In our last blog we asked if local elections are truly non-partisan and from the response we received most readers responded with a firm NO.  We are not surprised by the response because we believe local races stopped being non-partisan a long time ago.  Political campaigns are serious business according to the book Political Campaign Craftsmanship by Edward Schwartzman which notes that over one BILLION dollars are spent in presidential election years.  Where do the candidates get all this money? 

Candidates for political office at any level of government, must hustle to raise money to fund campaigns.  Campaign finance laws dictate who can contribute, how much one can contribute and how those contributions must be reported.  In Texas, campaign finance guidelines are published by the Texas Ethics Commission.  Before any campaign can start raising funds, they must first file paperwork to identify their campaign treasurer who is responsible for keeping up with the campaign finance reports that must be turned in to the city.

Generally, when a person donates to a candidate they have a specific reason or purpose that drives that decision.   People may donate to support a specific candidate or party whom they share the same values or has the same goals.  One may donate to try and influence an election outcome in their favor or to gain access or influence with the candidate.  In Frisco, who is donating to our city council members and what are they doing with the money you donated?

 In an early blog called The Ethics Conclusion & The Bogus Ethics Policy, we addressed campaign donations going back and forth between candidates and how it can affect them from being able to  be independent when an ethics complaint is filed against a member of the council.  In our blog Dark Money, we talked about the corrupt campaign finance system that has shifted the power in politics from the residents to the pay-to-play system that developers in Frisco seem to take advantage of.

As we said local elections are no longer non-partisan so if you are democrat you mostly likely donate to democratic candidates and the same could be said for a conservative donating to republican candidates.   We decided to start with John Keating because he is currently running for re-election and his campaign finance report has been the most colorful over the years.

John P. Keating is a registered Republican.  In 2015, Keating announced he would not run for re-election in Frisco because he planned on running for Texas House Representative District 33.  According to TransparencyUSA he has received contributions from some interesting groups, most likely during the time he ran for the Texas House District.   Empower Texas PAC $52,160.01, Texas Right To Life PAC $10,000, True Texas Project PAC $2239.86, and the Collin County Republican Party as well as 2 republican woman groups.  One interesting donation to point out is the James Webb donation during his run for Texas House.  Webb donated $20,000 according to TransparencyUSA and he was convicted of Medical Fraud in 2016.

What about locally?  Keating made several donations according to his campaign finance reports, remember this is money donated to his campaign.  Keating donated over $3000+ to The Frisco Chamber of Commerce, the most recent donation in 2022.   In 2017, he “sponsored” $1500 for the Collin County Republican Party.  Fast forward to 2021, John Keating’s campaign finance report shows he donated $1000 to each of the following republican campaigns: Angela Paxton Campaign, Jared Patterson Campaign, and  Pat Fallon for Congress. Also in 2021, he continued donating to republicans like the Chris Hill Campaign for $500, Jimmy Angelino for $1000, and the Rob Altman for $1000.   

In 2022, from his campaign donations, he donated $1000 to each of the following republicans: Keith Self for Congress, Jared Patterson, Matt Shaheen, Drew Springer, Frederick Frazier, and the Jimmy Angelino Campaign. 

In local elections, using his campaign donations, he donated $1000 to the Bill Woodard Campaign, and in 2022/23 he donated $2000+ to the Cheney Campaign. Now what is interesting is that John Keating and then wife Leslie Keating, made around $7000 in donations to Angelia Pelham, a registered democrat.  We could not find the donations on his campaign expense reports so we are assuming that came from personal funds.  QUESTION: Keating has always made campaign contributions to politicians from his personal campaign fund so why when it comes to Angelia did he change that?  Keating has donated to some very conservative politicians in recent years and received money from very conservative groups over the years, so we are guessing he didn’t want his “REPUBLICAN” donors to know he was donating to a democrat which would have had to be listed on his campaign finance report. Since it came from his personal funds, the only way to know he donated to Pelham is by looking at her campaign finance reports.

Why is this important?  First if you donate to a candidate like Keating, but you don’t support Cheney or Woodard, would you be upset to learn he is using campaign donations to support them?  If you are democrat voting for Keating, and never researched his campaign funds, would you be upset to learn Keating has donated to and accepted campaign funds to some very far right conservatives?   Lastly, Keating supported Angelia for council then and now and the fact that he gave her $7000 could be an issue for party driven voters.  Maybe that is why he didn’t donate from his campaign fund like he did with all the other candidates.  We don’t know the make-up of Angelia’s voters, but if most are democrat do you think they know Keating is donating to some very conservative legislatures and accepted money from some very conservative PACs over the years? 

In our next blog we plan to deep dive into the other council members’ campaign contributions to see who they are giving their campaign money to which was been donated to them. 

Just Facts Vote Smart – John Keating’s Finances