Litigation

Corporate-Funded Political Ads Run in TX Newspapers

By Peter Hardin

A  real estate company is behind what appear to be the first political ads purchased in Texas by a corporation since the Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling.

The ads challenged the Republican credentials of state Rep. Chuck Hopson, a former Democrat, and were funded by a company whose president was defeated by Hopson in a 2006 election contest.

KDR Development Inc., a real estate company, paid for the newspaper ads that ran in Jacksonville, Tyler and Panola in East Texas, in advance of a three-way Republican primary. Larry Durrett, a Republican, heads KDR Development and lost in 2006 to Hopson when Hopson was a Democrat,  according to a Texas Tribune article.

Durrett told the newspaper why he used corporate money.  He said:

“You take the money out of the pocket that’s got some money in there.”

Durrett said he had wanted to run ads against Hopson for some time, and after the Supreme Court decision, he checked with a lawyer, got advice from a specialist and approached newspapers about the purchase.

Hopson won the primary with 61 percent of the vote. But Durrett took heart. “If you continue to point out that people aren’t as conservative as you are, it moves them to the right,” he said.

You can learn about Citizens United from Gavel Grab or from Justice at Stake’s press release or fact sheet about it.

Full post as published by The Gavel on March 23, 2010 (boomark / email).