Texas Bullpen Podcast
Listen to the weekly Texas Bullpen podcast to stay up to date on all things Texas politics with hosts Brad Johnson, Jonathan Richie, and Cassi Schredder, along with special guests.
Texas Bullpen Podcast
Around the Horn and a Whole Lot About Finance Reports - Episode 40
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The guys discuss all of the top stories this week, including a new Secretary of State, developments on the Houston shooting incident, and a deep dive into the latest finance reports. Also, Richie gets his boat fix.
Morning everyone and welcome to another episode of the Texas Bullpen Podcast. It is as usual, Brad Johnson here with Jonathan Richie. Hola. Another busy week. Another busy week. You know, we started off on Monday thinking this is kind of slow, this is dragging on, and then all hell broke.
SPEAKER_00Well, and as as the prophets foretold, the calm comes before the storm. It literally is indeed storm maker.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it is. And that's that'll be the first thing we talk about. We'll talk the uh slight update on the Houston shooting incident, um talk the budget directive that the big three put out, uh a couple other item, miscellaneous items, and then of course fundraising came out and we'll spend a large part of the back half of that of this podcast talking about that, so stick around for those observations. But first, Richie, you mentioned it already. We have a lot of rain right now. Uh the Hill Country is dealing with yet another July flood. Uh luckily it's not nearly as bad as it was uh a year ago, but uh still not great.
SPEAKER_00Well, yeah, and I mean you say not as bad as it it was. So far, there hasn't been the loss of life to the extent of what happened last year, but the actual flood levels I was I was hearing is almost on par with how much water was coming down and how how much flooding there there was um just in different kind of parts of the Hill County. It was more spread out. Um what this this one? The the storm. It wasn't it's not as concentrated as everything. But like it's still hitting kind of insane historical metrics as well, but there was a lot more heads up going into it. It didn't start at night, um, and there was a lot more uh uh preparation. I think everybody too is uh was also just way more mindful uh of it. And it also wasn't the July 4th weekend. Um so all that's happening so far. There have been uh two people who sadly have passed away. I think uh information is still coming out on that. I was with Governor Abbott yesterday uh at a separate press conference, but he was talking about just the total uh mobilization of state resources, local resources to make sure people are safe. I think there's been over 80 rescues so far. There's something like 1,300 personnel deployed in response to it. So helicopters as well. Yeah, helicopters, planes, whatever. Trains, automobiles. Yeah. So uh it's been a lot, it's still raining a little bit, I think. Yeah. Um so far though, in Austin, I have yet to really see the rain. Because every time it rains, I'm like asleep, and then I wake up. It's like, oh yeah. It was it was raining a little bit yesterday, but I was safely tucked away inside of a bar.
SPEAKER_01Um many such cases. Safe place. Uh yesterday on Thursday, Abbott gave a briefing, and that's where he gave off a lot of these stats. Two deaths, um, specifically one in Uvaldi and then one near Comfort, Texas. Um he's gonna give another update this afternoon. So we're recording, obviously, we won't have the updates there, but hopefully it's there's nothing new. Yeah. Um nothing bad that's new anyway. Update Friday afternoon. Friday afternoon. So um keep watching for that. But uh let's hope you know the rains move on, move out of this area.
SPEAKER_00And I mean, it ultimately is kind of good for other uh things. You know, our lakes and reservoirs are filling up. Yeah, that's true. I think we're actually I think like Lake Travis is almost a hundred percent full, and it hasn't been that full in I think a like a decade basically. Longer. So good for waterfront property, I guess. Probably very good for um places like Corpus and stuff, because uh you know, need the need the water to fill up the reservoirs. But Texas floods a lot. It's kind of just how it goes.
SPEAKER_01You know, one of the the best we talked before about one of the things that got us to do this was reading old Texas Monthly pieces. And one of the best was on uh the Trinity River flood. Um and that was I think by Paul Burka as well. And if uh you're interested in how we handled this kind of thing back then or didn't handle and what caused it, uh check that out. That was a really good piece. Um next topic is uh the the Houston shooting. This has been going on for what, about a week and a half now? Yeah, the ice, the ice involved. Uh Lorenzo Arajo was shot uh by federal agents in Houston the other week, and there's been uh at least the beginning of an investigation on this in terms of finding out what exactly happened, why it happened, were the federal agents in the wrong, was the driver and and the passengers in the wrong? I don't think we really know at the moment.
SPEAKER_00There's not a clear line of evidence. Yesterday, the the newly appointed um U.S. attorney for the Southern District, Aaron Wright's, and that's kind of within his jurisdictional purview now, um issued, I think, probably the most comprehensive statement so far on the state of the investigation. Um now he very much, you know, couched it in saying this is not final, this is not determinative, we're still doing investigations. Um there is now a a Texas Ranger investigation into it.
SPEAKER_01Um I think that was the big update this week, actually, was that the state is now conducting its investigation, and that's DPS and the Texas Rangers.
SPEAKER_00Which that came after uh a lot of the di Texas Democrats sent a letter to DPS asking for an independent investigation. Uh DPS sent back a letter and said, We do have the ability to do investigation, but it it's only if we've we've been invited into it. Um and so kind of said, no, we're we're not doing one right now. And then like basically the next day, Abbott announces that they're going to be doing an independent investigation.
SPEAKER_01And it's because according to a letter that we reported um from DPS director Freeman Martin that FBI and DHS had asked them to come in and investigate this. And so they were invited. It is happening now. Uh the the statement from DPS also said that uh the feds have agreed to give the state investigators all of the evidence unencumbered and able uh in in the effort to allow them to make a full scope of determination. So I don't know how long this is gonna take. Um but the Texas Rangers are now investigating.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Uh but back to that Aaron Wright's statement, so you know the contention from the US attorney is that they were looking, and this was already kind of reported, they were investigating a different white van with, I think, foreign nationals in it from Guatemala. Uh they pulled over the the van uh uh uh earlier in the day and it drove away. And then they encountered the van again, and then that's when the shooting happened. Uh and then there was some talk about there could be uh drugs in the van. Now the attorney for the other people in that van has said that that wasn't drugs, but it's still being tested. Um there was an affidavit that was released that showed bags, bad stuff white substance.
