Conservative Group 'Empower Texans' Faces Political Persecution

[Geee]

PJ Media:

My friend J. Christian Adams has reported on a confidential listserve being used by state speech and campaign finance regulators. The listserve is being used to coordinate strategy and tactics on how to go after conservative advocacy organizations and force nonprofits to disclose their donors. The intent seems to be to chill their speech and to protect incumbent legislators who don’t want organizations such as Empower Texans putting out a legislative scorecard like its Fiscal Responsibility Index, which gives overspending state representatives of both political parties low grades.

 

According to a lawsuit filed in Travis County, Texas, Empower Texans is a 501©(4) nonprofit that was organized in 2006 to build support for strong fiscal stewardship by the state government, and to inform Texas voters and taxpayers about how their government officials are acting in relation to that objective. In 2007, for example, Empower Texans mounted a direct mail campaign asking voters to call on their state legislators to return a $13 billion tax surplus instead of spending it on more government programs. This kind of activity, along with its legislative scorecard, apparently angered not just state legislators, but lobbyists who make their living convincing the state government to spend money on their clients’ pet projects.