$27,500 in funds to Bush faulted

Patterson rips gifts after deal; agency staff: Bush didn’t pick vendor.

Texas Land Commissioner George P. Bush shouldn’t have accepted $27,500 in campaign contributions from executives with a company that landed a big contract with the agency that Bush runs, according to his Republican primary rival Jerry Patterson.

“If I were in his position, I wouldn’t have accepted $30,000 three days after the contract was signed,” Patterson, the former land commissioner, said Monday. The Texas Tribune first revealed that the General Land Office awarded Horne LLP a $13.47 mill ion contract Oct. 30 to help with Harvey recovery efforts and that three days later Bush’s re-election campaign reported receiving $27,500 from Horne executives, including $1,000 from Jonathan Krebs, the Horne partner who signed the contract.

It’s legal for employees of state government contractors to donate to political campaigns, but ethics watchdogs said the timing of the donations gave the appearance of a thank-you.

Ash Wright, Bush’s campaign political adviser, did not respond to the American-Statesman’s request for comment but told the Tribune that it was “fake news” to tie the donations to the contract.

Brittany Eck, General Land Office spokeswoman, said Bush had no involvement in choosing Horne, an accounting firm, as the vendor. Three senior land office officials who will work with the vendor had chosen Horne through a procurement process that Eck said followed federal standards. The vendor was chosen based on cost, experience and proposal of how duties would be carried out, she said.