SPEAKER_01Believed to be uh some sort of drug, but didn't even I don't think did it speculate on what kind of drug it was even.
SPEAKER_00I think they were saying it was math, or at least but maybe that's not in the affidavit. That's just what some other law enforcement sources that's been reported as saying it. The family is saying it was some like homemade electrolyte mix uh or something along those lines. So there's still a lot that is going to be unfolding in this as the investigations both of them continue apace. We're starting to get more information though, and it's I mean it's quite a uh uh wild first week on the job for for Mr. Wright's as well.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, uh yeah, we'll touch on that here in a sec. But uh, you know, politically speaking, on this issue, we've talked about how the things on the immigration and deportation front have calmed down. The deportations haven't really stopped, it seems, but the shock and awe stuff has. And now this is dredging it back up into the headlines.
SPEAKER_00So Yeah, which Republicans don't want it to be in the headlines for midterm.
SPEAKER_01Correct. Yep. So uh, you know, you wrote a piece or a section in the newsletter on Aaron Wrights, and this is kind of a surely he's not done moving, uh, but this is a uh kind of an end to the the current chapter of Aaron Wrights' uh chaotic career.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, political ascension through a uh a winding road, the winding road of Texas politics. Uh yeah, well, you know, he's been on the show, he was, I guess, one of our first interviews back when we launched, when he was running for uh Texas Attorney General. Um and he really has just a very interesting career path. So he ran for State House, came in fourth in that, then goes to the Attorney General's office, who's one of the uh top aides to General Paxton. He handles a lot of the uh portfolio suing the Biden administration, especially stuff on immigration and other things uh like that. I mean big ticket items. Uh from there, he goes and becomes chief of staff to Senator Ted Cruz. You're missing one in between. He almost ran for Senate District 24.
SPEAKER_01Well, yeah, he probably almost did a lot of things this morning. He was I know because he he told me he was about he was about to announce, and then he decided not to. But um that's the now Pete Flores seat before uh Pete Flores, who lost in 2020, had announced his run after redistricting for the new 24.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Uh goes and is Senator Cruz chief and then gets uh a nomination in the second Trump administration as a high-level person at the DOJ underneath Pam Bondi. Uh that's a Senate confirmed deal, so it goes through hearings and then like basically a month after that resigns to come back and run for Texas Attorney General. Wasn't it like 70 days? Something like that. It was it was very quick. Um and then, you know, that's when Chip Roy jumps in. Is uh I don't know how close he got to it, but I think he got pretty close to switching to run for Chip Roy's Congress seat. He was very close. Did not. I was couching it a little bit. We know he got pretty close to doing it, did not runs, uh, comes in fourth in that with the still first time on a statewide ticket, gets over 15%. I mean, almost ties uh longtime state senator Joan Huffman um on percentage-wise, and then right after that gets the nod to be U.S. attorney. So which is that's actually one of the I think it's the largest U.S. attorney district in the country, and is usually one of the ones that has the most uh cases out of anything, out of any of the other ones nationally. So it's a it's a really big U.S. attorney's office, and it's a pretty big, it's a pretty big role. Am I wrong that Ryan Patrick used to have that position? He was a U.S. attorney. You know, maybe. I forgot. There's a lot, I mean, you go back, I mean Johnny Sutton was U.S. attorney. There's a lot of guys who have spent their time as a U.S. attorney that go on and and become and remain, I wouldn't say become very influential in Texas politics. If you are a U.S. attorney, you are highly influential. He was. So yeah.
SPEAKER_01That's a 23rd U.S. attorney for the South District, South Southern District of Texas, right? So we're talking about it.
SPEAKER_00Was that during Trump won? Yeah, 2018. Wow. So maybe if Aaron Rice keeps it up, he can lead TLR. I'm sure he was just pining for that position. That's funny, I forgot that that Patrick was there too. Um yeah, it would be interesting to go through and look at all of the US attorneys for the Southern and Northern districts and just see where they are now because it's it's quite a crop of it's quite a crop crop of people, um, to say the least of the matter. But well, and he's already in the headlines. Yeah. So I mean that's it's quite a uh I mean, really one of the biggest stories in the nation. And the U.S. Attorney's Office, you know, they handle a lot of those deportation cases. Um and if there is any federal prosecution against the uh law enforcement officers, if that's the way it goes, I I believe it would be his office responsible for it. Um which again is pretty high profile for your your like first week on the job.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Well, we knew this when we saw the result, but uh sure enough, the Attorney General's race this year is not the last we'd hear of Aaron Rams. And I don't think this is the last we'll hear of Aaron Ross Powell.
SPEAKER_00Although it is interesting, it seems like right now Chip Roy's been the biggest loser out of that. John Huffman's still a senator. Mays is obviously the candidate. Aaron's now a U.S. attorney, and Chip is as of yet, we don't know what he's gonna do. He's obviously still a congressman. Yeah. Uh and I'm sure this is not the last we've heard of of Chip Roy either. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01From what I understand, he's still trying to figure out what it is he wants to do. Obviously, he still has seven months, six months left of being a congressman, so he's gonna finish that out. At least the way he does it keeps him very busy. Yeah, yeah. And you know, he's gonna be key in the uh funding negotiations when we get to that point. I think they did an extension until September. Yeah. Something like that. Um but as always, Chip Roy's on the front lines of the the budget negotiations uh because he controls, not controls controls, but he is really influential in a certain block of of votes in Congress, which is the Freedom Caucus. And so both be interesting to watch him uh see how he handles things in his final few months, but also what happens when he's gone, who takes that that role on as one of these chief negotiators between leadership and the freedom caucus. Um I don't know if anyone currently is is equipped to do that, at least as well as Chip Roy has. So but of course he can always, you know, uh go back into think tank world for a bit and um or go make some money as well.
