Mowery says she will amend reports
State Rep. Anna Mowery said Thursday that she will amend her campaign finance filings after a Fort Worth resident filed a state ethics complaint saying information was missing about some of her largest donors.The Texas Election Code requires that contributions of $500 or more from individuals include the donor's occupation and the full name of the donor's employer. The complaint says Mowery, a Fort Worth Republican seeking a 10th term, did not provide that information for more than a dozen contributions, including a $10,000 donation from Houston home builder Bob Perry.
Mowery says she will amend reports
By AMAN BATHEJA
STAR-TELEGRAM STAFF WRITER
The Texas Election Code requires that contributions of $500 or more from individuals include the donor's occupation and the full name of the donor's employer. The complaint says Mowery, a Fort Worth Republican seeking a 10th term, did not provide that information for more than a dozen contributions, including a $10,000 donation from Houston home builder Bob Perry.
Carol Cordell, 66, a printing broker who serves as a precinct chairwoman for the local Democratic Party, said she filed the complaint this week with the Texas Ethics Commission.
She said she looked at Mowery's reports after a person she declined to name told her about problems with them.
Cordell said she brought up the issue to officials with the Tarrant County Democratic Party to confirm that she was interpreting the reports and the law properly.
She said the exclusions could allow donors to get around campaign finance limits.
"If 10 people work for so and so, and that person is giving them each $500 ... to give to a candidate in order to get around the rules ... then I think the people ought to know about it," Cordell said. "Everything needs to be out in the open."
Ethics complaints are confidential, said Tim Sorrells, the commission's deputy general counsel.
He could not confirm that the commission had received a complaint against Mowery.
Mowery is up for re-election against Democratic challenger Dan Barrett and Carlos M. Garcia, a Libertarian, in the Nov. 7 election.
In a statement e-mailed to the Star-Telegram, Mowery said she had not seen the complaint but agreed that the occupation information on several contributions was left blank.
She said her reports would be corrected.
"I find it strange that I am attacked on this," Mowery said in her statement. "There are real issues that confront the citizens of District 97 such as education, taxes, transportation, and the environment. The citizens of District 97 deserve a campaign that deals with the issues."
Mowery also said that Barrett omitted the same information in his two most recent reports.
A review of those filings show that Barrett included the information on all of his contributions of $500 or more, except for donations from organizations or political action committees.
Occupation and employer information is not required for donations from entities or groups, Sorrells said.
Barrett said that he had noticed Mowery's filing was missing information but that he did not know anything about the complaint.
"Maybe it's an oversight on her part," Barrett said.
Barrett noted that even without including the occupation or employer on Mowery's large donors, some of them are easily identifiable.
Perry, for example, is one of the most generous donors to Republican causes and was a key backer of the so-called Swift boat ads against 2004 Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry.
"Everyone knows who Bob Perry is," Barrett said.
In August, Barrett resubmitted a January campaign finance report after having left out the amount remaining in his campaign fund.
Barrett said the omission was an oversight.
Last month, the Dallas-based Texas Values in Action Coalition said it filed a complaint with the ethics commission against Rep. Toby Goodman, R-Arlington, saying that Goodman violated the law by directing campaign contributions toward expenses for two Central Texas properties.
The complaint said Goodman purchased the residential properties, transferred them to his wife and then paid rent to her out of campaign funds.
A lawyer for Goodman said Texas law allows a state representative to use campaign contributions to pay rent on a spouse's separate property, even though it prohibits converting campaign contributions to personal use.
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