May 23, 2005

Leininger and Ceverha Push for Vouchers
in Capitol Meetings with House Members

By Mike Hailey
Capitol Inside Editor

A pair of prominent Texans associated with major Republican fundraising efforts have been at the Texas Capitol during the past few days urging selected House members to support a move on the floor Monday to authorize a pilot program in the state's major cities for school vouchers.

San Antonio businessman James Leininger and former state legislator Bill Ceverha have been pulling certain representatives out of the chamber while the House was in session to lobby for their support on a voucher amendment that was added to the Texas Education Agency sunset bill in the House Public Education Committee last week. Leininger and Ceverha reportedly met with some members late last week and again on Sunday to press for their votes on the voucher provision, which is expected to spark sharp opposition from Democrats and some Republicans who oppose using public funds for private school tuition.

Leininger - one of the leading contributors to GOP candidates in Texas and a close ally of Governor Rick Perry - has been one of the nation's foremost voucher advocates during the past decade. Leininger donated more than $100,000 during the last election cycle to Texas political action committee for a Michigan-based pro-vouchers group known as All Children Matter.

Ceverha, who represented Dallas in the House from 1977 to 1989, has been in the news in the past couple of years as the former treasurer of the Texans for a Republican Majority, which has been the target of a Travis County grand jury investigation that got under way more than two years ago. Three associates of U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, who founded TRMPAC, have been indicted on charges related to the use of corporate money for political campaigns - and Ceverha has spent time in civil court as a defendant in a related lawsuit by several Democrats who were defeated by TRMPAC-funded Republican candidates in 2002.

While Ceverha has been at the Capitol on a fairly regular basis during the regular session, Leininger is rarely seen in the building. He showed up at the Capitol to push for a voucher bill two years ago, going to some members' offices to ask for their support.

Lawmakers are predicting that the vote will be close on a move to strip the voucher amendment from the TEA bill. But some House members say they think voucher supporters might be a few votes going into Monday's debate. At least one House member has reportedly dropped their opposition to the pilot program since being summoned to a meeting with Ceverha and Leininger. Some of the meetings have taken place in a conference room near the Governor's Reception Room on the second floor between the House and the Senate.

In early 2004, Leininger and his wife traveled to the Bahamas with a group that included Perry and several staff members, lobbyists and the leader of a national anti-tax organization. Perry's staff said the group flew to the islands to discuss school finance, which would be the topic of a special session later that spring.

A physician who founded a hospital bed manufacturing company, Leininger contributed more than $1 million to Republican candidates and committees at the state and federal levels during the cycle including $300,000 to the Texans for Lawsuit Reform. Ceverha was one of three lobbyists who led House Speaker Tom Craddick's transition team after it became clear that he had the votes to win the House's top job in the wake of the GOP landslide in 2002.

Ceverha was registered last year as a lobbyist for two clients: the Texas Telephone Association and IdleAire Technologies, which designs electrification systems for truckers when they are parked at truck stops. However, Ceverha is not listed as a registered lobbyist in 2005 on the Texas Ethics Commission web site.

State Rep. Kent Grusendorf, R-Arlington, is the House sponsor of SB 422 - the TEA sunset bill. The bill's author is State Senator Mike Jackson, R-La Porte.