SPEAKER_00That was one of the very interesting parallels between him and and Wrights is that they had a very oftentimes very similar career path because Chip Roy was Paxon's first assistant, his first first assistant. Um and then he also was chief of staff to Senator Cruz as well. So maybe he'll wind up being the U.S. attorney for like the Northern District or something. That would be so funny to have them both kind of staring at each other from across the state. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Um and rights. Well, and you know, Chip has repaired his relationship with Trump a lot, such to the point that he nearly got the endorsement. Yeah. He's a very deft navigator of of that world. Trevor Burrus, Jr. Yep. So uh I assume it's not going to be the last we hear of Chip Roy either. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00I mean, we were always saying that A.G.'s race was pound for pound, like the most one interesting, but just I mean, kind of packed power powerhouse field. Yeah. Um it's very interesting to see how it's all shaking out.
SPEAKER_01Yep. Next topic we'll move on to is uh fiscal related. The Big Three put out a your shirt has a hole in it. Oh, does it? Yeah. Oh no, I like the shirt. Crap. It is a good shirt. Um the thanks for just for ruining the flow there. The uh the Big Three put out a d directive to legislative agencies and universities uh to uh this is in relation to their uh legislative appropriation requests, kind of like the first step in building the budget for next year. The agencies all basically put together their wish list on what it is they want funded in the next biennial budget. And that's usually a starting point. And things get tweaked there here and there, things get added, things get subtracted throughout the whole process. But this is just a starting point. And the starting point is um uh beginning with a requested 3% reduction in the basic uh LARs for each agency and for each university. Now there are a couple stipulations about that. Uh specifically uh the Big Three said that there are a few categories of exceptions. Uh one is uh the new school choice program, um preserving the current $1 billion uh amount plus some to account for projected um demand, basically. What that is, who knows? Is it uh is it two billion dollars, is it three? We don't know yet, but it will be bigger, at least based on this um uh this kind of showing of the hand. So there's that. There's also maintaining school finance funding, um, and then a few others like uh maintaining funding for programs related to Medicaid uh type things like chip um for uh health care and wellness coverage of children in this state. So outside of those few exceptions, they want a 3% cut in these LARs. And of course, like I said, once we get to the session next year, maybe they have a massive surplus that nobody sees coming, and uh they don't need to have a three percent cut.
SPEAKER_00And that doesn't necessarily, and correct me if I'm wrong, but that doesn't necessarily mean like the budgets will go down by anything. It just means whatever you ask, trim it by three percent.
unknownRight.
SPEAKER_00Yes. This is because you could still be uh you could have tried to ask for a 10% bigger budget, so maybe just ask for a seven percent bigger. No, no, it's based on it down last year.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, based on the last biennium, they want a three percent reduction. So it is a reduction in this starting point. Um does it actually amount to that? We'll see. There was a group of activists, uh Jeremy Kitchen with Texas Policy Research, Joanne Fleming, another one with uh Grassroots America, We the People, um, and then a couple others. Uh I think uh Van Skin was in this, who's always on the a fiscal hawk on these discussions, criticized this as this is not really a budget cut. Um that debate will be had when we get to the uh kind of the nut cutting of the of the budget session, uh budget cycle next session. But um this to me shows first a realization that this the surplus is not gonna be as big as it was the last two cycles, and the last one was 24 billion. This is a wide range, but I was speaking yesterday to to an industry group and they asked what I think it's gonna be. Not having any experience in uh economic forecasts. Just kind of reading the sentiments of the people that are doing this and are monitoring the situation, as it were. It seems like between 10 and 20 billion, um, again, that's a wide range, and it could fall uh closer to 10, could fall closer to 20. I have no idea right now, but it does feel like everyone's expecting it to be less than it was. And add on top of that the fact that they want to spend presumably some more money on property tax reform, more money on infrastructure things, whatever that is, whether it's water, roads, insert your infrastructure type, um, going into next session. And then, you know, maybe we end up with a school finance boost, maybe not, because the last one was uh at least by uh the legislature's marketing standards pretty large and uh those things are always a political lift. But you never know, maybe that develops into an issue. So um I see this as a recognition of of that that the surplus will be less, but also um That it it feels more like this session, coming session will be similar to 2019 in terms of the focus, the kitchen table type issues. You know, the legislature has passed a ton of social issue um policies over the last few sessions. And uh both the makings of this election and the fact that all that a lot of that stuff has been at least largely addressed and the political will is not there to do um take things even a step further uh on a lot of issues. There will be some exceptions. But because of those two factors, it feels like this is going to be um a more bread and butter type.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01More back back to the basics.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Uh at least for you know the majority of the time. And I mean that's kind of what the legislature always has to do. The one thing they have to do is pass a budget. So um and it is a Herculean task, I would say.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I don't know how uh Greg Bonin and John Huffman even wrap their mind around building a $334 billion budget, and next time it's going to be even bigger. We'll have the extra constitutional spending. Uh they might dip into the the Rainy Day Fund if they really feel like they need to. Uh it's already hit its cap. So there will be no more all the money, the excess money from severance taxes will go um that were set to go to the the ESF are now gonna go into the general revenue fund. Now that might actually increase boost the amount of money and the surplus that they can that they can spend because it's sitting in the treasury, but um that uh there is money in the bank, even though uh it feels like it's not gonna be as big of a surplus. But a lot of room to go on that. We don't know exactly uh how it's gonna play out, but they sure enough, like I don't foresee any actual like budget reduction in spending. Like last this current biennial was $334 billion. It's not gonna be less than that, I doubt. Highly, highly doubt. Because there's a bunch of things they want to spend on. Um various items that they've been either kicking the can down the road on or kind of piecemealing, like water. They made in a an appropriation last year, a notable one, but if you look at how much it is versus how much is needed to fix the water issue, it's a drop in the bucket, and they need to uh eventually ramp that up. So um if you are a fiscal nerd, a budget geek, then there's gonna be plenty of that to talk about going forward.
