For the past several years, out-of-town developers and development-related political action committees donating to the local politicians’ campaigns has been an issue that one council member and former mayoral candidate argued affected the public’s confidence.
“In our fast-growing city, the public needs confidence that decisions about development are made with the interests of the community as a whole in mind,” council member Paul Meltzer wrote in an April 4, 2022, editorial for the Denton Record-Chronicle. “It undermines that confidence when we see thousands of dollars flowing into political campaigns from interested parties like Texas Realtors, Apartment Association of Greater Dallas and Texas Association of Builders.”
This year, those thousands in out-of-town development dollars have returned to fill campaign coffers for all but one candidate who have filed campaign finance reports. Although Mayor Gerard Hudspeth’s challengers have not filed, Place 6 candidate Lilyan Prado Carrillo is so far the only who who hasn’t accepted developer donations.
Prado Carrillo, the president of Denton’s League of United Latin American Citizens, has been running a strong grassroots campaign to bring council representation to the 25% of Hispanic people who live in Denton. She has raised $12,554 in political contributions with $3,489 in expenditures and $12,200 in contributions maintained, according to her latest finance report.
Council members Brian Beck and Meltzer donated $520 and $527, respectively, to Prado Carrillo’s campaign.
“I don’t have relationships with any developers and therefore don’t feel comfortable taking any funds that would link me to their organizations,” Prado Carrillo said.
“I am not opposed to working with developers in the city of Denton,” she said. “We absolutely need to have these relationships, but we need developers who care about our community, that will bring in the type of diversified housing options and business opportunities that our residents need, and where our economy can thrive.”
The next campaign finance report will be filed on the eighth day before the general election. Early voting begins April 22, running through April 30. Election day is May 4.
Mayoral candidates Stephen Dillenberg and Lucas Wedgeworth haven’t filed campaign finance reports despite the state’s election code requiring candidates to do so.
On April 11, Wedgeworth told the Record-Chronicle that he has been extremely ill for a couple of weeks. It is why he also hasn’t attended the past two voter forums, hosted by the Denton League of Women Voters and the Denton Chamber of Commerce.
Wedgeworth said that he would be attending the firefighters forum on Wednesday night and the Southeast Denton forum on Saturday afternoon at the MLK Jr. Recreation Center.
Dillenberg had not yet provided comment on why he had not filed his campaign finance reports by early Monday evening.
Hudspeth is no stranger to accepting contributions from out-of-town developers and PACs but has said that it doesn’t affect his decision on the dais.
This year was no exception. Hudspeth received $13,500 in political contributions from development interests, such as T. Wilson & Associates, a consulting company that works closely with Centurion American Development Group, a Dallas-based developer that has been developing Denton County for several years.
In Place 6, Jill Jester, who serves on the Board of Regents at Texas Woman’s University, received $1,000 from a Dallas real estate company and $2,500 from the Greater Denton Wise County Association of Realtors in Austin.
Jester has raised $12,400 in political contributions with $4,414 in expenditures and $7,985 in contributions maintained, according to the early April campaign finance report.
Place 5 challenger Erica Garland has accepted only $2,500 from TREPAC, a realtor PAC in Austin that also donated $5,000 to Hudspeth’s, according to their reports.
Council member Chris Watts donated $2,000 to Garland’s campaign.
Garland has raised $18,221 in political contributions and showed $16,411 in expenditures with $1,809 remaining in contributions, according to the early April campaign finance report.
Place 5 incumbent Brandon Chase McGee received the most in donations from out-of-town developers and those with development interests.
It was a stark change from his 2022 campaign when he only raised $13,078 on his early April 2022 campaign finance report. His largest donation then was for $1,000 by the Collective Pack, a Washington D.C.-based political action committee focused on fixing underrepresentation in the Black community.
This year, McGee has accepted $18,759 in political contributions so far from out-of-town developers and those connected to the industry, according to his campaign finance reports.
Some of those donors include $2,383 from former Aubrey Mayor Roy Mango from T. Wilson & Associates, $5,000 from Old Prosper Partners LLC and $5,000 total from the CEO and vice president of Alluvium Development, headquartered out of Midlothian.
Beck and Meltzer donated $297 and $495 respectively to McGee’s campaign.
In McGee’s Jan. 16 finance report, McGee showed he had a total of $18,930 in political contributions and $960 in expenditures with $17,970 in contributions remaining as the last day of the reporting period.
Three months later, McGee showed $8,987 in political contributions and $6,903 in expenditures with a total of $23,325 remaining.
“I don’t accept the premise that it is bad to accept campaign contributions from people with whom I have a personal relationship or folks who share a similar vision for Denton,” McGee said in an early February email to the Record-Chronicle. “In this country, we believe in running elections and those elections cost money to run in. Unfortunately, I’m not wealthy enough to self finance my campaign.
“Believe me, I wish I was. Truth is, I’m a regular working man like the majority of Dentonites.”