The vast majority of Nguyen's funding came from Texans who are members of the same profession - including a single contribution of $100,000 from the Texas Optometric Association's political action committee. The statewide professional group also spent more than $5,000 on a letter that was sent on Nguyen's behalf to its members across Texas.
The list of candidates who've reaped more than $100,000 in contributions for House races in 2012 includes Bennett Ratliff - one of four Republicans who Nguyen has been battling for an upcoming opening in House District 115 where GOP State Rep. Jim Jackson of Carrollton isn't running again. Ratliff, a Coppell school trustee who's the son of former Texas Senate member Bill Ratliff, reported donations of almost $124,000 during the opening drive of his debut as a candidate at the state level.
A pair of candidates who are challenging incumbents in East Texas - Marshall Mayor Chris Paddie of Marshall and Lufkin School Board President Trent Ashby - raised about $111,000 and $159,000 respectively during the past six months in their bids to become state legislators. Another first-time House hopeful - Republican Scott Turner - surpassed the six-figure mark in fundraising as well with contributions of more than $111,000 to his campaign for a newly-created seat in Collin and Rockwall counties.
Paddie rounded up more than twice as much money last year than State Rep. Wayne Christian - a Center Republican who reported donations of almost $52,000 on the report for the fundraising period that ended December 31. Freshman Republican State Rep. Marva Beck of Centerville raised one dollar for every ten that Ashby listed in his bid to unseat her in a district that was changed significantly during the redistricting process that's still snagged in the federal court system.
While the ongoing legal fight over the Texas legislative and congressional maps has had a chilling effect on fundraising for some candidates, it didn't appear to slow the money machines for the aforementioned House contenders in the Dallas suburbs and the Piney Woods.
Nguyen, who's been climbing the GOP ladder with biography bullet points as a precinct chair and state convention delegate, has a unique and compelling personal history that separates him from the pack of Republican candidates competing for the Legislature in Texas. Nguyen fled Vietnam with his family in the mid-1970s when his homeland fell to the communists. He's hoping to become the first Vietnamese-American Republican in the state House eight years after Democratic State Rep. Huberto Vo of Houston made history as the first Texas lawmaker from the country that was ravaged by the war in southeast Asia.
Nguyen took a step in that direction when he ended December with nearly $167,000 in cash on hand. Ratliff reported a cash surplus of almost $66,000 in his campaign account on January 1 thanks in part to help that he received in the fundraising department from some of House Speaker Joe Straus' top lieutenants. Nguyen spent $73,000 during the second part of last year - about $15,000 more than Ratliff.
The campaign funding statements for HD 115 Republican contenders Kevin Dunn, Andy Olivo and Matt Rinaldi hadn't been posted by the ethics agency Wednesday morning. Rinaldi, an Irving attorney with Tea Party ties, expects to fare well with conservative voters in his bid for the seat that Jackson has represented since 2007.
Turner, who's dueling former state District Judge Jim Pruitt in a GOP primary battle for a new seat in the suburbs north of Dallas, is also counting on a strong showing among conservatives after entering January with almost $71,000 in cash on hand for the race. Pruitt's fundraising report for 2011 hadn't been posted by the TEC by mid-afternoon Wednesday.
Paddie, who has the added benefit as a talk show host on a radio station he owns in East Texas, had about $7,000 more in the campaign bank than Christian with more than $31,000 in cash on hand on the last day of December. Ashby, who lives in the largest city in Beck's redesigned district, entered January with cash reserves topping $116,000 compared to less than $12,000 for Beck.
Beck got a relatively slow start in the fundraising derby in her first race for the House two years ago. But she surged down the stretch with a massive infusion of funds from the Texans for Lawsuit Reform and other major GOP sources en route to knocking off the most powerful Democrat in the Capitol's west wing.
Redistricting has been a bittersweet experience for Beck, who emerged from the session with a district that was substantially more Republican after legislators approved it in a way that's remained mostly intact while others were redrawn by a federal court. But Beck is more vulnerable to a primary challenge with the new lines in a district that stretches to the east now from Beck's home base instead of west like it did when she won there in 2010.
Nguyen's campaign cash haul in the closing months of last year was bigger than the amount of total contributions that two of the House's most powerful members - Republican State Reps. Jim Pitts of Waxahachie and Charlie Geren of Fort Worth - reported for the second half of 2011. Pitts, the chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, raised $212,000 during the period for a re-election bid that he's running in the face of opposition from three primary foes. Pitts shouldn't have to be worried much about being outspent as a result of a $749,000 campaign surplus that he reported having when January got under way.
Geren rounded up $189,000 in the final six months of last year and headed into 2012 with $321,000 in his war chest and no opposition on either side of the ballot so far. But that could change as a consequence of a second filing period that the federal court that redrew the legislative and congressional maps ordered after it pushed the primary election back a month to April 3.
A federal district court in Washington is presiding over a trial this week on allegations by Democrats that the maps that the GOP-controlled Legislature approved violate minority voting rights. But the question of whether the elections here will be held on the Legislature's maps or the court replacement plans won't be answered until the U.S. Supreme Court rules on the matter at some point this month.