SPEAKER_00Let us know what you're most excited to see in the budget.
SPEAKER_01Richie is scared by numbers.
SPEAKER_00I am scared by numbers, especially when numbers have that many zeros behind them. Like, I mean, I can't even fathom that much money. It's actually insane how how how just m how big the budget is. Yeah. I mean, it's if you go back and and you know, because as we talk about, we like reading old Texas history and stuff, and you go back and you read about the the budgets underneath, you know, John Conley and stuff like that, I mean, it is minuscule. It is tiny compared to where it's at now. Um and Conley was one that really, I think, was hit for like doing these massive budgets and and adding a lot of programs that the state would pay for. Uh, and you look back and it's like, oh, that's almost quaint how small it is. And I mean, gosh, I'd be interested to know how much every if you were to add every governmental entity's budget in this in the this state. You have the state, which is over 250 billion, you have however much the counties spend, and then however much the cities spend. I mean, Dallas and Houston. School districts. Yeah, the school districts. So you add all these on top of each other. I mean because I mean Dallas' budget and Houston's budget is inching up. They're soon to be over ten billion dollars a year. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01And all these special purpose districts, too.
SPEAKER_00I mean I'd be interested to see just how much money government spends in Texas. It's got to be it's got to be in like the $300 billion. I mean, well, the state but are you talking annually? Yeah. Okay. So yeah, you got cut the state button in half, but still, it's just like unbelievable how much money is spent in this state. Well, one of the uh I keep tripping over my words because I I keep almost saying country. My my Texas patriotism. Return to tradition. My Texas patriotism's popping out this this morning as I'm like still violently hung over.
SPEAKER_01Trevor Burrus, Jr. Well, you mentioned the the the Texas Monthly stuff. Uh one there was a piece I read uh from I think the George Bush was governor, uh, I think Bullock was was like gov and Laney was speaker, and it was talking about the problems, the political problems in having a three billion dollar surplus because it was so much they needed to figure out what to do. Three billion dollars. We had thirty-two in twenty-one, we had twenty-four in uh last year in in uh uh or in um uh no, that wasn't what was no, it was it was uh thirty-two in twenty-three, twenty-four in uh twenty-five. So yeah, I I also saw that and was laughing at it. I was like, oh, how quaint.
SPEAKER_00Like, oh my gosh, what are we gonna spend it on?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, imagine what they saw this gaudy numbers today in that position. Yeah. One more topic I want to touch. Yeah, yeah, but does he care?
SPEAKER_00I don't know.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I think he cares. Yeah. He's watching the the BREs with Vigor.
SPEAKER_00Um Texas Monthly had him and the lieutenant governor at that time, I forget his name. I wrote about it in my newsletter, but they had him and uh Speaker Laney come on and do like some some podcast series back in like 2011, 2012 and talking about the legislator. It was pretty interesting. I didn't listen to them on, but they were cool. Hi everyone, we'd like to thank the sponsor of today's podcast, the Lowy Law Firm. For over 20 years, Adam Lowy has helped injured Texans recover and heal. From car accidents to dog bites, Adam Lowy is there to help and get results. Go to LowyLawfirm.com to find out more and get a free consultation. Adam, of course, is very well known on Twitter for his commentary and observations on Texas politics, so be sure to give him a follow as well. Thanks to our sponsor, the Lowy Law Firm.
SPEAKER_01One more uh topic before we hit the big the other big money. The finance reports. So uh there was a bit of a quite interesting uh development in terms of uh uh two lobby associations uh announcing a partnership this week. We broke that in Daily Bowl. Um uh TCPA and Powering Texans announced a partnership um under a memorandum of understanding. They both represent really large uh electric companies and uh or electric industry-related companies. I think there's a couple natural gas ones involved. Excuse me. But um they are uh joining forces to uh kind of tag team the lobbying effort. Uh Powering Texans will lead on the legislative side, and TCPA will lead on the PUC agency side, regulatory side. So um that's a development I've been hearing rumblings about for a while, uh at least something changing, and it seems like they settled on not merging, but uh doing this MOU partnership.
SPEAKER_00So before we get into the campaign finance, you we should also mention that we have a new Secretary of State.
SPEAKER_01Aaron Powell Oh my gosh, how did I not put that on here? Yes. Uh Robert Howden is the new Secretary of State. I'm glad you mentioned that. Thank you. Um this thing has been a We've talked about it before, the absolute kind of like Musical chairs, really. Yeah. Compare that with the controller stuff, and it's been basically musical chairs. It's crazy. Um A lot of maneuvering. Yeah. But Robert Howden, who is legislative director, uh, at least as we're recording this, he is this until tomorrow when he takes over as Secretary of State on Saturday. Uh legislative director for Abbott, been a staffer with him for a while now. He's been a staffer for four governors in Texas. Um and he is now taking over for Jane Nelson, who uh stepped down, who had left the office earlier this week, but uh the official exit date was Friday, uh the 17th. And so he has his work cut out for him with this uh bear of an election. Um also he'll have to get confirmed next year to retain his Secretary of State position, uh, confirmed uh by the end of session by the Senate. Uh otherwise he will if he's even going to be doing it long term. Yeah, it sounds like the intention is, but you know, these these political problems pop up all the time, unforeseen. Like Ruth Hughes, when she was Secretary of State, it became clear that she was not going to be confirmed by the Senate. I don't recall the reasons why the Senate wasn't a fan, but she was not confirmed and then left the post immediately after session. And I think that's when John Scott stepped in for an interim period. I was shocked to see John Scott not get picked again. If you were you were calcium John Scott. Yeah, I was big up on John Scott's stock. Um but howden is a longtime staffer. He has been a public servant for for decades, and uh it'll be interesting to see how he handles this and um how how he manages the staff there, how he deals with the sure-to-come political issues that arise, whether it's on the voter rolls. And I think we talked before about the problems with the voter list, voter file. Does that get short up? Does that get fixed? A lot of stuff on his plate. So um it's kind of a thankless job, I'd say.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it's a tough one. It's interesting. I was reading about uh old Governor Alan Shivers a while back, and he had a new Secretary of State, I think, every single year. Um but he was doing that more as a like it was an intentional rotation of people that then he would have them there and then that would launch them into something else. So it's always interesting. I wonder who's been the longest Secretary of State in Texas.
