‘Anti-pay-to-play’ petition falls short of requirement

The political action committee that launched a petition drive aimed at limiting the influence of contractors and vendors at Houston City Hall failed to gather enough signatures to put the measure on the November ballot, the group’s director said Wednesday.

The drive, which ended earlier this week, was for a petition authored by a group of lawyers, including Houston mayoral candidate Bill King, to amend a city ordinance to bar people who do business with the city from contributing more than $500 to candidates for municipal office.

Mayor Sylvester Turner, who has rejected calls from King and fellow candidate Tony Buzbee to reform Houston’s campaign finance system, suggested the effort’s failure was an indictment on the “antipay-to-play” message being pushed by the political action committee backing the petition. The mayor urged reporters to “focus on real issues, real needs.”

“Let me just put it this way: I have not seen any problems,” Turner said. “I think that whole movement was more political than substantive.”

King, who lost to Turner in a 2015 runoff, is making a second run for the city’s top office. Along with Buzbee, he has focused his campaign on City Hall corruption, alleging a culture of cronyism gives political donors too much influence over city business.

Houston's campaign finance laws allow individual donors to give candidates up to $5,000 every two years. PACs can contribute a maximum of $10,000 during the same span.

In a brief statement, King cast the petition drive’s failure as a minor hitch in his broader effort to reform the city’s campaign finance rules.

“We didn’t make it for November, but we are not abandoning this effort,” King said. “I am committed to keep collecting signatures so

that I can get this on the ballot when I am in the mayor’s office.”

If elected mayor, King could have city council vote whether to put the measure on the November ballot, though a successful petition drive would force their hand: council must pass a successful petition as an ordinance or resolution, or “submit it to the popular vote,” according to Houston’s charter.

Buzbee, a millionaire trial lawyer, who is funding his campaign with his own money and not accepting campaign contributions, called on all candidates to only accept donations of $500 or less, or to stop taking contributions altogether.

“I’m the only candidate not taking donations,” Buzbee said in a statement. “When I’m mayor, we will pass the reforms in the petition and more. We will clean up City Hall.”

Ben McPhaul, the director of the PAC, said the committee still was receiving petitions Wednesday but would fall short of the roughly 40,000 signatures it needed to gather in 30 days under city rules.

“We are grateful for the hundreds of grass-roots volunteers who helped the effort with not a single paid petitioner,” McPhaul said in a statement. “The PAC plans to continue collecting signatures to raise awareness of the issue with hopes to get it on the ballot or in front of council in the future.”

The amendment also would have prohibited city board and commission members, as well as sexually-oriented business owners, from giving candidates any campaign money.

The petition drive’s failure reflects the PAC’s lack of volunteers and funds more than the public’s interest in reforming Houston’s campaign finance reform system, Rice University political scientist Mark Jones said.

“You can't read anything into this regarding the attitudes of Houstonians toward ‘pay to play,’” Jones said.

Still, the outcome represents a win for Turner, Jones said, because it means the topic of campaign finance reform may gain less media coverage and traction from political pundits near election time.

“I wouldn't put it as a major failure for King, but certainly it's a setback,” Jones said. “Once he got behind the petition, he owned the petition.”

King said state law separately allows a longer period for petition drives, so the PAC would continue to collect signatures. Though King’s campaign is not affiliated with the PAC, it has supported the drive, and King made a point of being the first person to sign the petition.

“We’ve been carrying it around on our campaign and we haven’t had a single person refuse to sign it,” he said.

He also noted Houston’s charter bases the number of required petition signatures on a mayoral election held within the last three years. Since the last election happened in 2015 — more than three years ago — King contended a petition drive now technically needs just one signature.

If that were challenged in court, however, the litigation would get resolved well after November, said King, indicating he had no interest in taking action in court.

Last week, a federal judge granted a temporary restraining order on Houston's requirement that people who circulate referendum and initiative petitions be residents and registered voters in the city. The ruling barred the city from enforcing the rule for roughly the final week of the “anti-pay-to-play” petition drive.

The PAC’s effort was a key part of the order issued by District Judge Vanessa Gilmore, who referred to the petition drive in her ruling. The case was prompted by Accelevate 2020 LLC, a consulting firm focused on ballot access and petitions. The group sued the city, alleging its residence requirement violates the First Amendment.

Gilmore had yet to issue a ruling in the case Wednesday.