TEXAS HOUSE FUNDRAISING
Donations-Loans, Spending, Cash
Ranked by Total 2011 Fundraising
January 1 - December 31, 2011
*Minimum $100,000 Total 2011
Dan Branch (R-Inc)
January 15 Report: $708,148
2011 Fundraising: $1,021,162
2011 Expenditures: $401,360
Cash on Hand: $1,703,143
Greg Bonnen (R)
January 15 Report: $495,563
2011 Fundraising: $495,563
2011 Expenditures: $29,950
Cash on Hand: $465,612
Joe Straus (R-Inc)
January 15 Report: $273,922
2011 Fundraising: $402,922
2011 Expenditures: $571,766
Cash on Hand: $2,768,627
Todd Hunter (R-Inc)
January 15 Report: $385,165
2011 Fundraising: $385,165
2011 Expenditures: $349,848
Cash on Hand: $535,274
Todd Smith (R-Inc)
January 15 Report: $258,975
2011 Fundraising: $258,975
2011 Expenditures: $52,852
Cash on Hand: $282,833
Steve Nguyen (R)
January 15 Report: $256,798
2011 Fundraising: $256,798
2011 Expenditures: $72,654
Cash on Hand: $166,653
Ken King (R)
January 15 Report: $224,183
2011 Fundraising: $224,183
2011 Expenditures: $152,965
Cash on Hand: $71,217
Jim Pitts (R-Inc)
January 15 Report: $212,425
2011 Fundraising: $212,425
2011 Expenditures: $256,051
Cash on Hand: $748,978
Charlie Geren (R-Inc)
January 15 Report: $189,433
2011 Fundraising: $189,433
2011 Expenditures: $194,072
Cash on Hand: $321,101
Bobby Guerra (D)
January 15 Report: $175,064
2011 Fundraising: $175,064
2011 Expenditures: $58,364
Cash on Hand: $13,284
Ed Thompson (R)
January 15 Report: $173,525
2011 Fundraising: $173,525
2011 Expenditures: $1,005
Cash on Hand: $120,018
Trent Ashby (R)
January 15 Report: $159,349
2011 Fundraising: $159,349
2011 Expenditures: $28,538
Cash on Hand: $116,560
Paul Workman (R-Inc)
January 15 Report: $53,895
2011 Fundraising: $153,895
2011 Expenditures: $200,348
Cash on Hand: $104,534
Harvey Hilderbran (R-Inc)
January 15 Report: $150,667
2011 Fundraising: $150,667
2011 Expenditures: $79,019
Cash on Hand: $439,552
Mac Smith (R)
January 15 Report: $150,289
2011 Fundraising: $150,289
2011 Expenditures: $40,406
Cash on Hand: $8,713
Sonal Bhuchar (R)
January 15 Report: $147,159
2011 Fundraising: $147,159
2011 Expenditures: $53,446
Cash on Hand: $96,111
Mano Ayala R)
January 15 Report: $144,860
2011 Fundraising: $144,860
2011 Expenditures: $39,105
Cash on Hand: $106,253
Pam Holm (R)
January 15 Report: $142,997
2011 Fundraising: $142,997
2011 Expenditures: $98,594
Cash on Hand: $44,402
John Zerwas (R-Inc)
January 15 Report: $132,701
2011 Fundraising: $132,701
2011 Expenditures: $118,877
Cash on Hand: $250,673
Phil King (R-Inc)
January 15 Report: $129,598
2011 Fundraising: $129,598
2011 Expenditures: $126,854
Cash on Hand: $129,598
Vicki Truitt (R-Inc)
January 15 Report: $127,089
2011 Fundraising: $127,089
2011 Expenditures: $154,265
Cash on Hand: $187,817
Lance Gooden (R-Inc)
January 15 Report: $125,411
2011 Fundraising: $140,511
2011 Expenditures: $117,586
Cash on Hand: $69,612
Bennett Ratliff (R)
January 15 Report: $123,869
2011 Fundraising: $123,869
2011 Expenditures: $58,230
Cash on Hand: $65,717
Tina Torres (D)
January 15 Report: $119,250
2011 Fundraising: $119,250
2011 Expenditures: $35,295
Cash on Hand: $77,865
Sarah Davis (R-Inc)
January 15 Report: $83,035
2011 Fundraising: $117,162
2011 Expenditures: $80,620
Cash on Hand: $102,570
Cecil Bell (R)
January 15 Report: $112,495
2011 Fundraising: $112,495
2011 Expenditures: $45,167
Cash on Hand: $68,235
Scott Turner (R)
January 15 Report: $111,660
2011 Fundraising: $111,660
2011 Expenditures: $35,545
Cash on Hand: $70,938
Chris Paddie (R)
January 15 Report: $110,678
2011 Fundraising: $110,678
2011 Expenditures: $73,978
Cash on Hand: $31,497
Travis Clardy (R)
January 15 Report: $108,304
2011 Fundraising: $108,304
2011 Expenditures: $21,282
Cash on Hand: $87,022
James White (R-Inc)
January 15 Report: $105,644
2011 Fundraising: $105,644
2011 Expenditures: $106,077
Cash on Hand: $19,455
Jim Keffer (R-Inc)
January 15 Report: $104,180
2011 Fundraising: $104,180
2011 Expenditures: $136,809
Cash on Hand: $347,690
Mike Hamilton (R-Inc)
January 15 Report: $81,100
2011 Fundraising: $100,400
2011 Expenditures: $174,928
Cash on Hand: $68,391
Angie Chen Button (R-Inc)
January 15 Report: $100,297
2011 Fundraising: $100,297
2011 Expenditures: $12,453
Cash on Hand: $200,945
John Pitchford (R)
January 15 Report: $100,000
2011 Fundraising: $100,000
2011 Expenditures: $1,084
Cash on Hand: $100,000
* The list is incompelte list and will be updated as the January 2012 reports are posted and reviewed.
Source: Texas Ethics Commission