SPEAKER_01Oh, I don't know. Um but it does, like you said, have a turnover. Um also interesting with Howden. He was uh if you can look this up on public records on the Tribune's Salaries Explorer, he was making $300,000 with the governor's office, and he's taken basically a 50% pay cut uh to go be the Secretary of State. Um so obviously it piqued his interest enough to do, and he was on the short list for another post that we we uh broke the news on. Ultimately didn't pan out because they decided to go in a different direction, but he was on the shortlist for TAB Text Association business for that opening. Um but now here he is. He'll be in the spotlight for at least six months to come. Yeah. Right right in time for a fun election cycle. Yeah. Good luck. Good luck, Mr. Houghton. Yeah. Uh okay, let's hit finance reports and then we'll be done. Um top level takeaway was of course we saw the the actual Senate numbers come out. We've talked about that before. I think uh Talerico's number, he claimed 30 million. It came out at at least just on his account, 28 million. Uh still a massive amount of money.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. And he's got like what 23 million cash on hand, which is a wild number to see. I mean, that's that's a lot.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. And then Paxton claimed 9 million, uh, at least as far as the three accounts that I looked at, it totaled seven and a half million. Uh maybe there was another uh fund joint fundraising account that I didn't see, but um less than what he claimed, at least based on that. But he's got, what was it, like three million dollars cash on hand, something like that. So he's got a lot of ground to gain, and he's gonna need these third third party groups to come in big for him. Yeah. Especially as we talked about the last couple podcasts, the party committees who can now coordinate, uh, you know, these the NRSC, the uh the RNC, they have some money, and he's gonna need a huge chunk of it.
SPEAKER_00Uh yeah, it's an interesting kind of thing to see because uh really uh every single except like Iowa, every single Senate race that's like competitive or uh thought to be competitive. The Democrat candidates have I mean mounds of money more than any of the Republican candidates uh it like everywhere across the country. But the Republican Party nationally has way more money than the Democrat Party has. So it's it's interesting to see how the money flows differently um across uh across the country and in the party lines. And then of course we look down ballot too, and Tal Rico's like the only one with money. Now, you know, so has a few million dollars, which yeah, I thought she had a solid hall. Yeah, a solid hall. Now it's a uh uh paltry sum compared to Governor Abbott. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Um But y you're right, it does seem like Tal Rico is swallowing up most of the money. He's doling out some. He is, yes. He's doling out some.
SPEAKER_00What did he give like quarter million to Hina Hosa?
SPEAKER_01No, no, quarter million to the Democratic.
SPEAKER_00He gave a hundred K to Hinahosa.
SPEAKER_01He's actually the top donor to Hina.
SPEAKER_00Second top second top donor to Hinahoosa.
SPEAKER_01But you know, with with that, both he and Hinahosa, you look at the report pull the reports up, and it's tens of thousands of pages. And the only way you get that with the amount of money they raised is just raking it in in small dollar donations. Yeah. We knew Talarico was good at that. Hinahosa showed an ability to do that bigly uh in uh in this report. Uh but still you're right, like it's paltry compared to Abbott, who has sixty-five million dollars cash on hand. He raised um, I think twenty-five in his S Pac. Um uh I think twenty-eight since the beginning of of uh the year. And uh he's gonna need to spend a lot of that to stem the bleeding for Republicans.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. And let's see. And if you look at if you look at Hattrick's still got what, 23 million cash on hand or something. 35.
SPEAKER_0135. Yeah. Oh man. He raised five million. Look at Abbott's top donor list. Uh I posted it on Twitter. If you want to see the whole thing, you can scroll through and find that. But uh it's you know, Java Danoir, of course, Ken Fisher, of course, very common names on Abbott's finance reports. But another one, Elon Musk. Yeah, gave uh Abbott five hundred thousand, Dan Patrick five hundred thousand. Uh he also gave money to uh I don't I I think the TLR's Judicial Fanners Pack gave a million dollars there. I don't recall if he gave TLR itself a million dollars this time, but he has done that in the past. He's ramping up his Texas spending. And I think that's that's interesting, particularly in light of Reed Hoffman, who those two have a blood feud with each other, giving ten million dollars to Tal Rico's PAC, super PAC, uh, that Tal Rico doesn't like to acknowledge. Uh you know, no corporate money except in the PAC. Except for no super pack money except in the PAC. I didn't go after Jasmine Crockett, my pack did. Yeah, right. Um but he's gonna be thankful to have that money. Oh, yeah, for sure. Um But these Texas is a a a budding playing ground for for billionaires. Uh somebody described it, maybe it was you, in a group text, that they're treating this like uh uh like their own mini casino, just throw placing bets on these candidates. It's like a sandbox for them. Um it makes our jobs more fun because it's fun to see. Uh there's obviously a lot of people who have opinions about one way or the other about big money in politics, but as long as we have it.
SPEAKER_00I hate to break it to you. Politics has always been big money. Yep. It's just do you see it on a campaign finance report, or is it not somewhere where you can't see it?
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Uh you know, we've we've mentioned this before about the C4s becoming more and more popular. And if you if you can't give money, you will find a way. Yes. And you know, you can it's like whack-a-mole. You can you can ban the C4s next for political spending, but they'll find another vehicle.
