Bulla/Photo by Noah Dawson
During our primary election forum held earlier this month, we asked Republican Texas House District 87 candidate Cindi Bulla to address a donation she had made to a Democrat. Below is the full question and answer.
Question: “A recent text was sent out from Texans for fiscal responsibility alleging that you have donated to Democrats. Can you please respond to these allegations and clarify whether you have personally donated to Democrats or donated to Democrats through your work with Texas Realtors?”
Answer: “Yes! I was hoping I would get to answer this, thank you. Uh, so, I’m part of Texas Realtors, as part of my leadership journey, I’m part of a program called President’s Circle, and in that President’s Circle program, we pledge to do $500 four times a year to National candidates that are designated as private property rights champions. So, I’ve been in that for about 12 years and given a little over $50,000 to various, uh, causes through there, and not just cau- uh, the PAC itself and the Realtors PAC itself and to individual candidates four times a year $500.
“In all of those years, and you can look this up, every single one of them except one was to a Republican. One was to a Fort Worth based Democrat. Last name is Veasey, I don’t remember the first name. I think he may still be there. And let me tell you why I did that. I was part of a group of issues mobilization people and on the Texas Realtors leadership team when the Trump Administration was trying to pass, uh, tax reform. And, as part of that initial tax reform package the GOP was trying to eliminate the 1031 tax exchange. Now, not all of you may know what that is, but if you’re a farmer, or a rancher, or a owner of, uh, real property assets, you know what that is and you know how important this is. They were also trying to eliminate the State and Local Tax deduction.
“I was part of a very core group that was in the room in the final negotiations of that, that had the opportunity to keep both of those two opportunities which are so critical to Texas and especially to the Texas Panhandle. One of the Democrats who helped us was a Texas based Democrat, his name was, he was a congressman named Mark Veasey. He was in a safe seat, he was going to be reelected, but as a show of, of appreciation for that person helping us get that, that, keep that in there, as part of our Texas delegation, I and a number of other conservative Republican people sent a $500 donation through that President’s Circle. Every other donation I’ve made in my lifetime has been either to a local candidate that was undeclared, I don’t know, some of them may have been Democrats, but every other one was to a Republican except that one one one. And that was to get a very Republican piece of legislation passed.”
We also asked fellow District 87 candidates Caroline Fairly and Richard Beyea tough questions. You can read Fairly’s response to a question about her father’s financial relationship with politicians who have endorsed her here and Beyea’s response to a question about his support for a historically large Perryton ISD bond here. Jesse Quackenbush, the other candidate running in the Republican Primary for District 87 declined to participate in our forum. Whoever wins the primary is expected to face Democrat Timothy Gassaway in November to replace outgoing incumbent Four Price.
We also asked tough questions to Texas House District 86 candidates John Smithee and Jamie Haynes. You can read their responses by clicking their names.
The primary election is set for Tuesday, March 5th. Early voting is February 20th through March 1st.