AUSTIN — The third largest spender in Texas elections this yr is a shadowy group that has not disclosed any info to the state, and is testing the bounds of marketing campaign ethics legislation, specialists mentioned.
Coulda Been Worse LLC has dumped greater than $25 million into advertisements opposing Gov. Greg Abbott and different prime Republicans, in accordance with the media monitoring firm AdImpact. Since forming out of state in late August, Coulda Been Worse has not revealed its donors or management.
Ethics legislation specialists and open authorities advocates say voters should know who’s making an attempt to affect elections.
“It simply is not truthful to Texans, to the general public, to have individuals spending a lot cash and never telling anyone who they’re,” mentioned Anthony Gutierrez, govt director of Widespread Trigger Texas. “It appears clear they’re going out of their solution to maintain the general public from understanding.”
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Coulda Been Worse, which attracts its identify from an announcement Abbott made after the Uvalde college bloodbath, has run at the least 9 tv advertisements in Texas, three of them in Spanish. Whereas the majority goal Abbott, the advertisements additionally jab Lawyer Normal Ken Paxton and Lt. Gov. And Patrick.
As Tuesday’s election attracts nearer, the group has traded out advertisements that explicitly name out candidates for extra obscure assaults — an try specialists say is probably going designed to skirt state reporting necessities.
But ethics legislation specialists interviewed by The Dallas Morning Information have been break up on whether or not the advertisements toe the road or cross into obligatory disclosure territory.
As of Friday, Coulda Been Worse LLC had not filed something with the Texas Ethics Fee.
Even when the group did, ethics legislation specialists mentioned the best way Coulda Been Worse is organized as an LLC means it could probably solely must reveal its spending, not its donors.
“Even when they report it, we would not know who was behind it,” mentioned James Clancy, a former chair of the Texas Ethics Fee. “And that is the darkish cash tragedy.”
So-called darkish cash, spent by nonprofits not required to reveal the supply, has sometimes performed a outstanding function in federal contests. However it’s appeared in Texas, too.
Practically a decade in the past, Steve Bresnen, an Austin lawyer who within the early Nineties helped his boss, Lt. Gov. Bob Bullock, draft the laws that created the ethics fee, grew growing involved about nonprofits creeping into state races.
Teams from the correct and left, from Empower Texans to the Texas Organizing Mission, have been spending to affect state elections however not disclosing who their donors have been, recalled Bresnen, who in 2014 tried however didn’t get the fee to strengthen reporting necessities.
Talking of Coulda Been Worse’s $25 million hit this yr on Abbott and the highest two different statewide officeholders, Bresnen mentioned: “Traditionally, darkish cash nonprofits have been considerably decrease. It is a quantity that’s a lot bigger than the historic ranges — by an order of magnitude.”
Within the governor’s race, since Sept. 1 and working by Tuesday’s vote, Coulda Been Worse forked over $19.4 million for advertisements attacking Abbott, in accordance with AdImpact, which tracks cash spent on broadcast, cable and digital promoting.
Whereas the darkish cash group did not get low advert charges that broadcasters should provide candidates, and a few of its 60-second TV spots aired in much less fascinating time slots, Coulda Been Worse, at the least in concept, created a stage taking part in subject on this fall’s gubernatorial advert wars.
Between Sept. 1 and Tuesday’s election, Abbott has spent $44.7 million on all kinds of promoting. That successfully was matched by a mixed $44.25 million spent by O’Rourke and Coulda Been Worse, in accordance with AdImpact information.
Coulda Been Worse additionally spent practically $5.7 million towards Lawyer Normal Ken Paxton, who’s up for a 3rd time period beneath a cloud of authorized troubles.
The group’s advertisements, which started airing a few week after Labor Day, started with a 60-second TV spot that confirmed a black-and-white photograph of a glassy-eyed Abbott, whereas video snippets play on the correct aspect of the display screen.
“Improper,” because the advert was titled, was the darkish cash group’s third-most-viewed advert. It goes on to explain Abbott’s tenure in dystopian phrases — with out naming the governor.
