UPDATE: Today four Stan Gerdes flyers arrived, all from Political Action Committees OUTSIDE Texas. Ask yourself why Alexandria VA PACs want Stan Gerdes in the Texas House so badly that they’ll do 4 mailings in one day? Two of the four have the same treasurer. Hmmmm…….
(1) from American Energy Action Fund. This is a Federal PAC, Alexandria VA
(2) from Texas Conservative Fund. Established 1/2026 in Alexandria VA.
(3) from Texas Action PAC. Established 9/2025 in Alexandria VA.
(4) from AFC Victory Fund. Established 10/2023 in Alexandria VA.
I’ve written before about the value (or not) of endorsements. I’ve explained my rules for reading campaign literature. I’ve talked about desperate candidates and “going negative”. But these latest revelations really take the cake.
Political Action Committee or PAC. What is it? Texas Ethics Commission defines PACs as follows:
- A political committee that supports or opposes two or more candidates who are unidentified or who are seeking offices that are unknown is a general-purpose political committee.
- A political committee that supports or opposes candidates, all of whom are identified and are seeking offices that are known, is a specific-purpose political committee.
Reporting requirements are the same. Spending money to influence a question or candidate requires a 30-day prior and 8-day prior election finance report.
What seems to be happening more and more is that PACs are being formed by consultants or people closely aligned with a campaign. They use names that include words like “Conservative” or “Safety” or “Protect”. Those names appear in the “Paid for by” and the average voter who doesn’t have time to spend hours researching a PAC think the organization and its support are a big deal.
In reality, it’s all marketing to sell you on a candidate.
At the very least, check to see if they have a website. Check the address of the organization. Visit Texas Ethics where you can download a list of active PACs. Choose “Search/View a Filed Report”, then “List of Active PACs”.
Download that Excel sheet, filter for PACs started in 2026 and you’ll find 78 of them. That’s right. SEVENTY-EIGHT PACs have been formed in Texas just since the start of 2026.
Let’s take the mailer that arrived a few days ago from “Alliance of Texans for Conservative Leadership PAC”. That PAC was started January 31, 2026. It’s address is Dallas TX. It’s treasurer is Marshall C. Bumpus with an address of 8558 Katy Freeway Ste 105, Houston TX 77024.
Any idea how much it costs to mail such a piece? Thousands!
But cleverly, this PAC, formed in January, mailed this piece AFTER the required “30-day prior” financial filing. Here’s a copy of that filing for this PAC: No income, no expenses, no candidate supported, NOTHING. All zeros. Yet, this glossy mailer supporting Stan Gerdes shows up in our mailboxes.
Complete shenanigans meant to deceive YOU, the voter.
If a candidate is willing to play these games, use these cleverly-created PACs to make you think they’re a very popular candidate, will that person also play these same games in Austin? You can bet on it. It directly points to the candidate’s character: they’re willing to deceive.
Drain the swamp means drain the swamp. It means voting for honest leadership, not clever gamesmanship.
Your vote. You decide. My vote will go to Tom Glass, supported by individuals not cleverly-created, out-of-district PACs.