For Donors, the Political Season Comes to an End

Ladies and gentlemen, close your checkbooks. Sunday starts the blackout on campaign contributions to Texas state officeholders — a period of pecuniary protection that will last until after the legislative session that begins in a month.

The no-contributions period, which began in 1987, is designed to put a polite distance between the giving of political money and the casting of governmental votes — to erase the possibility of a Tuesday contribution turning into a Thursday favor, or the possibility that an innocent juxtaposition might be seen the wrong way.

It has proved remarkably difficult in the past to convince nonparticipants that the ...

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