As they target South Texas, Republicans say one Democratic county isn't maintaining campaign finance

As they target South Texas, Republicans say one Democratic county isn’t maintaining campaign finance records

by Patrick Svitek, Texas Tribune


All eyes are on South Texas this election season as Texas Republicans try to make new inroads there. The increased attention has spotlighted a concerning campaign issue, according to one GOP group: a lack of publicly available campaign finance reports in Starr County documenting donations and spending for its local elections.

Under state law, counties are required to maintain such reports for candidates for local office, including races for county judge, county commissioner and justice of the peace. But that is apparently not happening in Starr, one of the four counties that make up the Rio Grande Valley, according to a recently filed ethics complaint from a GOP group.

The group, Project Red TX, is working to unseat the Democratic county judge, Eloy Vera, and has filed public records requests seeking his latest campaign finance reports. However, the county has said in response to the group that it does “not currently retain” the reports.

The county did not respond to a request for comment, but Project Red TX provided documentation of its correspondence to The Texas Tribune.

The situation raises a host of questions, including whether candidates are filing reports at all and whether the county ever maintained the reports to begin with. Vera did not respond to multiple messages seeking comment.

Read more: https://www.texastribune.org/2022/06/28/starr-county-campaign-finance-reports/