September 23, 2016 6:33 PM

GOP Ethics Commissioners: We are working to ensure Texas disclosure rules are predictable and fair

In letter to Abbott, Patrick, and Straus, the Republican members of the Texas Ethics Commission outline "blatantly false" accusations made by Tim Dunn's group Empower Texans and affiliated organizations

All the Republican members of the Texas Ethics Commission have now told Gov. Greg Abbott, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, and Speaker Joe Straus that an effort led by Midland oilman Tim Dunn’s group Empower Texans to change the direction of the agency is based on claims that are “so blatantly false that we feel duty bound to respond to them directly."

In a letter to the big three dated September 16 and obtained by Quorum Report on Friday through an open records request, Chairman Chase Untermeyer along with Commissioners Hugh Akin, Jim Clancy, and Robert Long said they had no choice but to respond to a letter sent to all Republican lawmakers by Dunn’s Empower Texans and co-signed by other groups including Texas Right to Life, the Texas Home School Coalition, and the Northeast Tarrant Tea Party.

In the Empower Texans letter sent last month, which you can read here, the professional activists made many claims about the Ethics Commission including that the “process is the punishment.” The commission has, QR readers are aware, been investigating Empower Texans for years leading to a maximum fine for illegal lobbying and protracted court battles on multiple fronts.

Lawmakers should “investigate the commissioners and staff at the TEC for their inexcusable and inexplicable actions,” the paid activists wrote. “All of the commissioners need to be replaced, and the agency needs to be fundamentally reformed or abolished,” argued Dunn’s spokesman Michael Quinn Sullivan.

After Dunn’s group demanded TEC commissioners be replaced, Lt. Gov. Patrick did his best.

By Scott Braddock