June 2, 2016 6:37 PM

SB: Group of TPPF board members spent heavily against Texas House GOP leadership

TPPF Vice Chair Tim Dunn was joined by a small group, a majority of whom are on the TPPF board, who spent $3.2 million against Speaker Straus’ team during the primary

The Texas Public Policy Foundation promotes itself – and has been promoted in various media outlets – as merely a conservative free market think tank. The group, founded by “school choice” advocate James Leininger of San Antonio, says its “mission is to promote and defend liberty, personal responsibility, and free enterprise in Texas and the nation by educating and affecting policymakers and the Texas public policy debate with academically sound research and outreach.”

But that “sound research,” criticized by some Republicans as “sometimes suspect,” is far from the only way in which significant bloc of TPPF’s board members has tried to affect policymakers in this state.

They’ve also chosen to open their wallets as part of a full-court press to defeat Republican candidates who are in Speaker Joe Straus’ Texas House governing coalition – including the speaker himself.

By Scott Braddock