Is some person or persons violating Texas law pertaining to a mailer that some Richardson voters received this week? The answer might hinge on just how many people this advertising was sent to. Even if it turns out this advertising is legal, it can be considered a rookie mistake because it was so, so easy to prevent the question in the first place. But here we are...again.
The law regarding political advertising in Texas is summarized in "Political Advertising: What You Need to Know". The applicable rule in our case is this mailer's lack of a disclosure statement. The disclosure statement must say it's political advertising and give the full name of the person who paid for it. In our case, who paid for this political advertising? Was it Mark Solomon? Or was it Bob Dubey himself? It's undisclosed. The law requires the advertising to say.
Note that there are exceptions to this requirement: if the mailer costs in aggregate less than $500 to publish and distribute, then the disclosure statement is not required. Does that exception apply here? Dunno. In any case, the candidate is required to declare the expenditure in his campaign finance reports, either as a direct expenditure by the Bob Dubey campaign or as an in-kind donation from Mark Solomon. But remember, Bob Dubey's 30-day campaign finance report omitted any information about campaign expenditures (that itself is a violation of state law), so it's impossible to turn to that to find out how much was spent on this mailer. Maybe Bob Dubey will correct all this slipshod reporting in his *next* campaign finance report. Or not.
Bob Dubey wants to be mayor. He has run for City Council three times before this, enough to know the rules. Mark Solomon used to be Mayor Pro Tem. He ran for City Council six times, which is certainly enough to know better. Even if this mailer is somehow excepted from the political advertising law, it's still sloppy practice to omit something as basic as a political advertising disclosure on a campaign mailer. Whether you want to be elected mayor, or whether you are just trying to get a good friend elected mayor, you have to quit making rookie mistakes like this.
Pol. Ad. paid for by Mark Steger
There. See how easy that is?
Readers are great. According to Justin Neth, "Councilman Dubey sent a correction for his filing dated April 14th. It does show some expenses from March for "postcards" from Vista Print. Those purchases do appear to be for less than $500."
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