SPEAKER_00It's it's literally just like that is just how it goes. It has to be. It always will be. It always has been. Yep. You can't get money out of politics because politics at the end of the day just is money. It all is what it is. Just like uh, you know, uh we sometimes express kind of confusion or frustration on like, how are you going to ban gerrymandering? That just is what it is. Like you can't get politics out of gerrymandering. Like that is politics. That is like the prime most political thing you can ever do. Yeah. Just like having money in politics, it's not going anywhere. Um wish it would come a little more our way. Yeah. Yeah. Maybe we should run. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Any advert any people that want advertising out there? Or yeah, we should do a TAC pack uh presented by Texas Pullpen. Yeah, just us getting mad at yelling at people. Uh a couple other observations. So in relation to the Talarico swallowing everything up, no other statewide candidate other than Hinahosa eclipsed $500,000 raised. Which is wild. Vicky Goodwin pulled in 411K. Uh Nathan Johnson pulled in 360, I think. Um everyone else was well below. Well below a million, certainly, and below 500K. Um it's it's sh it was shocking to see. On the Democrats. On the Democratic side, yeah. That's not that was not the case on the Republican side, though. You know, Middleton Middleton Huff Fines Sheets, their money raised, at least right now, is not they actually matter that much.
SPEAKER_00Well, I don't know about Huffines, but Sheets and Melson had less cash on hand right now than their democratic opponents. Now, that's like they can just write themselves a check.
SPEAKER_01Middleton and HuffFinds can write themselves a $15 million check tomorrow if they wanted to. Trevor Burrus, Jr.
SPEAKER_00Do you think there was any strategy or intentionality behind that for them of not like running up the scoreboard prior to this release? And then like tomorrow they could dump in uh another five, ten minutes.
SPEAKER_01Oh yeah, there's always gaming the system. And I guarantee you that was happening on the other side too, of people saying, hey, wait until after the July report because we don't want to uh spook off tip off who's bringing in a lot of money and who's not, where where the other side can direct their funding uh or should direct their funding.
SPEAKER_00Because there's always some there's always a balance of do you want to show strength in your fundraising and like you know, whatever, versus do you want to seem a little a little weaker. Yep. Yep.
SPEAKER_01Um let's see. Uh I just tweeted out a list of the top house fundraisers. Uh Burroughs, of course, topped the list. He raised $2.7 million, has 5.2 cash on hand. He's gonna have to spend a lot of that, if not all of it, to keep uh to to again like Abbott prevent prevent the bleeding down ballot for Republicans. The next four in in terms of uh fundraisers in the July report. Jeff Leach, nearly 500k, Ken King, 450K, John McQueenie, 330 K, Todd Hunter, 312K.
SPEAKER_00Which is wild. You're seeing you're seeing House candidates raise more than Democratic statewide candidates. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01I mean that just shows the problem that Democrats have been in for a long time.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01The money here that is uh ideologically oriented in their favor goes out of state and has for years. Uh but number six, and this is I think quite notable, number six on this list is Christian Carranza in HD 118. That's the John Lujan seat. Lujan, of course, ran for Congress and got bounced in the primary. Uh and she ran last time, nearly beat him, but she posted uh $311,000 raised. And her Republican opponent has like no money, right? Yeah. George Brago pulled in uh it was like thirty-ish thousand dollars.
SPEAKER_00And um that clearly seems to be one that Republicans are probably surrendering on.
SPEAKER_01Yes, absolutely. Um and that was kind of in the there was a lot of thinking that the only person that could hold that seat was John Lujan to begin with. And once he ran for Congress, that was that was it. And I think that's reflected in the money. Yeah. Um she has 223,000 cash on hand. She was also, it's it's not Act Blue, but there is another uh like more donor focus specifically, uh Democratic platform fundraising platform. And she they put out this week, placed in the top five nationally on their platform. Uh Amy Acton, who's running for Ohio governor, was on that. So, you know, she was she's performing very well and it's getting noticed nationally. Over on the uh the cash on hand side, uh Burroughs, of course, tops. Uh Greg Bonin is at 2 million, Todd Hunter is at 1.5 million, Richard Raymond is at 1.2 million, Charlie Gearin is at 1.1 million, uh Ryan Ghean is next, and he's got 1.1 million as well. Uh the one who is really in in uh kind of trouble, we'll see how the the race goes. But Angie Chen Button, who is one of the top targets for Democrats this cycle, she has one million cash on hand. That's gonna come in great handy for her. Uh but if you look at her opponent, let's see, Zach Herbert. Zach Herbert, who is the Democrat running against Button, pulled in $183,000. So pretty good haul for him. Um par with the other Democratic statewides. So it's very interesting to see.
SPEAKER_00And I mean, obviously, it makes more sense for probably more money to go into these House seats because that's where it's like achievable gains are more likely to be be made versus you get more bang for your buck, of course. Of course. Um one other note that stood out to me on the Republican statewide side was Don Buckingham with what was it, 3.2 million cash on hand. Yeah. And of course, she has an opponent who doesn't have a raised three thousand dollars. Yeah. Um That's like the one And she also didn't have a primary and she's one that we always we always watch to see what's the right thing.
SPEAKER_01Oh, she's running for something else at some point. Just a matter of what and when. Um but that was like the one statewide position that Democrats some for some reason just didn't even make any sort of any effort for. Um yeah, uh Benjamin Flores is her opponent, Democratic opponent, and he pulled in 3,000. Sorry, 3,200. I don't want to leave off that extra $200. Uh but it just I I I don't know why. I don't know what the thinking is. Maybe it just wasn't the that was the lowest priority, uh, which I I could see the logic there, but um yeah, kind of it sticks out like a sore thumb for sure. Uh okay. Last thing on the house. We uh we tallied up in Daily Bowl on on Friday, a list of the fundraise fundraising numbers and cash-on-hand numbers for the list of I think it's 20 state or house races that are on the GOP's tier one and tier two defense list. There's some variation between that and what Democrats view as their target list, but it's mostly the same. It's mostly the same districts. Uh and to your point about uh Republicans still outperforming Democrats on the fundraising front, the average cash on hand for Republicans in that list is 270,000 and 67,000. For Democrats, it's $53,000. Wow. And you have some overperformers like Carranza, but overall, the Democrats in that list are gonna be heavily relying on the statewide apparatus, the Talo Rico operation, and the Texas Majority Pack, which I should note there too that did they come in with what they said? They well, they so they have been saying they're gonna have thirty million dollars. Now, I I don't know if that's just them or if that's them, plus spread out among other packs that they are kind of puppeteering behind the scenes, but they pulled in, they they filed $1.5 million. Pretty big difference, sir. Pretty big difference. Now, it could still come in. Could come in tomorrow. Could come in, it could have come in on July 1st and it would not be reportable, kind of like what you were getting at earlier. Um maybe that's what they're doing. I think there's probably some of that. But yeah, $1.5 million, far cry from $30 million that they have talked about. Um I assume if that does come in, or whatever chunk does come in, is gonna largely come from George Soros. Because that's generally who's been pumping money into that operation.
