Hiding Campaign Expenditures: Houston Dept of Education Trustee, Eric Dick

From the Houston Chronicle

After the Texas Ethics Commission fined Eric Dick $30,000 (second highest fine in the history of the TEC) I thought that this Dick issue had been successfully exposed. I was wrong.

Looking at the financial reports for the GPAC Conservative Republicans of Texas I stumbled on two very interesting donations. C-ROT is the extreme right controlling wing of the Texas Republican Party led by Steven Hotze and Jared Woodfill. Recently they held a ConspiracyFest fundraiser based upon the Big Lie in Houston. In the 2022 Republican Primary they published an endorsement card endorsing some of the most extreme candidates for office in the party including Don Huffines, who lost, and.....Eric Dick, who also lost.

According to the financial report filed by C-ROT Eric Dick donated $25,000 in Jan of 2022 and $25,000 again in February. At the time Dick was a candidate in the Republican Primary for Harris County Treasurer. Because he was a candidate he should have reported these expenditures on his own report especially if he was paying for the privilege of being endorsed or if the funds were being used to pay for the endorsement card.  Neither of these donations were reported on his Jan or Feb financial report filed with Harris County.

What is also interesting is his incomplete report filed on 2/22/22. His report summary claims to have expended over $208,000 from his personal funds but he only documents on Schedule G, Political Expenditures from Personal Funds, $107,750 leaving over $100,000 unaccounted for. Dick should have reported all expenditures “out of an abundance of caution.”

According to Dick's attorney the $30,000 is nothing but a political farce:

In a statement Friday, Carmona said the Feb. 24 hearing amounted to a “political farce run by a bunch of cronies and fat cats,” and said Dick has “every intention to appeal to the Supreme Court of the United States.”

Let's see what the cronies and fat cats say about this in the coming months. BTW the Commission is composed of 5 Republicans and 3 Democrats and rarely fines a candidate or an organization any substantial amount.