LaMantia Leaves Primary Foes
Far Behind in Open SD 27 Fight
Senate Hopeful Plays with Fire with Covid Cure Doc
Capitol Inside
January 20, 2022
Harlingen Democrat Morgan LaMantia has emerged as the early favorite in an open state Senate race after rounding up almost $900,000 during her first two months as a candidate with the Texans for Lawsuit Reform as the largest individual contributor heading into 2022.
LaMantia - an attorney from a family that's highly influential in South Texas politics - reaped a $25,000 contribution from the TLR political action committee that's directed the lion's share of largess to Republicans as the biggest-giving organization in the state for the past 20 years.
The bulk of LaMantia's fundraising last year came in the form of loans of $250,000 from each of three siblings who run L & F Distributors LLC - the largest beer distributor in that part of the state. The SD 27 contender received the initial installment from Steve LaMantia of Laredo in mid-November before McAllen residents Greg LaMantia and Val LaMantia loaned her money for the debut political bid a few days before Christmas.
LaMantia added nearly $142,000 in campaign cash from supporters for the Democratic primary battle before heading into January with more than $600,000 in the campaign bank.
State Rep. Alex Dominguez ended 2021 as LaMantia's closest competitor in the donor dollar derby in the battle for the Senate District 27 seat that veteran State Senator Eddie Lucio Jr. of Brownsville is giving up without a re-election race this year.
Dominguez, a former Cameron County commissioner, reported contributions of almost $47,000 in the second half in the report that he filed with the Texas Ethics Commission this week. A second term lawmaker, Dominguez listed personal loans of $110,000 for the SD 27 bid.
Sara Stapleton-Barrera jump start a comeback campaign late last year with personal loans that totaled $110,025 after losing to Lucio in a primary election runoff in SD 27 in 2020. But Stapleton-Barrera raised less than 12,000 from contributors in the same time period when LaMantia seized the inside lane in the open Senate fight. A fourth SD 27 aspirant - Salomon Torres of Harlingen - didn't raise enough money in 2021 to be competitive with less than $5,000 in donations and loans combined.
LaMantia reported $10,000 donations from the Wholesale Beer Distributors PAC and Corpus Christi attorney Mikal Watts - a trial lawyer who's usually been on the opposite side of the political and legal rings from TLR.
more to come ... |
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Morgan LaMantia
SD 27 - DEM
Contributions: $141,660
Campaign Loans: $750,000
Cash: $601,533
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Mayes Middleton
SD 11 - GOP
Contributions: $1,685,523
Campaign Loans: $0
Cash: $1,334,556
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Alex Dominguez
SD 27 - DEM
Contributions: 46,904
Campaign Loans: $110,000
Cash: $127,389
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Robin Armstrong
SD 11 - GOP
Contributions: $91,789
Campaign Loans: $34,350
Cash: $127,389
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Sara Stapleton-Barrera
SD 27 - DEM
Contributions: $11,778
Campaign Loans: $110,025
Cash: $2,816
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Bianca Gracia
SD 11 - GOP
Contributions: $29,200
Campaign Loans: $0
Cash: $29,050
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Salomon Torres
SD 27 - DEM
Contributions: $2,515
Campaign Loans: $2,223
Cash: $100
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Bob Mitchell
SD 11 - GOP
Contributions: $100
Campaign Loans: $0
Cash: $100
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Ryan Guillen (Inc)
HD 31 - GOP
Contributions: $279,995
Campaign Loans: $0
Cash Dec 31: $660,090 |
Dustin Burrows (Inc)
HD 83 - GOP
Contributions: $273,915
Campaign Loans: $0
Cash Dec 31: $225,917
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Glenn Rogers (Inc)
HD 60 - GOP
Contributions: $245,675
Campaign Loans: $0
Cash Dec 31: $121,270 |
Jeff Leach (Inc)
HD 67 - GOP
Contributions: $234,997
Campaign Loans: $0
Cash Dec 31: $147,793
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Ernest Bailes (Inc)
HD 18 - GOP
Contributions: $212,816
Campaign Loans: $0
Cash Dec 31: $163,199 |
Steve Toth (Inc)
HD 15 - GOP
Contributions: $197,429
Campaign Loans: $0
Cash Dec 31: $204,132
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Justin Holland (Inc)
HD 121 - GOP
Contributions: $187,919
Campaign Loans: $0
Cash Dec 31: $228,162 |
Steve Allison (Inc)
HD 121 - GOP
Contributions: $182,102
Campaign Loans: $0
Cash Dec 31: $106,105
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Kyle Kacal (Inc)
HD 12 - GOP
Contributions: $175,020
Campaign Loans: $0
Cash Dec 31: $209,265 |
Valoree Swanson (Inc)
HD 150 - GOP
Contributions: $167,826
Campaign Loans: $0
Cash Dec 31: $154,572
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Travis Clardy (Inc)
HD 11 - GOP
Contributions: $142,825
Campaign Loans: $0
Cash Dec 31: $303,363 |
Gary Gates (Inc)
HD 28 - GOP
Contributions: $82,525
Campaign Loans: $60,000
Cash Dec 31: $30,754
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Brooks Landgraf (Inc)
HD 81 - GOP
Contributions: $136,803
Campaign Loans: $0
Cash Dec 31: $242,406 |
Lynn Stucky (Inc)
HD 64 - GOP
Contributions: $133,371
Campaign Loans: $0
Cash Dec 31: $156,797
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Bryan Slaton (Inc)
HD 2 - GOP
Contributions: $133,371
Campaign Loans: $0
Cash Dec 31: $56,966 |
David Spiller (Inc)
HD 68 - GOP
Contributions: $132,068
Campaign Loans: $0
Cash Dec 31: $127,631
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Gio Capriglione (Inc)
HD 98 - GOP
Contributions: $127,340
Campaign Loans: $0
Cash Dec 31: $263,206 |
Stephanie Klick (Inc)
HD 91 - GOP
Contributions: $121,198
Campaign Loans: $0
Cash Dec 31: $307,008
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Reggie Smith (Inc)
HD 62 - GOP
Contributions: $110,600
Campaign Loans: $0
Cash Dec 31: $132,267 |
Andrew Murr (Inc)
HD 53 - GOP
Contributions: $103,650
Campaign Loans: $0
Cash Dec 31: $219,784
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Gary Vandeaver (Inc)
HD 1 - GOP
Contributions: $81,720
Campaign Loans: $0
Cash Dec 31: $192,395 |
John Raney (Inc)
HD 14 - GOP
Contributions: $77,400
Campaign Loans: $0
Cash Dec 31: $93,738
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Cole Hefner (Inc)
HD 5 - GOP
Contributions: $70,062
Campaign Loans: $0
Cash Dec 31: $237,331 |
Mike Schofield (Inc)
HD 132 - GOP
Contributions: $67,995
Campaign Loans: $0
Cash Dec 31: $87,011
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Stan Lambert (Inc)
HD 71 - GOP
Contributions: $65,701
Campaign Loans: $0
Cash Dec 31: $199,569 |
Cecil Bell Jr. (Inc)
HD 3 - GOP
Contributions: $60,257
Campaign Loans: $0
Cash Dec 31: $45,549
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Matt Schaefer (Inc)
HD 6 - GOP
Contributions: $37,731
Campaign Loans: $0
Cash Dec 31: $25,205 |
Lacey Hull (Inc)
HD 138 - GOP
Contributions: $34,069
Campaign Loans: $0
Cash Dec 31: $49,187
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Source: Texas Ethics
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