October 18, 2006

Candidate Who's Out of Running Still
Leads Pack in Fundraising Scramble

House Battles in Austin and Houston Top Million Dollar
Mark while Three Candidates Have Shot at Cash Crown

By Mike Hailey
Capitol Inside Editor

Ben Bentzin hasn't raised any political cash in five months - and while he's out of the running for an Austin state House seat - he's still out in front of the entire pack in fundraising for campaigns for the Texas Legislature's lower chamber in 2006.

Bentzin stopped raising money for a general election rematch a couple of months before conceding the race to Howard this summer. With Howard generating almost $425,000 for her special election and re-election campaigns, the rematch that's been cancelled still ranks as the most expensive Texas House contest in the current election cycle at an overall cost of $1.3 million going into the final month of the fall competition.

Three or four state House battles on the November 7 ballot have the potential to surpass the short-circuited House District 48 race before the curtain goes down on the 2006 campaigns. The race between Republican State Rep. Martha Wong and Democrat Ellen Cohen in Houston will probably be the first to do that with a combined price tag of $1.1 million by the end of last month. Wong and Cohen have both raised in the neighborhood of $550,000 each in the current cycle - and they both will overtake Bentzin in the dash for cash if their fundraising efforts are as successful as those undertaken by two of the three leading fundraisers for House races two years ago.

Former Austin-area House Republicans Todd Baxter and Jack Stick raised in the range of a half-million dollars apiece in the month leading up to the 2004 election and the remainder of the calendar year. Baxter, who cleared the way for Bentzin's special election bid when he resigned from the HD 48 seat late last year, finished second two years ago in overall fundraising behind State Rep. Patrick Rose.

Rose, a Dripping Springs Democrat who's seeking a third House term at the age of 28, proved to be the king of the fundraising crop in 2004 when he raised almost $1.1 million for his first re-election campaign. Rose is second behind Bentzin in fundraising for House races so far this time around, having taken in $743,000 for his campaign - 30 times more than Republican opponent Jim Neuhaus has had for his this year.

The latest fundraising totals are contained on campaign finance reports that were submitted to the Texas Ethics Commission in the past week.

This year's fundraising competition has demonstrated in one particular case what a title can mean to a candidate's ability to generate cash for a campaign. State Rep. Jim Pitts, a Waxahachie Republican who was promoted to the House Appropriations Committee chair after the election two years ago, has raised three times more for his current re-election bid than he did for a 2004 bout against a Democratic opponent who had twice as much money to spend than his year's fall foe. While Pitts had a primary opponent this year as well, he's had 40 times more cash for his race than his two foes combined in 2006.

Four of the remaining five top ten House candidates in individual fundraising for the current election cycle had primary campaigns financed by San Antonio businessman James Leininger. Two of those Leininger recruits lost primary bids to unseat Republican incumbents while the other two - former Texas House member Wayne Christian of Center and Nathan Macias of Bulverde - knocked off GOP members earlier this year and have no Democratic opposition this fall.

Republican State Rep. Charlie Geren, who survived a primary challenge from a fifth Leininger-funded candidate, ranks ninth on the list of individual fundraisers for House races with total contributions of more than $536,000 since his 2004 re-election race.

Two other House battles have the potential to have price tags higher than the standard set early in the year by the Howard-Bentzin match. Republican State Rep. Gene Seaman and Democratic challenger Juan Garcia have reported raising $492,000 and $427,000 respectively in a heated race for a seat in a coastal district that includes part of Corpus Christi. Democratic State Rep. Chuck Hopson and GOP challenger Larry Durrett aren't far behind with a combined price tag of almost $855,00 for their East Texas House fight.

The candidates must file one more round of reports a week before next month's general election - and they won't have to reveal how much they received in the final seven days of their races until early next year.