A group with possible casino connections that's legally allowed to keep the identity of its donors secret has spent more than $90,000 promoting three Irving city council candidates.
Large campaign signs sprung up days before early voting started — paid for by the Lone Star Conservative Action Fund, a 501(c)(4) organization. The group's president worked with a major financial recipient of the Texas Destination Resort Alliance and Las Vegas Sands.
"Endorsed by Irving Professional Fire Fighters Association" is displayed in bold letters at the top of the signs promoting city-wide Place 2 candidate David Pfaff and Place 7 candidate Priscilla Vigliante. And another attributing "safe neighborhoods" and "low taxes" with Place 1 candidate Tony Grimes are posted in a similar style.
According to campaign finance reports, the organization spent more than $93,000 on all three candidates as of the last filing deadline. By comparison, Families for Irving — another political action committee in Irving — spent $15,500.
But while Pfaff and Vigliante have been endorsed by the Fire Fighters Association, the union did not pay for the signs, nor did Grimes' campaign pay for his. And the candidates say they have never heard of The Lone Star Conservative Action Fund.
Vigliante said she didn't know about the group's existence until the signs popped up.
"They did not reach out to me, so I had no idea what was going out with my name on it, other than what my campaign has paid for," she said.
Pfaff also said he had no idea who the group was and said no one in his social circle has been in contact with them.
Unlike the Lone Star Conservative Action Fund's messages, mailers and signs that have "the David Pfaff campaign" on them are 100% from his own money, he said.
"I know PACs can just, in general, can do anything they want," Pfaff said.
'Dark money'
In the 1970s, the Supreme Court ruled that political contributions counted as free speech. Political donations can be restricted if they lead to corruption or to the appearance of corruption, but experts say that's hard to prove.
The landmark 2010 ruling in Citizens United v. FEC expanded the rights of political contributors, allowing independent expenditure-only political action committees — commonly referred to as Super PACs — to legally raise and spend unlimited money on campaign ads as long as the group doesn't coordinate directly with the candidate.
That includes committees like the Lone Star Conservative Action Fund, which has a 501(c)(4) status designating it as a social welfare organization allowed to engage in political activity if it's not its primary purpose.
Although politics cannot be a 501(c)(4) organization's primary activity, the Lone Star Conservative Action Fund describes itself as a "political organization" on Facebook. Its sparse website outlines its mission for a strong border, low taxes, family values, and to "promote policies that will unleash a thriving economy in Texas."
Lone Star Conservative Action Fund and other 501(c)(4) organizations also don't have to reveal their donors to the FEC. Critics say the ruling in Citizens United allowed corporations to pump billions in anonymous donations into elections. The term "dark money" has been used to describe legal ways to get money into the political system without disclosing donors.
"A 501(c)(4) would classify as dark money because we have no insight into who it is that's giving money to that group that's then participating in elections," said Mark Hand, a political science professor at the University of Texas at Arlington.
This doesn't mean it is necessarily nefarious, Hand said. Many political groups have multiple organizational structures to serve different purposes.
"The real issue here is not whether or not corporations can be involved in politics in this way through 501(c)(4)s, but the broader question of — what does it mean if we have a few millionaires and billionaires that can tip the scales by donating a ton of money to one party or candidate or another?" Hand said.
Las Vegas Sands
Lone Star Conservative Action Fund's principal officer is Aaron De Leon, owner and president of consulting firm Leon Strategies. The consulting firm has worked with Republican campaigns along with the Texans for Opportunity and Prosperity PAC, which received tens of thousands of dollars from the resort company Las Vegas Sands.
De Leon did not respond to KERA's requests for comment. Leon Strategies follows three accounts on X, formerly Twitter. One of those accounts is the Texas Destination Resort Alliance, which itself has direct ties to the Las Vegas Sands.
Las Vegas Sands is not a new name in Irving.
Just last month the Sands requested a rezoning amendment to allow for a high-intensity mixed use development in Irving that would have included a destination resort with a casino gaming element. Casino gaming would have been operational in Irving pending the statewide legalization of casino gaming.
Las Vegas Sands took out the casino gaming element in its rezoning request after strong community pushback.
But opponents to casino gaming in Irving say the issue is far from over — and the Lone Star Conservative Action Fund's involvement in the May election is proof, according to Jimmy Bell, political advisor for the Families for Irving PAC.
"Anyone who used to claim that the issue is dead, I think that point of view is now defunct because obviously Las Vegas Sands doesn't think it's dead otherwise, they wouldn't be pouring tons of unprecedented monies into this race," he said.
Place 7 candidate Adam Muller, who is backed by the Families for Irving PAC, said his voting record and political views are consistently conservative. He added that if the Lone Star Conservative Action Fund was truly about conservative values and not casinos, they would have supported him.
"I don't want to misrepresent my opponent, this is just the sort of reality of what's going on," Muller said. "But I would like the voters to know the truth about who's paying for these signs and know who's ultimately endorsing her and how they're tied to the casino issue."
Text messages paid for by Muller alleged Vigliante was tied to Las Vegas Sands because of the Lone Star Conservative Action Fund's support for her campaign.
But Vigliante said in a video message posted to Facebook that she has a track record of not supporting casino gaming.
"I have a consistent vote record of opposing gambling in Irving while on the Planning and Zoning Commission," she said in the video. "My vote helped stop the spread of poker houses in our community."
This is Vigliante's first time running for public office and said she did not realize groups could campaign on a candidate's behalf without coordinating with them.
"What's scary is that if a PAC can do this without the consent of a candidate, they could be putting out negative information or positive information," she said.
Got a tip? Email Megan Cardona at mcardona@kera.org.
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