Houston Democrat Shawn Thierry has not disclosed his campaign donors

Houston state Rep. Shawn Thierry, facing criticism from her Democratic runoff opponent for accepting large campaign donations from Republicans, was able to avoid disclosing information about her fundraising in the run-up of election day.

She simply never filed a campaign finance report. The penalty is a fine of $500 – modest compared to the nearly $200,000 Thierry raised in a single month during this election cycle.

LEARN MORE: Lauren Ashley Simmons defeats Houston State Rep. Shawn Thierry in heated runoff

Campaign finance transparency advocates say the situation illustrates the state’s lax approach to enforcing campaign finance laws, which do not limit the amount of contributions and address violations with minimal fines .

“The laws are in no way restrictive in forcing public officials to file these reports,” said Anthony Gutierrez, executive director of Common Cause Texas, an advocacy group that seeks to reduce the influence of money in politics. “The Texas Ethics Commission desperately needs new enforcement powers to be able to enforce these laws.”

The Texas Ethics Commission, the regulatory agency charged with enforcing election laws, doesn’t have many tools to pursue violators.

Texas law does not allow more aggressive forms of campaign finance control that other states deploy, such as garnishing wages, lifting tax liens or even sending collection agencies to pursuit of debtors.

The most extreme step taken by the commission is to refer applicants who owe more than $1,000 in fines to the attorney general’s office, which can sue them in civil court and prevent them from receiving refunds from the State. But even then, most offenders still did not comply. Candidates with unpaid fines and missing reports can continue to run for office, and political committees can continue to operate.

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Thierry, who lost the runoff election to union organizer Lauren Ashley Simmons, said she did not file the report because the person compiling the data had a death in her immediate family. She said she planned to file the report, which covered campaign donations and spending made in the days leading up to the March 5 primary and through Tuesday’s runoff, but did not respond to a question about the date. The ethics commission has already fined him $500.

If this were a regular election and not a runoff, Thierry’s potential fine could have been up to 20 times higher due to a technicality in state election law. Just a few months ago, the penalty for filing late in the primary would have been $500 on the first day and $100 per day compounded up to $10,000.

Gutierrez said the sanction should apply equally to all elections.

“I don’t see any other law where the penalty changes based on which Tuesday you decided to break the law,” he said.

Grant Martin, Simmons’ political consultant, said Thierry, who is a lawyer, should have been able to find someone else to fill out the form.

“It seems clear to me that she has something to hide, and my guess is that A) she was out of money and B) the money she did have came from Republicans and Greg Abbott donors, and that she just didn’t want voters to know about this Election Day,” Martin said.

Thierry said this was “not true” and referred to his response explaining why the report was late.

Simmons’ campaign had attacked Thierry for receiving nearly a third of his campaign money before the March primaries from prominent GOP donors Darwin and Doug Deason and the Family Empowerment Coalition PAC, the group co- founded by Doug Deason which advocates for private school vouchers, a policy supported by most Republicans and overwhelmingly opposed by Democratic legislators in the state of Texas. (Thierry voted against a voucher measure last fall.)

Since then, she has received nearly $43,000 from groups supporting charter schools and $50,000 from a political committee representing Las Vegas Sands, a casino and resort company that is pushing to legalize gambling in Texas.

The $500 fine Thierry owes for the missed runoff report brings the total she owes to $2,000, according to ethics commission records. She was previously fined $1,000 for missing reports.

Late filers can request a waiver of the penalty, and Thierry received one in 2020 with a $500 fine for a late form, according to a commission spokesperson. On Thursday, Thierry said she had “not yet studied the possibility” of filing a request for an exemption from the latest fine.

In recent months, the rules governing the conditions for obtaining an exemption have changed. Previously, the rules allowed for waivers in a variety of circumstances, including death or a “serious and unforeseen emergency” for the filer, a parent or member of the filer’s household, or “a person whose usual duties include preparing the report.” Other circumstances included severe weather conditions or responding to an emergency if the reporter was a first responder.

Since January, however, the rules have been more objective and boil down to whether a late filer is a repeat offender. A person with fewer previous offenses may benefit from a reduced fine, while multiple offenses prevent them from benefiting from a reduction.

James Tinley, general counsel for the commission, said the rule change was intended to streamline the waiver decision-making process and reduce the backlog the office faced late last year.

“We wanted to have rules that were easier to follow, easier for staff to process, and ultimately automate that process,” Tinley said. “We retain the commission’s discretion to waive fines based on an individual’s circumstances.”

In fiscal year 2022, the latest publicly available data, the commission waived about $624,000 in fines and collected about $231,000. She returned $151,400 to the attorney general’s office, which helped collect about a fifth of that, according to a recent commission report.