Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo’s Ethical Challenge Just Became Reality. Stopping Bribery by Refusing Vendor Contributions has Dented Her Revenues.

After declaring in January that she would refuse contributions from county vendors, Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo raised more than $300,000 in her first six months on the job, though her campaign account remains smaller than her Commissioners Court colleagues.

Since Hidalgo shunned the group of architects and engineers who shower the four county commissioners with cash, Hidalgo pivoted toward attorneys, including more than $50,000 from lawyers at a single Houston firm. Hidalgo received $319,000 in monetary and in-kind contributions in the reporting period from Jan. 1 to June 30.

After expenses, she has $193,000 on hand. That is far less than her Commissioners Court colleagues, ranging from Precinct 4 Commissioner Jack Cagle with $399,000 to Rodney Ellis in Precinct 1, whose war chest tops $3.8 million.

Unlike the county judge, commissioners have large infrastructure budgets and rely heavily on political contributions from engineers and architects seeking work on road, bridge and flood control projects. Compared to her predecessor, Ed Emmett, however, Hidalgo also has received fewer contributions. In the first six months of 2013, after Emmett’s last successful election, he raised $436,000.

Hidalgo acknowledged her pledge made raising money more difficult, as vendors comprised as much as 88 percent of her colleagues’ contributions last year.

“Obviously, we didn’t raise as much money because we willingly turned it down,” Hidalgo said. “But people did step up, and we continued to look at ways to engage with new donors, and small-dollar donors.”

Rice University political science professor Mark Jones said though Hidalgo’s fundraising may be laggard, her stance on ethics may pressure opponents to refuse vendor contributions, too.

“While she’s unlikely to benefit from donations from people who do business with the county, while she is judge those same individuals are unlikely to support another candidate,” Jones said.

The campaign returned contributions to five donors, her finance report states. The campaign sent $5,000 back to Mike Garver, whose firm BRH Garver has performed more than $1 million in construction work for the county so far in 2019. The campaign also returned $250 to Christina Morales, a Houston state representative who said the funeral home her family owns would seek a county contract.

A Houston Chronicle review of Hidalgo’s more than 400 contributions found Hidalgo accepted 16 donations from individuals or firms’ political action committees that have been paid by Harris County in the past two years, according to a vendor database maintained by the county auditor. This group, which comprises 4 percent of the fundraising total, includes five donations totaling $600 from employees of IDS Engineering Group, PGAL, LJA Engineering and Traffic Engineering.

Harris County has paid each of those firms more than $1 million to date in 2019, according to the vendor database.

The county judge said her campaign would return any contributions found to be from ineligible donors under her criteria.

Hidalgo’s small war chest puts her most at risk in a primary, where other Democrats would seek to raise money from the same group of liberal donors she courts, Jones said. Hidalgo said she has yet to decide whether to seek a second term.

Hidalgo said she wished to reform county government during her campaign last year and in January said she would refuse contributions from people and political action committees for firms doing business with the county. She cited a desire to act ethically.

To fulfill her pledge, Hidalgo said she asked contributors to certify they did not have a county contract and would not seek one within the fiscal year, and also were not an officer or director at a company possessing or seeking a county contract. The campaign checked donations against a database of county vendors, she said.

The four county commissioners declined to follow Hidalgo’s lead, and continue to accept checks from vendors. The county hires private firms to perform a variety of functions, including mowing, pursuing toll road violators and road construction. Most contracts are awarded via a competitive bid process, though commissioners have wide discretion over which engineers are selected to design infrastructure projects.

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Houston lawyer Neal Manne said he was impressed by Hidalgo’s no-vendor pledge, and urged colleagues at his law firm, Susman Godfrey, to join him in contributing to her campaign. In total, Susman Godfrey lawyers contributed $50,551 in monetary and in-kind contributions, about 16 percent of Hidalgo’s total.

“I think she’s a good elected official, and as someone who does no business with the county, and doesn’t seek any, it seemed appropriate for me to raise money for her,” Manne said.

Susman Godfrey represents a group of poor defendants in a landmark lawsuit against Harris County over its bail system. The firm plans to waive $2.2 million in attorney fees to which it was entitled, a decision Manne said the firm made when it joined the case. He said the firm plans to allow the county to keep the money, so long as it uses the sum to help implement the reforms included in the settlement.

Hidalgo and other county officials reached a tentative settlement on Friday.

Attorneys or political action committees established by law firms comprised one-third of Hidalgo’s total contributions.

Hidalgo also saw other shifts in her fundraising sources after her election this past November.

In the first six months of 2018, 58 percent of her contributions came from out-of-state. During the most recent fundraising period, that portion plummeted to 10 percent. Hidalgo held two out-of-state fundraisers; one in California and another in New York.