APRIL 21,
2011 , 4:14 pm:
I spent less than $1000.00 of my own money
for my PEC Director campaign.
I did not solicit nor receive any contributions. I did receive
endorsements
from a variety of individuals and organizations but I have no
idea what they
may have spent or what they may have done to support me, other
than notifying
their friends or members of their endorsement.
...
Regards,
Chris Perry
APRIL 21, 2011
I spent $0 other than my time running for the PEC Board.
Geoffrey VanderPal
APRIL 21, 2011
I think I spent about $2,500, all out of my own pocket and almost
exclusively for local newspaper ads.
I believe that a group sent post cards to its members that
endorsed me and one other candidate for the other place. I am not
advised what the total was that they spent, but I was told that
they would send about 4,000 postcards. If you assume the cost of
printing and mailing at $1 per address, then the portion spent in
support of my candidacy would be about another $2,000.
Of course, I came in second out of five candidates, so maybe the
guy who got 200 more votes than I did spent $295,500 more than I
spent. But you'll have to ask him about that as I am not advised.
I actually don't think he spent as much money as I did, but then
he's younger and more photogenic. Actually, the single biggest
shortcoming in the current Co-op election rules is that there is
no requirement to disclose financial support for a candidate, a
shortcoming that should be address, but is apparently not on Sen.
Fraser's radar screen.
I do believe that the Co-op should make a greater effort to inform
its members as to who the candidates for the board are and what
they say they stand for. This could be done by utilizing their
space in the Texas Cooperatives Magazine for each candidate to
make his own "pitch" in an allocation of ten column inches or
whatever. The Co-op currently does a pretty good job of making
information on the candidates available through its website and
inserts with billings -- quite a bit more than the State of Texas
does for the edification of its electorate, it might be observed.
On another note, while I recognize (due to first-hand experience)
the formidable task of communicating successfully with 200,000
other members, it is hardly a less formidable task to communicate
with even one-seventh that number, or about 30,000 households, if
the Co-op were to adopt single member districts. Is one-seventh of
Sen. Fraser's suggested $300,000 cost of running any more
affordable to your average Co-op member who might offer him or
herself as a director?
As a Co-op member, I would stongly object to being limited to
voting on only one out of seven board members, and being able to
express my approval or disapproval of board policies only once
every three years rather than every year through my vote. I can
think of no example of another corporation where the stockholders
are limited to voting on but one member of the board and doing so
only once every three years.
...
Regards,
Steven A. Carriker
APRIL 21, 2011
Senator Fraser is
right that it is cost prohibitive to reach over 210,000 PEC
voters. A candidate must be willing to
spend money in order to compete with the special interests who
want to raise rates in order to finance an environmental agenda.
Single member districts would make it financially
feasible for an average ratepayer to run for the PEC Board, and
would increase meaningful communications between members and
their Board. I spent less than a dollar per vote
received to communicate directly with PEC voters in order
to overcome a coordinated effort to control the PEC Board.
(See the attached lettter.)
Ross Fischer
PEC Director,
District 5
APRIL 21, 2011
...I spent about $2,700 of my own money - raised none, and
traveled extensively throughout the territory to meet members.
Regards,
Ken Rigsbee
Principally signs and gasoline.
(Ken Rigsbee)
APRIL 27, 2011
(1) Less than
$4,500 total; spent on flyers, advertising, phone calls,
member outreach, email, mail, and other incidental expenses.
(2) No
advocacy groups spent any money on my behalf.
(From Ross Fischer)
About $4200 total.
In my comment
below, I didn't claim that any of the advocacy groups
spent money in PEC races; I don't know whether they do or
not. I said that their efforts (meaning those of PEC4U
and Clean Water Action) are well coordinated and designed
to elect as many like-minded directors as they can. The
letter I sent to you makes it very clear that they recruit and
endorse candidates, that they claim to have allies in the
press, and that they have certain expectations of
those Directors that they help elect. The
bottom line is that it takes some amount of money to compete
with organized special interest groups that have learned
to dominate an at-large voting system.
(From Ross Fischer)
APRIL 23:
I ran as a candidate last year. And although I won my district, I
was wiped out in the other districts.
I had little money, less than $3,000 and had to depend on
volunteers and word of mouth. As for the $300,000 I have no
way to confirm that number.
However, unless a candidate has the backing of special interest
groups and/or political parties the common candidate has little
chance of winning....especially when only 10-12 percent of the
members vote.
The PEC area is over 8,000 square miles. Five of the
six candidates have won because they had the support of various
special interest groups. I believe you have a letter which
indicates such. The special interests want to maintain the
at-large system because any candidate with their support has a
tremendous advantage.
We no longer elect directors at the PEC we elect politicians
beholden to the special interests who got them elected. Reference
the letter you have.
The system now has been established to keep a certain elite in
power. Transparency and democracy does not exist. This
power and control politics is the same game as some claimed the
original proxy method was just with a different method, different
players and different agendas.
Respectfully,
Joe Summy
APRIL 24, 2011:
I spent very little on my campaign and received
no outside donations. I purchased t-shirts, yard signs,
and a few ads. All
told around $1,000.
Dan (Pedersen)
-------- Original Message --------
...
I spent less, much less probably, than $500. I came in a
respectable 3rd.
Regards,
Ted