaign website but little else. He didn’t note any contributions in February.

Kinky Friedman of Medina, Hugh Fitzsimons of San Antonio and Jim Hogan of Cleburne are running on the Democratic ticket.

Dewhurst taps deep pockets, including his own

From left, Jerry Patterson, Dan Patrick, Todd Staples and David Dewhurst, at last month's televised debate of the four GOP lieutenant governor candidates (AP Photo/LM Otero)

Update at 3:20 p.m. — Texans for Accountability, a political action committee that has been running radio ads against Patrick, received more than half of the $82,500 it raised in the past month from Provost Umphrey LLP, a trial lawyer firm in Beaumont. As we reported below earlier Tuesday, five members of the firm gave $70,000 to Patterson, a fierce critic of Patrick. Provost Umphrey gave the anti-Patrick PAC $45,000. Two paralegals with another trial lawyer firm, The Gallagher Law Firm LLP of Houston, each gave $12,500 to Texans for Accountability. Earlier this month, the online political outlet Quorum Report first disclosed the PAC’s existence, though reporter Scott Braddock suggested it would be funded by “business interests.” So far at least, plaintiffs’ lawyers are picking up most of the tab. The PAC has a website pummeling Patrick for hiring unauthorized immigrants decades ago and not paying back creditors of his old sports bar chain.

Original item at 1:03 p.m. — Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst turned to some heavy hitters, including himself, as he finally unleashed a tide of spending to try to wrest a fourth term against three Republican challengers, his latest campaign finance report shows.

Dewhurst, who made and lost a small fortune in oil and gas before making a larger one in electric cogeneration plants, loaned his campaign $2 million on Feb. 10, according to a new report about his contributions and expenditures he filed with the Texas Ethics Commission.

Between Jan. 24 and Saturday, Dewhurst raised from others nearly $1.5 million — more than twice the amount drummed up in that period by the most successful of his competitors, Agriculture Commissioner Todd Staples. Staples raised $650,000.

Among those giving to Dewhurst were an array of health care, energy, telecom, electricity generation and finance-related political action committees, led by the Ryan Texas PAC. Employees of the Dallas-based, tax consulting firm gave him $100,000.

Wealthy Texans who are bullish on Dewhurst’s chances of surviving the March 4 primary and a likely May runoff included, in the latest period, former telecommunications executive and horse breeder Kenny Troutt of Dallas, who gave $150,000; Houston road builder James “Doug” Pitcock, $100,000; former George W. Bush bundler Nancy Kinder, of Houston’s Kinder Morgan Oil and Gas firm, $50,000; and Midland oilman Javaid Anwar, $50,000. Staples’ campaign said Dewhurst’s average donation in the period was nearly $9,250, more than seven times the size of Staples’ average contribution.

State Sen. Dan Patrick of Houston, a radio station owner and talk-show host, loaned himself another $200,000. That helped him be the period’s second-biggest spender. He spent $1.2 million, compared with the $3.4 million spent by Dewhurst. Patrick now owes himself $1.555 million; Dewhurst, $2.388 million.

San Antonio businessman and school voucher advocate has given Dan Patrick $25,000. Leininger is shown at a 2006 "Texas Taxpayer Summit" hosted by Americans for Prosperity. (AP Photo/Jack Plunkett)

Patrick’s report showed he is collecting a lot of small contributions, especially from retirees. Though Patrick reported few large gifts, one was $25,000 from San Antonio hospital-bed inventor James Leininger. Leininger, a champion of school vouchers for low-income families, was once a major GOP donor but has taken a low profile since the 2008 recession. Patrick also received $10,000 apiece from Dallas homemaker Nancy Best and Midland energy investor Kenneth Dickeson.

In the period, Staples raised more than Patrick and Patterson combined — $650,339 to Patrick’s $301,830 and Patterson’s $247,943.

Alone among the contenders, Staples has not loaned himself any money. Like Patrick’s, his report included a lengthy list of smaller donors.

Staples, though, reported five-figure gifts from several auto dealers. He received $50,000 from Jim Prewitt of Flower Mound, who owns Landmark Nurseries and gave Staples $55,000 last fall; $25,000 from University of Texas regent Alex Cranberg of Austin, an oil and gas entrepreneur; and $40,000 from Margaret and James Perkins, who have East Texas banking interests and who earlier gave Staples at least $80,000. San Antonio ranch company executive Scott Petty Jr. gave Staples $25,000.

Patterson, who loaned himself $200,000 on Dec. 31, has trailed in fundraising. He was surprisingly flush, though, reporting more cash on hand — about $347,000 — than either Staples ($331,000) or Patrick ($168,000). Dewhurst entered the home stretch of the primary with about $581,000 in the bank.

According to the Staples analysis, Patterson had 305 unique contributors (some may have given more than once). That was twice as many as Dewhurst (149) but lagged Patrick (437) and Staples (485).

Patterson received $70,000 in the period from five people who work for Beaumont’s Provost Umphrey law firm, which includes trial lawyers who represent injured plaintiffs; and $25,000 from members of the LaMantia family of McAllen, which owns a beer distributorship and has had an interest in horse-racing tracks proposed for the border. The family generally backs Democrats though it sometimes has supported a maverick Republican, such as former Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn in her failed bid for governor in 2006.