Cruz gifted Rockets tickets that cost $12K
WASHINGTON — You can stop blaming U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz for the Rockets’ Game 7 Western Conference Finals loss to the Golden State Warriors last year. Instead, blame Robert Marling, a banker and Republican donor who paid for Cruz’s $5,175 ticket to the game that many online accused Cruz of cursing.
The ticket was one of three to Rockets games — totaling more than $12,000 — that Cruz accepted as gifts in 2018, according to his latest financial disclosure, filed with the Senate ethics committee this week. Marling, the chairman of the Woodlands-based Woodforest National Bank, paid for two of them. Jeff Roe, who ran Cruz’s presidential campaign, picked up the third.
Per Senate ethics rules, senators
can only accept gifts worth less than $50, as long as they’re not froma registered lobbyist, foreign agent or private entity that employs them. They also cannot accept multiple gifts totaling more than $100 from one source in a year.
There are exceptions, however. Senators can accept gifts “given on the basis of a personal friendship” — “unless there is reason to believe that the gift was provided because of the individual’s official position,” per Senate rules. And if that gift is worthmore than $250, they must get written approval from the ethics committee.
The committee did not respond to requests for comment on whether Cruz received such approval, though his office said
he did. A spokeswoman said in a statement: “Sen. Cruz filed his required ethics disclosure in accordance with all applicable rules and guidance from the Senate Ethics Committee.”
Cruz posted a picture of himself courtside on Twitter before the playoff game May 28, 2018, that ended the Rockets’ playoff run as the teamset a recordwith 37 missed 3-point attempts. Despite the poor shooting, Cruz held out hope, tweeting later in the game: “It’s Q4: get ‘er done.”
The senator also attended Game 5 of the series, which the Rockets won 98-94. Roe paid for that ticket, worth $5,000. And Cruz was also at the Rockets’ blowoutwin over the Los Angeles Lakers on Dec. 13, 2018, which he attended on Marling’s dime. That ticket cost $2,588.