Koop said Carter "repeatedly used her campaign contributors’ donations to rent margarita machines for our state house office." ambassador, could use donations that had been given to his Texas campaign to host a holiday party for his embassy staff.Īn April 13, 1984, opinion said a legislator could accept "food, liquor, and other beverages (donated) for use in his office during the session" presuming "these items are used by the legislator or the legislator’s staff for such activities as entertaining constituents who visit the legislator's office or for their own consumption." 24, 2004, opinion, the commission said a former Texas senator, who had become a U.S. We found opinions that indicated spending campaign money on an office staff party was OK and that liquor being consumed by staffers in a legislator’s office wasn’t a problem in and of itself. If only the family came to the party, there might be a problem."īy phone, Ian Steusloff, assistant general counsel at the Texas Ethics Commission, directed us to some of the commission’s advisory opinions that might apply: 453, 314, 458, 378, 195. The fundamental test for use of campaign funds is whether they have been converted to ‘personal use’ of you or your family. I see no legal barrier to supplementing them with a tasty margarita. Is it ethical for legislators to serve their staff members margaritas in the Capitol?Ĭraig McDonald, director of Texans for Public Justice, a left-leaning group that tracks campaign fundraising, told us by email, "Under current law one can supplement your staff using campaign funds. The 2011 amount, he said, equals the price of two margarita machines and two extra batches of margarita mix. Tran confirmed the 2013 rental of one machine, set up at the Capitol, but said he couldn’t find a record of the 2011 rental, which would have happened before he took over ownership. Nick Tran, owner of Margaritas to Go, said by phone that his company rents machines and sets them up for legislators, sometimes in their Capitol offices, "once or twice a year - it’s never the same." Stefani Carter, July 15, 2013, semi-annual report: Stefani Carter, July 15, 2011, semi-annual report Carter paid for the traditional ‘sine die’ celebration at the end of the 2011 Legislative session, as well as one birthday party for a staff member in 2013, with campaign funds, not taxpayer dollars." There, the campaign listed two payments to Margaritas To Go of Austin: $258.72 paid June 3, 2011, for an "end-of-session staff/hall party" and $117.99 paid April 1, 2013, for "Rental of Margaritas To Go machine for staffer’s birthday." We found no other margarita mentions in any reports filed by Carter going back to 2010, when she was elected to the House, thoughtwo liquor-store purchases were described as expenses for 20 campaign victory parties in Dallas.īy email, Carter campaign manager Nicole Pearce said of the margarita machine events, "Rep. 25, cites "Texas Ethics Commission records." Murphy said the margarita expenses were revealed in Carter’s campaign contribution and expenditure reports, specifically her July 15, 2011, semi-annual report and July 15, 2013, semi-annual report. Koop’s mailer, which Murphy said went out Feb. We decided to see whether the margarita machine charge checked out. Koop faces Carter in the May 27 runoff for the Republican nomination. A salty claim figured into a Republican challenger’s campaign before the March 4, 2014, primary for the party’s nomination for a Dallas County seat in the Texas House.Ĭandidate Linda Koop mailed out a flier with an illustration of a festively decorated margarita machine that said incumbent Stefani Carter of Dallas "repeatedly used her campaign contributors’ donations to rent margarita machines for our state house office." We learned about the flier via Scott Braddock, a writer for the Capitol news website Quorum Report.Īs best we could tell, there’s nothing illegal about throwing a margarita party for legislative staff with campaign funds, and Koop spokesman Craig Murphy told us by phone, "We’re not alleging that it’s illegal," just questioning what constituents and donors would think of the expenses.
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