Elon Musk has donated $2 million to the Texas-based Judicial Integrity PAC, becoming the latest billionaire to back groups seeking to unseat Democratic judges across the state.
Donations made through the revocable trusts of Tesla and SpaceX CEOs were collected by Justice Fairness PAC from late September to October 26, according to the group’s latest campaign finance report to be released Monday. This accounts for almost half of the approximately $4.6 million raised.
Representatives for Musk at Tesla and SpaceX did not immediately respond to KERA News’ requests for comment. KERA has reached out to Musk’s financial manager for comment on LinkedIn and will update this article if we hear back.
The Judicial Integrity PAC raised $8.3 million in the last filing period, thanks to funding from other prominent billionaires and corporations, KERA News recently reported.
The Judicial Integrity PAC has spent thousands of dollars on advertising for Republican judicial candidates and Democratic judges across Texas. In North Texas, PAC says Democrats in Dallas are releasing dangerous criminals with little or no bail, while Republican judges in Fort Worth are curbing crime by keeping criminals behind bars. claims.
But the group is unable to directly link differences in crime levels in cities to judges rather than other factors such as geographic size, demographics or police enforcement.
The group also formally supports intermediate appellate court judges and candidates in Dallas, Houston, San Antonio and Corpus Christi, rather than magistrate judges or trial court judges who make bail decisions.
A spokesperson for Judicial Integrity PAC said the group is “highlighting the devastating consequences that pro-crime Democratic judges have had on families regardless of whether they vote high or low.”
The group also spent hundreds of thousands of dollars supporting the “Stop the Houston Murder” PAC’s advertising efforts, according to campaign finance records. Although the group does not endorse any particular judge or judicial candidate, it similarly blames Democratic judges for Houston’s crimes and encourages voters to support Republicans, regardless of whether they vote high or low. There is.
Musk, whose Tesla headquarters are in Austin and SpaceX’s launch facility is in Brownsville, most recently entered Texas politics by donating $1 million to another PAC, Texans for Litigation Reform. revealed his interest. The group champions tort reform (efforts to make it harder to sue businesses) and primarily supports Republicans in state legislative and judicial elections.
Lee Parsley is the campaign finance director for both TLR PAC and Judicial Fairness PAC, and TLR PAC contributed $500,000 to Judicial Fairness PAC in the most recent campaign finance filing period.
Cal Jillson, a political science professor at Southern Methodist University, said donations like Musk’s were motivated by corporate business interests in a more Republican and conservative judicial climate, rather than concerns about crime in Texas’ major cities. He said that a strong motive may be to protect the country.
“Most of these businessmen aren’t particularly interested in Dallas snatchers or car thieves,” Jillson said. “They’re concerned about things like the regulatory environment around water and air and how oil and gas wells need to be capped to be environmentally safe.”
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