More ugly mailers in HD 87
False Attack ads continue by Dark Money groups in Texas Panhandle Race
You probably received a negative mailer and maybe a text message yesterday telling you once again that Cindi Bulla donates to Democrats. The newest hit piece contains a picture of Bulla handing a check to a minority Congressman, and the mailpiece says, "Democrat Donor Cindi Bulla campaigns like a conservative and donates like a liberal."
We had earlier reported in Truth Test: Did Cindi Bulla donate to Democrats that Bulla stated at a forum in Stratford that she has never met Veasey but did make a one-time donation of $500 to Veasey, a Democrat, for his support of a private property rights issue.
THE TRUTH TEST
Lie #1: The photograph is a Fake. We googled Cindi Bulla images, and the very first image that popped up in our search was this photo below from the Amarillo Globe-News. The PAC has most obviously used this photo, easily found on the internet, to photoshop an arm onto Bulla to show her handing a check to Veasey. Lie #2: Bulla is a CONSERVATIVE donor, not a Democrat Donor. We researched state and federal ethics reports and found that 99% of Bulla's political donations have gone to Republican candidates and Conservative causes, which would make her a Conservative Donor, not a Democrat Donor, as the mailpiece claims.
We dug into this further and found that this attack piece is funded by Texans United for a Majority PAC. The funding from this PAC comes not from actual individual "Texans," but instead, this PAC gets money from only two sources, according to Texas Ethics Reports. Farris Wilkes, a controversial West Texas Billionaire, and his company Hexagon Partners gave the PAC $1,990,000, and one additional donor, Robert Bruce, a San Antonio millionaire, donated $20,000.
These mailers are considered "independent expenditures" made by the PAC. According to ethics reports, this PAC pays Political Communications Advertising, a campaign vendor who also works with The Defend Texas Liberty PAC (formerly Empower Texans PAC).
Alex Fairly has donated over $200,000 to Defend Texas Liberty PAC and is the father of the 25-year-old candidate, Caroline Fairly, who is running against Bulla. According to Ethics reports, the vendor for Texans for a Conservative Majority PAC is based in Connecticut and also has ties to Axiom Strategies, Fairly's political consultant, and Texas Governor Greg Abbott's political strategy team. Abbott has endorsed Fairly because she will support his plan for private school vouchers.
The attack mailers from this group and other similar groups are popping up all over Texas, attacking candidates under the guise of names that make voters believe they are funded by "Texans for" whatever cause. This recent op-ed by Representative Jared Patterson, a Republican from Denton County. Some 'GOP Groups' Are Lying to Republican Voters, goes deeper into these groups and who is behind them.