Beto O'Rourke's political career is based on donations from the pro-republican institution

EL PASO – Before Beto O'Rourke became the darling of liberal online donors, his main donors came from a whole other group: wealthy businessmen who sought political influence by collectively donating millions of dollars. dollars to Republicans.

Several of the wealthiest entrepreneurs in El Paso donated and raised funds for O'Rourke City Council campaigns, attracted by his support for a redevelopment plan for the poorest neighborhoods in El Paso. Some subsequently supported a super PAC that would play a key role in helping to defeat an outgoing Democrat MP.

For his part, O'Rourke worked on issues that could bring money back to some of his benefactors. His support as a board member for the redevelopment plan, which was controversial at the time, as it implied the relocation of low-income residents, mostly Hispanic, coincided with the real estate investments of some of his benefactors.

As a member of Congress, he supported an increase in military funding of $ 2 billion that benefited a company controlled by another major donor. This donor, real estate developer Woody Hunt, was a friend of O'Rourke's late father. Hunt also co-founded and funded a non-profit organization El Paso that has employed O'Rourke's wife since 2016.

"We shared a common goal," said Ted Houghton, local financial advisor and long-time O'Rourke donor, who raised funds for former Texas governor Rick Perry, a Republican, and helped millions people to finance the public transport of the city. "The common goal was to evolve El Paso in a different direction."

O 'Rourke, who appeared in 2018 as a Democratic national sensation after losing to Senator Ted Cruz (R-Tex.), Launched his presidential campaign Thursday by promising a new era of unity then that he was crossing small towns in East Iowa. The Iowa caucuses in early February will begin the 2020 primary season.

However, unlike the ambitious image he has created in recent years, O'Rourke's political career has traced a more traditional path for a Texan politician: he has gained the support of a group of companies typically pro-GOP interested in influencing public policies. Born into a politically powerful family and married in another, he has repeatedly benefited from his relationships with the most powerful residents of El Paso, including several nationally renowned Republican moneymen.

The former congressman's GOP ties may become a problem as he enters a crowded presidential Democratic presidential field that has hitherto leaned to the left. Proponents of Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) Have already criticized O'Rourke's electoral record as being insufficiently liberal.

Republicans also piled up. In a recent campaign for a Conservative tax-reduction group, Club for Growth, O'Rourke launched a redevelopment plan "to destroy a poor Hispanic neighborhood".

"O'Rourke, because of his charisma, can somehow stop this power traffic behind the scenes," said David Romo, historian and activist El Paso, who has long opposed the will of the business world to redevelop the downtown area. "It was the pretty face of the really horrible revenge plan that negatively affected the most vulnerable people of El Paso."

O & # 39; Rourke and his allies did not see it as well. Early in his career, O'Rourke went door-to-door selling the plan, designed by the Paso Del Norte group, a generous alliance of business leaders and community leaders on both sides of the US-Pacific border. Mexican.

O 'Rourke, his mother, his wife, and his father-in-law, William Sanders – one of the country's most prominent real estate investors – were all members of the group, which included many funders from around the world. 39; O & # 39; The first campaigns of Rourke. Sanders ran a private investment group that bought properties in the downtown core, as did some other O'Rourke campaigners.

The plan was originally to seize land in one of the poorest neighborhoods in the city – a tactic that O'Rourke opposed as part of the Trump administration's plan to build a wall on the US border. with Mexico. Faced with charges of potential conflict of interest, O'Rourke finally agreed to withdraw from the city council's votes on the plan, which was then set aside given the real estate difficulties at the time. the recession of 2008.

Local business leaders who have supported O'Rourke's career said they have come together around a common vision to improve the city.

It was a mission that until recently was the northern star of O'Rourke's political career.

"At one point, the community, the people, the border, the links to the rest of the world were exceptional, was really brought to light," O'Rourke told the Washington Post. "I have worked hard to ensure that every El Pasoan can enjoy life in a thriving binational community."

***

Son of a local politician turned Democratic and turned Republican and owner of a furniture store, O'Rourke described his childhood as being prey to the disillusion of his hometown.

El Paso had already been a prosperous city with a booming middle class, bolstered by the civil war that drove a wave of wealthy Mexicans to Texas in the 1920s. But when O'Rourke was young, the city grew found in decline, with many empty or devastated downtown buildings and a low-wage labor

When O'Rourke moved to his home several years after college in 1998 and set up an ISP and software company, two local Democratic politicians who were going to become his mentors began to put in place the necessary elements for the revival of city. The future mayor, Ray Caballero, and then state-run Senator Eliot Shapleigh, developed a plan in the late 1990s to attract educated professionals, particularly in the areas of medical research and of education.

The structure of political power of the state at that time was dominated by Republicans. Democrats have begun to recruit local business leaders to defend this cause.

Among them were Paul Foster, a billionaire of oil refining, who would become fundraisers and donors to Texas Governor George W. Bush and his successor, Perry. Both continue to be major donors to Republicans. In the 2018 election cycle, Hunt spent more than a million dollars on Republican efforts to keep control of the US House and Senate. Foster donated more than $ 2.5 million. Sanders, who joined the effort later, has already donated money to Cruz and the Republican National Committee of Senators.

