City council member Lori Palmer caused some talk recently by asking her supporters to contribute money-not for a future campaign, but for Palmer’s current council activities. Such solicitations are not illegal, and it’s been done in the past. But council members who have used contributions to offset official business expenses have usually done so quietly. Palmer has no such qualms about augmenting her $50-per-meeting council salary. “I work a lot of hours as a council representative all around the district,” she says. “There are parking fees and tolls and other sorts of expenses and I don’t feel I ought to pay them out of my own pocket. So I have no choice but to go to my supporters and ask for their help.”
-Kit Bauman
The subject was money at state representative David Cain’s annual Texas-OU fundraiser at The Melrose hotel. Someone noticed that Jess Hay, the Lomas & Nettleton millionaire who finances many a Democrat’s campaign, had a name tag stuck to his shoe. How’d it get there? “Whenever Hay walks into a room,” one wit explained, “everyone who’s hoping to run for office in the next year dives for his feet. I guess someone left a name tag so he’d remember them.”
-Chris Tucker
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