Outside PACs push more than $100,000 into El Paso mayoral election

EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) -- The Borderland is seeing a new trend in the mayoral campaign this year: out-of-town political action committees, or PACs, are investing resources to support and attack candidates. 

As ABC-7 has reported, the race for El Paso mayor is tipping the scales at more than $1 million dollars raised and spent so far in 2024. At this time four years ago, mayoral candidates had spent about half as much.  

That's due in no small part to the fundraising and spending of two Austin-based political action committees, or PACs, impacting the mayoral race. Campaign finance reports reviewed by ABC-7 also show some El Pasoans are donating to both the candidate and the PACs that support him. 

A PAC is a political committee that raises and spends money to elect or defeat candidates, according to OpenSecrets, a non-profit organization that tracks data on campaign finance and lobbying.  

PACs aren’t unheard of in El Paso politics, usually locally organized with a single-issue focus, according to UTEP Communications and Director of the Sam Donaldson Center for Communications Studies Professor Richard Pineda.  

In an interview with ABC-7, Pineda explained it is perfectly legal, and a way to fund campaigns we haven’t seen at this stage before.  

"I don't think that you're able to get the genie back in the bottle once people start to take funds," Pineda said.   

Pineda told ABC-7 mayoral campaign spending in El Paso is increasing faster than just inflation.  

"Once you start to balance out the cost of everything that's involved, then I think it's impossible to try to shorten the amount of money,” Pineda said. “The other thing that I always recommend voters do is look at these campaign finance reports, because you can get an idea, I think you get to see behind the curtain in terms of what's being spent.”  

ABC-7 went through the campaign finance reports and found two conservative PACs active in the mayoral election, including Project Red TX, and the Protect and Serve Texas PAC.  

On its website, Project Red TX describes itself as being a “focused effort to recruit and support candidates at the local level.”   

The Protect and Serve Texas PAC, according to its website, says it’s “dedicated to supporting candidates across Texas who support public safety.”  

The two PACs produced mailers supporting the Renard Johnson campaign while attacking Brian Kennedy’s.  

In reviewing the campaign finance reports, including the ones released eight days before the election, $120,000 was donated to Project Red TX from El Paso donors last month.   

Paul Foster and Woody Hunt each gave $50,000, while Ed Escudero gave $15,000 and Rick Francis gave $5,000.  

Campaign finance reports show Project Red TX then donated $152,000 to the Protect and Serve Texas PAC. That group also received $40,000 from El Pasoans directly including $25,000 from Miguel Fernandez, $10,000 from Ted Houghton, and $5,000 from Steve Ortega.  

Protect and Serve Texas then paid two political consulting firms more than $150,000 in support of the Johnson campaign.  

The expenses, according to the reports, were listed as two mailers, plus TV, digital and radio ads.  

ABC-7 reached out to Paul Foster and Woody Hunt to ask about their decision to donate $50,000 to the PAC, while also giving personal contributions to Johnson’s campaign directly.  

Both were out of town and not available for comment.   

ABC-7 spoke to financial advisor and former chief of the Texas Transportation Commission Ted Houghton.

He gave $10,000 to Protect and Serve Texas, and also $5,500.00 to Johnson’s campaign directly, according to the campaign finance reports. He told ABC-7, “A campaign makes decisions on its own direction. A PAC can take suggestions on how to approach issues.”  

As for the impact on voters, UTEP’s Richard Pineda told ABC-7 the lack of local understanding by these PACs and the timing of the mailers may limit their effectiveness.  

"This is also one of the challenges, which is if the PACs aren't local, they don't understand the tempo of elections and the sense of how a community operates,” Pineda said as he noted the mailers were sent out halfway through the early voting period. 

In El Paso, there are no limits on what can be donated to campaigns outside of judicial races, according to the city clerk’s department.