HCRP Finances - The Real Story

As the story about the HCRP's financial predicament and reporting are slowly coming to light, first at Big Jolly Politics, then the Texas Watchdog, and now the Houston Chronicle, I want to clear the air on a couple of points:

First, the two arguments that the incumbent is making in defense of his regime-that the checks in question may have been held and not deposited for months after they were written, that the HCRP raised $2.5 million dollars in 2008-show how out of touch this current leadership team is with sound management practices, and with reality. If the party actually had the checks in question and noted their receipt by acknowledging the contributors on the invitation and program for the annual dinner, but did not deposit them timely, this is highly unsound money management and risk management, and it must be reformed in order to protect the party from the risk of loss or theft in the future. As for the $2.5 million figure, here is the reality (based on the publicly filed reports covering the entire year of 2008):

* A little over $2.4 million passed through the HCRP accounts during 2008;
* Of that figure, over $1.9 came from judicial candidates' campaign accounts, or from the state party, to fund joint campaign activities-it was money raised by others for a specific purpose, dedicated to that purpose, and spent for that purpose-the HCRP did not raise this money itself, nor did it have any discretion as to how it would be spent;
* Of the remaining amount, the HCRP spent a little more than $416,000 on its own operations;
* It raised less than $300,000 to cover those operating expenses, from a contributor base of about 300 individuals-two of whom contributed about $85,000 of the total sum; and
* The remaining amount to cover the HCRP's expenses-$150,120-came from 46 campaign accounts from non-judicial elected officials and candidates, 31 individual candidates and elected officials, and 11 HCRP officials.

In reality, the ticket supported the party, and allowed it to keep the lights on at Richmond Avenue, not the other way around. This trend continued into 2009, as one elected official was the party's largest contributor during the first 6 months, giving $15,000 of the little over $100,000 the party reported it raised.

Second, as I called for before-and the other candidates have since echoed-we need an independent audit and inventory of the party immediately in order to:

* know what our baseline is for budgeting and fundraising needs;
* create an information base from which to institute new and better money-management practices and procedures for the HCRP going forward;
* re-instill confidence in our contributor base that we will handle their contributions wisely; and
* re-build credibility with our constituents that we can be trusted with handling public funds.

I hope you will join us in continuing to call for reform at Richmond Avenue.