The spot cites Texas’ latest mass shootings, the lethal failure of its energy grid in final yr’s winter storm and its near-total ban on abortions — all staples of O’Rourke’s closing arguments towards Abbott on the stump. The advert launches different now-dated assaults, corresponding to disruptions to commerce brought on by Abbott’s short-lived order that vehicles crossing the Texas-Mexico border be inspected. “Training system craters, … property taxes crush householders,” it continues.
“Any considered one of these, a horrible disgrace for Texas,” the narrator says. “All of those, horrific indicators. One thing massive is very, terribly mistaken.”
Abbott’s phrases from a information convention after the Uvalde capturing finish the advert: “It might have been worse.”
O’Rourke’s marketing campaign denied any information of who’s behind Coulda Been Worse and mentioned there’s been no contact with the LLC.
“Beto has beforehand mentioned these sorts of teams must be required to reveal their donors, and it’s nonetheless the case,” spokesman Chris Evans mentioned.
Abbott’s marketing campaign has panned the advertisements as “rubbish” and ineffective.
“They spent $12 million and did not transfer the needle,” Abbott political strategist Dave Carney mentioned final month.
Coulda Been Worse has taken a number of steps that point out a need to remain out of the general public eye.
Many darkish cash teams kind as nonprofits, which means they have to file public tax returns that reveal their board of administrators. Coulda Been Worse, although, was arrange as an LLC in Delaware, the place such info will be shielded from view.
“What they sacrifice in taxes, they make up for in not having public info on the market,” mentioned Andrew Cates, an Austin legal professional who focuses on Texas ethics legislation.
On formation papers filed on Aug. 23, Coulda Been Worse listed Wilmington-based Company Service Co. as its registered agent. A girl who answered the telephone this week at a quantity listed for the corporate mentioned she couldn’t give out shopper info.
Coulda Been Worse has used Connecticut-based “Icon Worldwide” to purchase advertisements, in accordance with paperwork filed with the Federal Communications Fee. Icon didn’t reply to emailed questions in regards to the group.
A web site and YouTube web page for Coulda Been Worse shows a single advert, and gives up no different info.
Most political spending should be reported to the Texas Ethics Fee, however specialists I Coulda Been Worse seems to have taken steps to attempt to keep away from it.
Beneath Texas election guidelines, spending on an advert should be reported if it prices greater than $140, is run inside 30 days of an election, features a candidate’s likeness and leaves voters with “no different cheap interpretation than to induce the election or defeat of the candidates.”
Whereas Coulda Been Worse’s earlier advertisements named and pictured all three prime GOP statewide candidates, the group has dropped these specific references in spots aired inside latest weeks, in accordance with AdImpact.
By late final month, a 30-second spot that started airing Oct. 25 confirmed no photographs of Abbott, Patrick or Paxton. Nor did the narrator point out their names or positions. Nevertheless, with related black-and-white photos as earlier advertisements had, plus the regular sound of the one piano be aware taking part in within the background, the spot jibed in really feel and themes with the group’s earlier commercials.
A 30-second spot simply at Paxton, which the group launched in mid-October, relied solely on the viewer’s consciousness of Paxton’s authorized troubles for it to be acknowledged as a success on the sitting legal professional basic. The group has spent $1.55 million working the spot, in accordance with AdImpact.
Cates mentioned Coulda Been Worse must report that spending to the ethics fee as a result of it’s “clearly concentrating on Paxton.” Clancy mentioned the advert is near the road.
Not one of the advertisements carries a disclaimer that labels the message political promoting. As a substitute, they merely finish with: “Paid for by Coulda Been Worse, LLC.”
It is not clear whether or not anybody has filed a criticism towards the group.
Texas Ethics Fee Govt Director JR Johnson mentioned state legislation requires the fee to conduct investigations confidentiality.
“The Fee doesn’t touch upon, or affirm or deny the existence of, pending investigations,” Johnson mentioned in a written assertion.