It costs north of a million bucks to win a U.S. House seat these days. Winning District 33, the new DFW block carved out of the totally riveting and not at all arcane redistricting process, should cost considerably less, thanks to a shortened primary and probably noncompetitive general. Still: It will still cost a pretty penny.
Luckily for lawyer, politico and giving husband Domingo Garcia, when it comes to funding his political interests, pretty pennies are not in short supply.
Garcia, one of several Democrats running in May's primary, has donated more than $900,000 to statewide and national candidates and committees since 2000, according to campaign finance reports. Those donations include $530,000 to the New American PAC, a Texas PAC funded almost entirely by Garcia and his employees and used to bankroll the county commissioner campaign of his wife, Elba.
"You've gotta be willing to invest in your own campaign if you want people to invest in you," Domingo Garcia told Unfair Park last week. And when it comes to winning Texas' newly drawn 33rd, Garcia said he would happily pour more of his cash into holding off his many opponents. "We will have the resources necessary, but I think we will have more than match those resources with contributions."
That New American PAC will be of no help, since it can't be used in a national campaign. Nor will one of that PAC's go-to political consultants: Kathy Nealy. Garcia's PAC shelled out about $70,000 for Nealy's services between late 2009 and mid-2011, campaign finance reports show.
Garcia said that Nealy won't be helpful in this campaign because her sway is with black voters in Dallas, and most of the black voters in District 33 live in and around Fort Worth. That Nealy's house was raided as part of the federal investigation into Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley Price probably hasn't helped land her much business, either.
