Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton omitted rental income and several property mortgages from his US Senate campaign financial disclosures, according to a joint investigation by ProPublica and The Texas Tribune published Sept. 4.
The Republican Senate nominee reported owning seven homes but claimed no income from any of them—even though all but one were listed for rent during the reporting period, the news organizations found. A tenant confirmed to the outlets she’s currently living in one of the homes. Federal law requires candidates to report rental income and disclose mortgages on properties that aren’t personal residences. Ethics experts told the outlets failing to do so is a violation.
Paxton also left three mortgages worth $1.3 million off his filing for condos at a Utah golf resort, and appeared to undervalue his stake in a vacant plot of Texas land by close to $1 million on last year’s report before revising the number sharply upward this year, his business partner told reporters.
“It reflects either pure sloppiness on Paxton’s part or a deliberate effort to conceal some of his investments and property holdings,” Craig Holman, a lobbyist with the government watchdog group Public Citizen, told the publications.
Paxton declined an interview request. A campaign spokesperson said he “has had a long and successful career outside of public service” and called the reporting “a bad attempt to manufacture controversy.”
The undisclosed Utah condos are part of a real estate portfolio the New York Times has previously reported totals 15 properties worth roughly $9 million—a sum that dwarfs Paxton’s $153,000 state salary.
The findings also build on a pattern of financial secrecy that’s long been the narrative surrounding Paxton’s political career.
Paxton faces Democratic state Rep. James Talarico in November’s election for US Senate, in a race where recent polling shows Paxton with a narrow deficit—a break from three decades of Republican dominance in statewide races. A University of Texas/Texas Politics Project poll released last week found just a third of respondents view Paxton as “honest and trustworthy.”
The Senate Ethics Committee, which has not sanctioned a sitting member in 19 years, did not respond to requests for comment. Candidates who knowingly falsify financial disclosures can face fines up to $50,000 or felony prosecution.
You can see many of the homes in Ken Paxton’s whopping $9 million real estate portfolio in this Courier Texas story from July.
