Texas Ethics Commission

Attorney General Ken Paxton, who has been fighting securities fraud charges for most of his first term, received money from family friends and other personal connections for his legal defense, according to a newly released financial disclosure statement.

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State Rep. Ron Reynolds, D-Missouri City, went almost two years without filing any campaign or personal financial reports, racking up more than $50,000 in fines. He still hasn't paid anything and it's unclear whether any state agency has the power to make him.

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The Texas Ethics Commission fined Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller a total of $2,750 to resolve two complaints accusing him of improper campaign accounting. 

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Politicians who make money off government contracts will have to disclose the work under a bill that got final approval in the Legislature Sunday.

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The Texas House preliminarily approved the requirement that the personal financial statements of state politicians and bureaucrats be posted online. 

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Texas GOP chairman Tom Mechler, an Amarillo oilman, insists that he wasn't lobbying when he asked the state to intervene in his clients' dispute with a pipeline giant. 

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FBI and IRS agents raided the law offices of Texas Sen. Carlos Uresti on Thursday morning, confiscating documents and other items. 

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Regulators are deciding how much lobby wining and dining Texas lawmakers can accept without revealing their names. Hint: It's a lot.

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The Texas Ethics Commission on Thursday voted to end a long-running investigation into one of the state's most influential conservative groups.

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The Texas Ethics Commission regulates legislators. Legislators control the commission's laws and budget. It's a complicated relationship.

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“If you are untouchable, we’ve got a problem,” Sen. Brian Birdwell told the chairman of the commission, which is charged with making sure public officials and campaigns obey state ethics and elections laws.

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Tom “Smitty” Smith, a colorful lobbyist and liberal activist who turned Public Citizen Texas into a strong voice on environmental, utility, consumer and ethics issues, is hanging up his spurs after 31 years.

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A member of the Texas Ethics Commission is rejecting what he says was an effort by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick to get him to resign.

 

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The state of Texas might not be requiring sponsorship disclosures on political radio ads right now, but the Federal Communications Commission is.

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A regulatory wrinkle could strip an important piece of information from the political radio ads you hear in Texas between now and Election Day: Who’s paying for the commercials?

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Commissioners are trying to open so-called “campaign in a box” disclosures, where candidates report their spending on consultants — but not on the specific campaign services those consultants are providing. 

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The state is trying to regulate what some have called the “campaign in a box,” when a candidate reports writing one big check to a consultant, who then handles all of the campaign spending off the books.

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It's harder to appoint people to the Texas Ethics Commission than to other agencies. The politics are difficult. But it's also easy to just let it slide — and let commissioners serve for years after their terms end. 

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Gov. Greg Abbott has made hundreds of appointments since he took office in January 2015, but is still working his way out of a backlog to replace people whose terms expired as long as five years ago.

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Politicians like to think of the money in their campaign accounts as their own. It's not, but sometimes, it seems that way. Below are five actual cases where the Texas Ethics Commission has rendered its official position. Take the test: Given these situations, what do you think they can get away with? 

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