SPEAKER_00There are other although uh fun note that the Eagles, like guitarist or whatever, Don Henley, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Big donor for the front man, right? Yeah, yeah. Uh he he's the biggest donor to down ballot statewide. Gave 100k to I think Vicky Goodwin. Um is he Texas streaming now? Maybe. Maybe. Um that is pretty wild. Yeah. That is that is quite wild. Um he wa he gave 25.
SPEAKER_00Does he live in Texas?
SPEAKER_01Uh his on the finance report it says Charlottesville, Virginia. But he uh did live in Texas.
SPEAKER_00What a lovely place that is. That's a lovely that's a lovely town if you're gonna be.
SPEAKER_01I don't think I've ever been there. It's wonderful. Are there a lot of tiki torches there? If you go to the tiki torch store. You don't remember this?
SPEAKER_00No.
SPEAKER_01The white supremacist rally in I think Charlottesville, right? Isn't that where that was? Where they had their tiki torch. They're like uh bug zap Bug Zapper tiki torches? Yeah. Yeah, I remember that. I remember this. That was formative memory for me in college. Weird. It's just it was it was a huge controversy, and I was like dipping my toes into the political water. So jinx. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00We did say that exactly the same way. We spend too much time together.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, we uh gosh, we do, yeah. Uh couple other observations. TLR has $38 million cash on hand. They're gonna have plenty of money to spend defending their members, their allies. But and maybe to make some new friends. Maybe. Yeah, I'm sure they'll be trying. Uh are there friends to make, though? That's the other question. So but there was a theme in looking at their report that at least right now, and they listen, they have $38 million, they have plenty of money to dump into the legislative races, and surely we'll do that. But the focus, based on their report and based on the Judicial Fairness Pack, which has $13 million cash on hand, thanks to a couple million dollar uh donations and a lot of other donations from uh Musk, as we mentioned, also the Roku CEO. Uh his last name's Wood, I forget his his first name, but that's a new name that I haven't seen been in these these finance reports before. Uh but this the the focus on judicial races, if you look at TLR's report itself and look at what money they gave out, I think I only saw one legislative name, and that was Stan Stannard in 126. Everyone else that they gave money to were judges or candidates for the bench. This is not all that surprising um that there is a focus on this because TLR had a big focus and was very successful at flipping judicial seats, particularly appellate seats, back in uh 24 that had been lost in 2018 or the cycle after uh by Republicans. And that is something that um other than the CCA seats that they lost all three, TLR had a very high batting average on those appellate courts, particularly. So to me, I look at this and I think, okay, they're doubling down on this. They're gonna continue to go after those what seats they didn't pick up or weren't on the ballot last time around. Um this is a big focus for them, obviously, because you know they were behind or one of the biggest factors behind, not the only one, the 15th Court of Appeals, the business court. They wanted these because they found venues that had been taken over by particularly democratic judges were unfriendly to business interests, uh, and they would view it as punitive against business interests. And so they went, they changed strategy and went that way, and they had the money to do so and have succeeded quite a bit on that.
SPEAKER_00Did you uh thinking about other kind of interest groups that have played big in politics, where were the casinos in this?
SPEAKER_01The casinos were quiet. Yeah. Very quiet. It's kind of a soft hibernation right now. I think they're trying to decide what it is they do in November.
SPEAKER_00I mean, and and Sans popped up a few times, right?
SPEAKER_01They did.
SPEAKER_00But I'm there were no gaudy numbers. Yeah, it wasn't like massive amounts. It was still obviously like they're keeping their irons in the fire, but they're not like coming out blazing.
SPEAKER_01Aaron Ross Powell They gave I think it was it was six figures to Burroughs, Speaker Burroughs. Um there were there were other uh other expenditures, but it wasn't like millions of dollars. It wasn't all out push. Not yet, anyway.
SPEAKER_00Did we see Calci put any uh money up?
SPEAKER_01Aaron Ross Powell No. Um I did not see any action in their latest finance report. Uh but I mean there was Calci did pop up in the Senate Republican Caucus finance report. Uh it was a pretty interesting list of lists of yeah. So the the Republican Caucus had their retreat, I think, in April, uh out in Bastrup at Lost Pines, and they they raised quite a bit of money. I haven't tallied it up exactly, but I'm just scrolling through the report, tons of of five-figure checks and one six-figure check from Reynolds Company. Richie, any idea what Reynolds Company is? They make VLO nicotine pouches. Oh, right. And uh it's the main contributor or not the main competent competitor to Zins. Now I don't think it has anything to do with Zinn in terms of policy that they want here, but what I've been hearing, it seems like they uh they're gonna uh go after and push for a ban of Chinese vapes in the market, because that is a very large segment of the market. Also, there are problems, I'm sure, with it, uh quality of product, things like that. Um but also these this is a company who wants more market share. Yeah. Um I'm sure Zinn would back that too.
SPEAKER_00Those vapes will kill you, man, it turns your lungs into plastic. You had to smoke a good cigarette, like, you know, a man.
