Expect more corporate money in political campaigns because of Texas courts

Friday, October 24th, 2008
by Gardner B.

Although the Texas Association of Business pleaded to guilty to violating campaign finance laws, the Austin American-Statesman points out that the end result of the legal wrangling is that corporate money will still be allowed in political campaigns in Texas.

The courts ruled that as long as the corporate money doesn’t advocate for a specific candidate, then it is free speech.  So these corporations can continue to dump hundreds of thousands of dollars in negative advertising in political campaigns.  It’s not surprising that the courts favored the corporations.  In the Texas Supreme Court, consumers get ruled against 87% of the time.

The result of corporate money in 2002 was a Legislature that allowed Texas to have the highest homeowners insurance rates in the country, some of the highest electric rates in the country and deregulated tuition to make college unaffordable to many middle-class families.

We’ve got to elect a new leadership in Texas that puts middle-class families first and we have to elect new judges so that courthouses are places where people can seek relief, not places where corporations are given a free pass to do whatever they wish.