Campaign donations

A large share comes from the oil industry that commissioners regulate.

Texas’ three Railroad Commissioners build sizable campaign war chests during their six-year terms, with a large share of the contributions coming from the oil and gas industry that they regulate.

The practice has long concerned environmental advocates and watchdog groups, who worry about the influence of an industry that pours money into campaign coffers year in and year out, making it difficult for challengers to mount competitive campaigns.

For instance, commission Chairwoman Christi Craddick, who is not up for re-election until 2018, received $4.9 million in political contributions between July 2011 and June 2016, more than half from oil and gas interests, according to data compiled by Texans for Public Justice, an Austin-based advocacy group.

Commissioners say the campaign contributions don’t buy influence and they make decisions based on their merits and the public interest.

There have been attempts to stem this flow of campaign contributions. In the past, the Sunset Commission, the state agency charged with periodically reviewing state agencies and recommending if they should be reauthorized, has suggested that the commissioners be allowed to collect campaign contributions only during the years in which they must run for re-election. The proposal, however, was dropped from the commission’s latest recommendations to the Legislature.

Meanwhile, the latest campaign finance filing from January shows that the commissioners collected hundreds of thousands of dollars at the end of 2016 from oil and gas interests.