Dallas / Fort Worth Local News

AUSTIN (AP) ― They may have lost ground in the last election, but state House Republicans are playing up their two-seat majority for all it's worth: they're asking for "unlimited" corporate and personal contributions to raise money and finance strategy sessions this week at the fancy Lost Pines Resort & Spa, where donations and access to top leaders go hand in hand.

GOP House Caucus meetings are held before every legislative session, the next one set to begin in January. But critics, including fellow Republicans, said the economic downturn, the party's recent electoral losses and the way the money is being raised -- by doling out access to GOP leaders based on the amount given -- is particularly ill-timed and tone-deaf.

"It's very startling to me that we are going to a resort to plan our strategy and charge someone for access to members of the Legislature," said state Rep. Tommy Merritt, R-Longview, who is challenging House Speaker Tom Craddick for the leadership post. "My door is always open. They don't have to pay for access."

This year, for $5,000, contributors will receive two tickets to "VIP dinner & Strategy Meetings," a single golf outing and other benefits. Those giving $10,000 get six VIP dinner tickets plus two golf outings with a "Preferred House Leader." Chip in $25,000 or more and you get 15 VIP dinner tickets, four golf outings with a "Preferred House Member" and prominent company advertising at the event, which begins Tuesday.

The two-day confab includes dinner Wednesday night at the home of registered lobbyist Bill Pewitt, whose clients include Accenture. Last year the company lost a lucrative state contract designed to privatize the state's social services eligibility system.

Gov. Rick Perry, his pollster Mike Baselice, Craddick and national Republican activist Michael Steele, a candidate for Republican National Committee chairman, are among the invited speakers. The news media is not allowed to attend the event.

Chad Wilbanks, a Republican Caucus strategist, said all the donations will be disclosed to the Texas Ethics Commission and will be used to fund research and assistance for GOP members during the upcoming session of the Legislature, which meets for five hectic months starting on Jan. 13. He said there's nothing unusual or new about providing golfing trips or dinner for donors.

"Anybody that contributes to the caucus, whether it be at the top level or the $500 level, everybody is going to get an opportunity to interact with the elected officials that show up," Wilbanks said. "It's just kind of a brainstorming session and interacting and so forth."

The invitation, which went out to lobbyists and traditional GOP donors, says contributions will be used by Republican members to "fight back against attempts by the personal injury trial lawyers to roll back tort-reform laws and against attempts that call for more taxes and more government interference." Trial lawyers are bedrock donors for Texas Democrats.

The contributor response form attached to the invitation to the resort and spa near Austin suggests that any type of money will do, and in Texas, political cash can be given without restraint: "Unlimited corporate, personal and PAC contributions are accepted," it says.

Direct corporate donations are prohibited for use by candidates in electoral campaigns in Texas, but it's legal to use both corporate and labor money for administrative expenses and overhead by political parties and committees.

Republicans hold all statewide offices and both houses of the Legislature in Texas. But Republicans have been losing ground. In 2003, Craddick, R-Midland, became the first GOP speaker in modern times and presided over a 26-seat majority. He now has a two-seat margin.

Wilbanks said the GOP House caucus isn't doing anything its Democratic counterparts haven't done.

Democrats, who gained three seats in the state House, held a caucus meeting the day after the elections at the headquarters of the Texas branch of the AFL-CIO near the state capitol. No money was raised, but lobbyists picked up the tab for the barbecue served at the afternoon event.

One Democrat running for House speaker, Rep. Pete Gallego, D-Alpine, said he saw nothing wrong with caucus groups meeting to discuss strategy. But he criticized the GOP caucus' open solicitation for corporate money.

"Anytime you give a perception that access in government is for sale and you put on your invitation that you're specifically asking for unlimited corporate contributions, that's a problem," Gallego said. "What it says to the general public ... is that only those who can write unlimited checks are invited to the conversations."

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