Maldonado Plays Chicken with the Texas Ethics Commission

Apparently adhering to the "it's better to ask forgiveness than permission" mantra, Representative Diana Maldonado seems to be playing a game of chicken with the Texas Ethics Commission. Campaign finance reports were due on July 15, a date political reporters typically comb through the filings for news material. Maldonado did follow the letter of the law by filing a report on that date. However, she then filed a rather startling amended report on July 16.

Amended reports are not completely out of the ordinary; candidates occasionally forget an item or make a mistake, but the Maldonado amended report is spectacular in that her 'oopsies' consist of 90% of all expenditures and nearly $60,000 in contributions, including $25,000 from Annie's List, the pro-abortion PAC for ultra-liberal women. These omissions are so significant that they must be either the result of gross incompetence or a calculated effort to hide a controversial reporting items until media interest had died down. Unfortunately for Rep. Maldonado, Williamson County Republican Party Chairman Bill Fairbrother happened to notice that a 'corrected' report was quietly filed on July 16, and has notified local media.

An analysis of the items Maldonado slipped in after the report deadline, shows that only 4.8% of her funds are from within House District 52. In addition to some 52 contributions from trial attorneys and/or trial attorney PACs ($22,810) Maldonado has also received 35 contributions from various liberal PACs, including union groups and, of course, the infamous Annie's List PAC. Clearly, Rep Maldonado's support comes not from within the Republican-leaning district in Williamson County, but from a group of Leftist politicos determined steer the county to the left(or, off a cliff).

Representative Maldonado's attempt to play games with the Texas Ethics Commission does not say much for her commitment to openness and transparency. If, on the other hand, this was indeed all just a huge mistake, we should be very, very concerned about the competency of our current representation.