July 24, 2014 10:47 AM

Stanford: Phil King's problem with prosecutors

From the left--King has history with Public Integrity which is looking at a criminal complaint filed against him

Ethics enforcement in Texas is so relaxed that you really have to put your back into corruption to draw the interest of prosecutors. You can launder corporate money, like Tom DeLay did. You can take bribes, like one judge named Angus McGinty did when he exchanged favorable rulings for car repairs. That fella made life easier for prosecutors when they found a text message he sent to the person bribing him that read, “I’m a whore for money.”

Or you can do something with more creativity, more flair. Sometimes it takes a guy like state Rep. Phil King to really make a statement by making it a policy not to disclose in-kind gifts. According to Assistant District Attorney Rob Drummond, the Travis County Public Integrity Unit has received a criminal complaint and is “reviewing it to determine whether to open a criminal investigation.”

In June, Denton resident Aaron Renaud filed a complaint with the Public Integrity Unit that largely covered the same ground that Betty Richie covered with her ethics complaint against Tom Craddick in May. Both Renaud and Ritchie allege that Rep. Tom Craddick funneled $25,000 into his daughter’s Railroad Commission campaign by giving it to Phil King who gave it to the Dallas-Fort Worth Conservative Voters PAC to do turnout for Christi Craddick in North Texas. Concealing a contribution in this way is a no-no, but King messed up when he didn’t disclose the contribution from Tom Craddick until after Ritchie filed her complaint, but that’s probably not enough to draw a loo k from prosecutors.

The rest of Jason Stanford's column can be found in today's R&D Department.

By Jason Stanford