State Rep. James Talarico, the Round Rock Democrat who’s running for U.S. Senate, has spent a lot of time on the campaign trail speaking out against big money in politics.
“Billionaire mega-donors aren’t just buying yachts and jets — they’re buying power, and they’re using that power to rig our political system,” says his campaign website.
But billionaires are part of the base powering Talarico’s campaign for the Senate. That’s according to new reporting by John Moritz, chief political reporter for the Austin American Statesman.
Moritz spoke to Texas Standard about some of the donors behind Talarico’s political action committee. Listen to the interview in the player above or read the transcript below.
This transcript has been edited lightly for clarity:
Texas Standard: You recently took a look at the Talarico campaign’s fundraising. Where’s his money coming from? What would you find?
John Moritz: Well, we should differentiate his campaign from the PAC, which by law is separate from his campaign and they’re not allowed to coordinate. But the PAC is raising a fair amount of money from very deep-pocketed individuals around Texas and beyond.
Some of them are billionaires, some of them might not be billionaires, but they certainly have tremendous means at their disposal and they are contributing to that PAC and that PAC is basically working to help Talarico — although not coordinating their efforts with Talarico, if that makes sense.
Oh, I understand the line that you’re drawing there. For the benefit of some listeners who don’t closely follow politics, let’s talk a bit about why there is this bright line between campaign fundraising and super PAC money. Why is there such a focus on that?
Well, under federal law, federal campaigns — U.S. Senate, the president, Congress — they can only raise up to like $3,500 from an individual per election cycle. But these PACs and super PACs, on the other hand, are not under those restrictions. So donors can be far more generous if they are giving to these other, outside, third organizations.
There’s been, certainly among Democrats, a kind of push in some quarters for politicians to turn down this PAC money. How easy would that be as a practical matter for Talarico to turn it down? Is that even feasible?
He tells us, by law, he can’t coordinate with them. I suppose he could disavow their ads, say, “oh, no, no. That’s not me. That’s them. I wish they wouldn’t do that.” But so far, he hasn’t drawn that particular line in the sand.
But on the other hand, he has called for the banning of these super PACs and banning corporate PACs. Whether he could get that through the Senate, were he elected, is another matter.
But that’s sort of the line he draws to separate himself from the Republican candidates, Sen. Cornyn and Attorney General Paxton, who also have super PACs, and who also will have very wealthy donors helping them along.
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Yeah, I guess this sort of gets to a sort of arms race that you have in any political campaign. If one candidate is welcoming PAC money with open arms, what are you going to do, say no? Isn’t that what you hear a lot as you cover this story?
Exactly. In fact, the director of the super PAC told me is like, we’re aware of his stance on these super PACs. We’re aware his message. We like most of it. Our donors like most of it, but you can’t go into battle with one hand tied behind your back in modern politics, especially in a state the size of Texas where we have 20 very expensive media markets to purchase advertising and try to get your message out.
That’s kind of the yin and the yang of this race.
Well said. But I’m curious where this money is going, because I know that there are a lot of ads they’re running on television but a lot more people are not going to television for their entertainment anymore. A lot of people are just sort of online 24/7.
Yes, and a fair amount of these ads are digital ads. They might appear online, but a lot of people watch YouTube on their TV, so it’s hard for an ordinary viewer to differentiate.
Much of the money that the super PAC helping Talarico was spent during the primary when he was being challenged quite vigorously by Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett of Dallas.
