These records consist of financial statements of campaign contributions and expenditures for political action committees (PACs) filed with the Texas Secretary of State's Office, dating 1973-1983 and 1985-1989. The files contain statements and lists of contributions and expenditures, designations of campaign treasurer, designations of final statement or specific purpose of the committee, correspondence, and envelopes. The law required all contributions by specific purpose committees to office-seekers to be shown on expense statements by said office-seekers. Guidelines established for general purpose committees allowed for funding to candidates that did not have to be reflected on their expense statements.

This filing was originally administered by the Enforcement Division, then (in the early 1980s) by the Campaign and Ethics Section of the Elections Division, renamed the Disclosure Filings Section by 1984. In 1992, the Texas Ethics Commission was created, and assumed the administration and enforcement of this filing.

These statements include the following information: full name and complete address of each person from whom contributions in an aggregate amount of more than $50 were received, the date, and the amount; full name and complete address of each person to whom any expenditure in an aggregate amount of more than $50 were made, the date, the amount, and the purpose; the occupations of such persons (for general purpose political action committees); full name and complete address of each person who assisted in obtaining credit or a loan of money; the total of all contributions received aggregating $50 or less; the total of all expenditures made aggregating $50 or less. (The $50 limit replaced a $10 limit established in 1973.)

Two alphabetical card indexes (available through the Archives reference staff of the Texas State Archives) match the names of the committees with the number assigned, for the periods 1973-1974 and 1975-1977. In addition, this finding aid contains a folder inventory for 1973-1979. The Secretary of State's Office retained a card index for 1979-1981 at the time of transfer of those files; Billie Thompson of the Disclosures Filings Section of the Elections Division made this decision not to transfer the index to the Texas State Archives in August 1989 after discussions with Archives and Information Services Division staff. An alphabetical listing of PAC names and corresponding numbers is available at the Texas Ethics Commission's Public Viewing Room in the Report file printout. Call 512-463-5800 for more information.

The card file for 1973-1974 is set up by the full name of the committee, not the acronym or initials. For example, P.A.C.E. would be listed alphabetically under Political Action Committee for Education. There are, however, inconsistencies. When the apparent acronym represents nothing, or in cases where the committee is long-standing and is known exclusively by its acronym, the committee is then alphabetized by the acronym. Also, Democratic and Republican organizations are alphabetized first under Democrat or Republican, not the name of the county or the specific organization. To eliminate the confusion that such a filing system may cause, a complete folder inventory has been prepared.

The card index for committee expenses 1975-1978 follows a similar system. The most notable exception is that the alphabetical arrangement follows the exact title of the committee. For example, the El Paso Republican Mens' Club would fall under the first word of the title, i.e., El. The Republican Party of Blanco County, by the same rule, would fall alphabetically under Republican. Since cards have not been prepared or forwarded for many committees, particularly those from 1977-1978, a complete folder inventory has been prepared.

Within the committee files, some reports from 1979 are included. None have index cards prepared. Researchers must consult the folder inventory for Committee Expense Statements, 1977-1979 to gain access to these files, which may be incomplete.

Finally, researchers requesting committee files from 1977 will note that reports from this year are part of two separate accessions and inventories. Both must be consulted to secure files for that year. In some instances, committee reports from one accession have been consolidated in the other. Thus, one folder may contain committee expense statements from 1975-1979.

Campaign contribution and expense statements of committees were created to ensure public accountability for the financial activities of political action committees, encouraging high ethical standards by means of public scrutiny of the appropriate records.

On April 2 and 5, 1991, the State and Local Records Management Division of the Texas State Library and Archives Commission inadvertently destroyed hardcopy statements of political action committees from September 1983 to September 1985 (52 cubic ft.). These records were among those that had been microfilmed by the Secretary of State, and are available at the Texas Ethics Commission in the Public Viewing Room.

To prepare this inventory, the described materials were cursorily reviewed to delineate series, to confirm the accuracy of contents lists, to provide an estimate of dates covered, and to determine record types.

This finding aid has been split into two separate finding aids due to electronic file size limitations imposed by TARO. Click here for 1977-1983, 1985-1989. If you are reading this in paper, that finding aid is found at a separate divider within the binder.