An Open Letter to Sid Miller
Dear Mr. Miller,
Earlier today, during a Texas Tribune event with Evan Smith, you personally attacked me by name and made a number of factually inaccurate statements about a sworn complaint I filed against you with the Texas Ethics Commission.
Despite your statement to the contrary this morning, my complaint against you was accepted by the Texas Ethics Commission (see attachment). It was not dismissed, as you falsely stated, and it will indeed be pursued by the Ethics Commission. A small portion of the complaint, concerning clerical issues, was determined not to be within the jurisdiction of the Ethics Commission. The main focus of the complaint, which involves the legality of you personally profiting over $21,000 from a personal loan you made your campaign, is currently pending before the Commission.
You have stated publicly you believe it was legal for you to profit from your campaign account in this manner, despite a law passed by the legislature on your watch which appears to prohibit a candidate or officeholder from reimbursing themselves more than the amount they reported as a self-loan to their campaign. I would note that the Ethics Commission only has jurisdiction over allegations that, if true, constitute a violation of the law and that you have publicly acknowledged personally profiting over $21,000 from a personal loan to your campaign.
The question about whether or not the law allowed you to profit from this loan could have easily been settled had you requested an advisory opinion from the Texas Ethics Commission regarding this matter. You failed to request such an opinion, and continue to refuse to do so despite this option remaining available to you.
There remain a number of questions regarding the manner in which your campaign paid back, with interest, the $10,000 loan you made your campaign in 2000. During your appearance with Evan Smith earlier today, you appeared to indicate that the payment was made in some combination of cash and stock. In an article published in the Dallas Morning News last month, you appeared to indicate that you transferred stock from your campaign account to a personal account in order to avoid paying taxes, which you described as “money down the toilet.” In order to clarify these questions once and for all, you should immediately release all bank and tax records that show the exact manner in which you paid yourself from your campaign account as well as the amount of any taxes paid on profits you realized from interest on the personal loan to your campaign.
Additionally, during your interview with Evan Smith, you attempted to make issue out of my employment. My interest in seeing you defeated in the Republican primary has nothing to do with my employment, it has everything with wanting to have a strong Republican ticket in November. As I wrote last month (https://bigjolly.com/
The Democrats would love nothing more than to have a candidate on the statewide Republican ticket who is an ethically challenged, revolving door lobbyist. Making matters even worse is your decision to make an acknowledged serial adulterer who has a long history of making offensive remarks about women and minorities, in addition to other questionable behavior, as your campaign treasurer and co-chairman.
As further evidence that you will stoop to no low in order to further your personal ambitions, your paid campaign director made a despicable and, quite frankly, libelous tweet regarding one of your opponents in the Republican primary. His behavior is illustrative of the kind of gutter politics that most voters find reprehensible.
As you are well aware, the Republican Party across the state is facing an aggressive challenge from the left. We must put our best foot forward and nominate qualified conservative candidates that voters can be proud of if we want to continue our success at the ballot box. This is why it is imperative that Republican primary voters nominate any of your opponents as the Republican nominee for Texas Agriculture Commissioner.
Best Regards,
Mark McCaig