"It was really important to involve these very influential political types," Caballero said of early efforts to influence the state's capitol.

Hunt, Foster, Houghton and others have been rewarded by Bush or Perry with board appointments, a position in which they could potentially win huge new investments for El Paso, including a new four-year medical school , a school of nursing and pathways to follow. cross-border trade around the city and a downtown light rail system.

"We do not think there is a pay-to-play problem," said Houghton, who now describes himself as a political freelancer. "But you have to be part of the team, show that you are part of it."

Although Republican El Paso donors are trying to gain a foothold in Austin, Caballero and Shapleigh have begun to urge a group of young Liberals to run for El Paso City Council. O'Rourke was a star of the group.

"At the end of the day, he wants to get things done. It's his story, "said Shapleigh. "He can walk in the alley and get people to support him."

The same network of donors seeking influence in Austin helped O'Rourke and his friends, including Steve Ortega and Susie Byrd, two other young Liberals who also ran for council seats in 2005.

"None of us is Republican. None of us vote Republican. None of us had ever given money to Republicans before. But we love what these guys are doing, "Ortega said of the city's GOP leaders in 2005." We have all received contributions from these guys. I'm proud of that. "

The downtown redevelopment plan that O & # 39; Rourke had supported at the beginning of his term on City Council had been developed under the direction of his father-in-law, Sanders, who was also positioned to take advantage of 39; a turnaround by forming an investment group with other donors O & # 39; Rourke.

When he was re-elected to city council in 2007, members of Sanders' investment group helped raise more than $ 54,000, nearly nine times more than his rival, Trini Acevedo.

At the beginning of O'Rourke's tenure, the redevelopment efforts were hampered by a public relations plan presented by the city at a 2006 city council meeting, which used language and images that were unaffected by race.

The presentation of the slide described El Paso with a picture of an old Hispanic man wearing a cowboy hat, next to a caption describing the city's image as being "gritty," "dirty" "Lazy" and with people who "speak Spanish". the future of the city appears on another slide, with photos of the Texas-born actor Matthew McConaughey and Spanish actress Penélope Cruz, described as "educated", "entrepreneurial" and " bilingual ".

O'Rourke spokesman Chris Evans said that Mr. O. Rourke had condemned the marketing discourse of the time. "Beto has not endorsed this kind of language to describe the people in his community or whoever it is," Evans said.

In 2012, O'Rourke was focused on Silvestre Reyes, a Democratic congressman for eight years, decorated and decorated, who had fallen out of favor with the new Liberals and former business leaders who were working on the reconstruction of El Paso.

The national party has closed ranks to protect Reyes, who got the approval of former President Bill Clinton and then President Barack Obama. Many El Paso donors who had supported O'Rourke's council races rallied to his side, as well as a new national network of Republican donors who were spending money to defeat Democrats and Republicans. holders in the primaries.

The group, the Campaign for Primary Accountability, received $ 37,500 in donations from a company controlled by Sanders and $ 46,500 from other business leaders in El Paso.

As an independent operation, the group spent $ 240,000 to defeat Reyes in the first election, which is a significant amount compared to the $ 616,205 spent on the O'Rourke campaign during this election cycle. . Supported by the support of neighborhoods of the Republican-minded city, O'Rourke won 50.5% of the primary vote, narrowly avoiding a second round.

Chuy Reyes, who ran his brother's losing campaign that year, blamed O'Rourke's victory on local business executives.

"I guess they got to the point where Silvestre would not carry his bucket of water on what they wanted to do because he just did not believe it," said Chuy Reyes. "Everything was motivated because they wanted, first, to develop their particular interests."

One of O'Rourke's spokesmen said Reyes was the candidate voters had identified with power in place. "Beto has beaten a holder for 16 years and garnered more than 50% of the votes in a five-way race, because El Paso residents wanted a representative who put community interests ahead of special interests" said Evans.

***

Once in Congress, Mr. O. Rourke made cleaning up corruption in the government a priority. He stopped taking money from political action committees after his first term, pledged to support the term of office of members of Congress and sponsored bills providing for funding Partial public campaigns and a limitation of donations to national party committees.

At the same time, O'Rourke continued to receive large sums of money from employees of companies led by major donors. Employees of one of his stepfather's former companies, Strategic Growth Bank, including Sanders himself, contributed $ 57,400 in the 2014 and 2016 O'Rourke House campaigns. Employees of Western Refining, based El Paso, including its president, Foster, donated $ 10,600 in 2014.

Hunt Companies employees, including Hunt, donated $ 60,300 to O'Rourke for the 2014 and 2016 cycles, more than the employees of any other company, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

O'Rourke worked at Congress to promote a military funding problem that directly affected Hunt's business. Hunt Companies boasts of being the largest manufacturer and manager of privatized military housing in the country. In 2015, the Obama administration persuaded Congress to reduce troop allowances for these units.

Until then, privatized units on bases would receive a monthly allowance equal to their projected rent. But when the cuts came into effect in 2014, allocations were to be reduced gradually. As a result, basic housing providers have been faced with reduced rents and lost revenue or the risk of losing tenants by asking soldiers to pay out of pocket.