Trinity referendum: Who funded the campaigns?

Catherine Cuellar, says:

Who is Paul Sims of the M Streets and why did he give $38,500.00 -- even more than Angela Hunt -- to the Vote Yes! camp?

Trey Kazee, says:

her husband.

Erin Rice, says:

It is certainly interesting to see the differences in the makeup of the donors. The Vote Yes! campaign clearly has more donors, more of them appearing to be private citizens, but with less money total. The Vote No! campaign has substantially fewer donors, with only 13 donating anything lower than $1,000. As such they manage to out-fundraise Yes! by about $170,000.

It seems the only thing these two groups have in common is their belief that exclamation points in their titles seem to show they care... like, a lot.

Chad Jones, says:

I see trey kazee has mastered Google 101.

Some superficial analysis and notes of interest:

<b>VOTE NO</b><br> Total contributions: $472,074.00<br> Total unique contributors*: 49<br> Total contributions by businesses/organizations†: $427,549.00 (or 90% of total)<br> Total business/organization contributors: 25 (or 51% of total)<br>

<b>VOTE YES</b><br> Total contributions: $301,285.05<br> Total unique contributors*: 189<br> Total contributions by businesses/organizations†: $59,659.23 (or 19.8% of total)<br> Total business/organization contributors: 15 (or 7.9% of total)<br> <br> <br> . . . Surprised? <br> <br> <b>Other highlights</b>:<br> - The biggest contribution for Vote No was $200,000 from the Dallas Citizens Council.<br> - TXU gave $10,000 to Vote No. Shrug.<br> - The biggest contributor to Vote Yes was not Hunt or her husband, but Steve Millwee, who gave a combined total of $51,600. (Millwee <a href="http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/politics/local/stories/100907dnmettrinity.14fa5ee58.html">is apparently</a> an "outdoor advertising businessman.") But this figure could be wrong, as Chris C mentions above; we shouldn't necessarily assume there is only one Steve Millwee at the given residence for his donations.<br> - Paul Sims' contributions + contributions from the Angela Hunt for City Council Campaign = $68,709.<br> - Harold Simmons, Dallas philanthropist and the <a href="http://www.forbes.com/lists/2006/10/HT3L.html">278th richest man in the world</a>, gave $5,000 to VOTE YES.

*only includes overt or obvious business/organization contributions, like ones given by "Allen Development LLC," or the "Sierra Club." No doubt there are key contributors to both sides of this campaign that are businesses or businessmen/women that are more subtle. This factor is the "superficial" part of my calculation.

†multiple donations from the same name at the same address are grouped as one (which, again, walks a line of uncertainty, but I feel pretty good about it)

Rob Shearer, says:

I'll vouch for Trey Kazee. In addition to mastering Google 101, he's also just a smart guy.

Trey Kazee, says:

*"I see trey kazee has mastered Google 101."*

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&am...

Catherine Cuellar, says:

Angela Hunt reads PegNews.com, and e-mailed me this explanation of her husband's donation:

"Just wanted to let you know that my husband's contributions to both TrinityVote and my city council campaign were in-kind contributions (as opposed to cash contributions). He designed the websites and back-end databases for both TrinityVote and my council website. That was the value of the work he provided, which must be accounted for. The in-kind information is listed on our campaign finance reports, but I don't know if your database includes that."

Thanks for the clarification, councilwoman.

John McClelland, says:

Would be interesting to know what Kellogg Brown &amp; Root's interest in the toll road is.

The other fun one is Commercial Metals $25,000. Hmmm.

Bill Betzen, says:

If anyone is upset by the misleading "Vote NO! Save the Trinity" signs illegally placed in the public right-of-way, they can begin to collect these signs so placed, saving the taxpayers money, and clarify them. Such signs appear to be everywhere in the poorer sections of our city!
From: www.ntimc.org/newswire.php%3Fstory_id... Save the trinity... really by SB - Trash to truth Campaign Thursday, Oct 25 2007, 6:24pm greater dallas area / environment / action alert

'P' on the 's' and find truth

Instructions for modifying the Deceptive Vote no signs to be more truthful.... Just place a P on the S... Pave the trinity. Instructions and files for making your own signs can be found at http://www.studentmotivation.org/Trin... Discussion is happening at the dallas observer site http://blogs.dallasobserver.com/unfai... and http://blogs.dallasobserver.com/unfai...

Lets recycle Trash into truth.. A group of people are tired of the lies coming out of the vote no campaign... so a way to make their signs more truthful has been devised and is a small action that is slowly spreading.

Instructions for modifying the Deceptive Vote no signs to be more truthful.... Just place a P on the S... Pave the trinity. Instructions and files for making your own signs can be found at http://www.studentmotivation.org/Trin... Discussion is happening at the dallas observer site http://blogs.dallasobserver.com/unfai... and http://blogs.dallasobserver.com/unfai...

Lets recycle Trash into truth..

http://www.studentmotivation.org/Trin...

Scott Doyle, says:

lol @ local politics. Pretty sure most 1st-graders play nicer.

Rob Shearer, says:

As an Oak Cliff resident, I will say that I see as many 'Vote Yes' signs that are illegally placed on public property as 'Vote No' signs. The one on the banks of the Trinity as you cross the river on Sylvan is the one that really makes me laugh.

M Malouf, says:

What about the Allen Development of Texas, LLC.? This is the big California trucking firm involved in the inland port being built here. They want this toll road for their 18-wheelers. Big Vote No supporters. They also co-sponsored a fundraiser for Leppert to help him repay the $950,000 he loaned his mayoral campaign. And, yet, I've heard Leppert at two Trinity debates say he has no vested interest in the toll road.