SPEAKER_01Return to tradition. Uh also on that list, so there's Reynolds, there was Calci at 50K, which obviously we know why Calci is giving money to uh the Senate Republican caucus. Uh it's not a bet. It's not a bet. No, it's futures contract. It's a futures contract. Uh it's a futures contract on a, in their view, less bad uh bill. Then you've got Sports Betting Alliance and Encore at 30K.
SPEAKER_00Uh the Sports Betting Alliance. I hadn't heard them in a while.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, they have been quiet.
SPEAKER_00Although they did Is Rick Perry still with them?
SPEAKER_01Um, I don't think that's a good idea. Or is he gone full IB again? I think he's full Ibagain. But also the uh the sports betting industry, they we talked months ago about the pop-up pack they had, the Texas Conservative Fund. Mysteriously, they pulled out all their money from the rest of their money from the pack, or maybe it was yeah, they had like a m eight hundred thousand to a million left after the primary. They put three and a half million in, spent most of it, but they pulled all their money out and put it back in one of their national packs that they're probably distributing elsewhere in other states, but they were just playing in the primary, which is odd. Maybe they maybe they had their fill. Yeah. Another one like that was the Forge the Future project with Meta, the Pro Data Center pack. They uh they were very inactive in this filing period. They were very active in the primary. So interesting that a lot of these interest groups are just playing in the primary and not, at least for now, showing their interest in the general election. Umcore, of course, is facing a lot of heat over the 765 transmission lines. Um, and then another group called Alliance for Secure AI, they gave 20k to the caucus. So an interesting array, and there's a lot more. You can look at the um I in Daily Bowl, I linked the full report. You can see all the the industry groups that gave, but uh sticks out. It really does. Um anything else? Oh, we gotta talk to trial lawyers. So you diverted me. Uh so talk TLR. Trial lawyers was interesting too. I think the TTLA pack has four million dollars cash on hand. That's uh that's more than I've seen them have in recent years. Then you've got the Arnold Nickken group, Texans for Truth and Liberty Pack. I think the the most interesting expenditures from that one in this report were 100k to Greg Abbott, who historically hasn't has been a TLR ally, or at least ideologically more similar to TLR, although we might be seeing that changing given the shift in Abbott's politics that we've talked about on this podcast before. Uh they gave 100k. Uh they at least feel like there's an opportunity to play ball there with the governor. And then they also gave 100k. Guess who they gave $100,000 to? Cheryl Bean, who is uh the Republican nominee for HD-94, that's the Tinderhold seat. And that is one that a lot of people think is is very vulnerable up in Tarrant County, um, and really could flip. But uh that is uh if not the majority, it's certainly the plurality of the money she raised in that in that report. And I don't think she had a I think she won outright. I don't think she had a uh a runoff. And so this was given back in it didn't show up on uh TTL's July filing report because it was filed in their uh their runoff report, but it's still in the same period, the same uh date span. But that's an interesting race to watch. Um and I believe I forget the person she's running against, but they pulled in a pretty good amount of money too. So we'll have more, I'm sure, uh, in Daily Bowl next week as we continue to pair through these numbers. But like we said, we were gonna get the fullest picture yet financially in this political scene going into November with this set of reports, and and we have. Um so a lot of takeaways there, uh lots to discuss further down the road. Um Richie, anything we didn't hit that you want to touch on?
SPEAKER_00No, I think we're I think we're good. Um there's uh I got to see a lot of really cool boats uh today. Yeah, what happened there? So Governor Abbott announced alongside Saranik, who has been in the national news because of their uh autonomous boats uh are us have been used uh over in Iran to hit uh Iranian ports and then also rescue down pilots uh out of the Strait of Horror Moose, but they're at an Austin-based company, and they announced yesterday that they will be building the largest shipyard in America down at Brownsville. Um so it's gonna be a $3.2 million uh investment from them. They're obviously getting some state money as well for incentives there. Um 800 acres, but it's going to be I think it's gonna double America's shipbuilding capacity. Wow. And they make, I mean, it was cool. We we walked through the floor and you could see the boats kind of in various stages of assembly. Um and uh, you know, they kind of have cameras on it that look like um look like the Waymo's kind of, you know, it's that type of deal. But it was it was cool, man. Their main thing is like a twenty some odd foot boat. Uh you know, it kind of looks like uh a boat you would go out on the weekends except super high tech, but they they had a bigger one there too. So they've got they're building bigger and bigger uh boats. So they're it's very fast. Are you building ships? Yeah, I mean I guess it could be called a ship.
SPEAKER_01A boat's a smaller. I mean, maybe it's all flotilla. Uh a ship is a larger.
SPEAKER_00Schooner, perhaps. Um but yeah, so it it was it was pretty neat. Uh they're hoping to have that up and running in 18 months, which would be massive. And they they went and uh you know asked the uh CEO uh, you know, obviously why'd you pick Texas? Obviously they're already here, but they were looking at I think a finalist was a location in California as well. But uh California was not able the California state government was not able to move with I think the sufficient speed that they were looking for to get it up and running in in such a time timeline that they they were looking to do in basically a year and a half, uh which is extremely fast for something of that of that size. But it's pretty cool. They were telling me they crank can crank out over a thousand uh boats a year out of just the facilities they got in Austin, they're just in kind of these warehouses. But it was it was cool. It was very cool. Made me made me go back onto my boat. My boat stage.
SPEAKER_01Uh yeah, it's a it's a massive economic development and um something that I know he was being kept under wraps for a while. They did a pretty good job for the most part on the side. There are some slips. There are some slips. But uh but yeah, and it'll uh another uh you know Brownsville is really going to benefit from that uh economically. And uh, you know, maybe that's just you know one building block on a bunch that starts you know building that city up. So well, check out uh check out all we got on texasbullpen.com. Make sure you're subscribed to get the newsletters. Uh you can look at our uh various coverage um in Daily Bowl and in our two columns this week. Uh we'll have, like I said, plenty of more discussion about the finance reports as we find more stuff. But uh as always, thank you all for listening, and we'll catch you next week.