Rep. John Davis: Ethics Problems the Reason for CHIP Reversal?

State Representative John Davis has reversed his position on CHIP, now saying he wants the state to go back to the once a year renewal on coverage. I applaud him for this. It's a complete reversal of what he said in a public debate forum last October (YouTube here), but sometimes people have a Road to Damascus moment (thanks for that analogy, Kuff).

Rick Casey, a political columnist for the Houston Chronicle, wonders if there is another reason for his CHIP awakening - Davis' own problems with the Texas Ethics Commission:

Having recently been found to have filed improper campaign expenses, Davis now has a heightened appreciation of how difficult these paperwork issues can be.

It seems he was in the habit of simply writing down the total amount of American Express bills without providing the details of what the campaign contributions were spent on. That, said the Ethics Commission, will cost you $1,000.

By Ethics Commission deflated standards, that's the moral equivalent of, say, $500,000 in real money.

Davis paid it, of course, out of campaign funds — using up just one of the scores of thousand-dollar contributions he gets from special interest groups.

He also used campaign funny money for the more than $13,000 he paid to Austin attorney Edward M. Shack to help him deal with the Ethics Commission.

Turns out he wasn't allowed to use campaign funds for, among other things, the $1,537 his campaign account paid to Jersey Boots for a custom pair, complete with the official State Seal of Texas on 'em.

"He viewed them as a campaign signature item," explained his campaign consultant, Alan Blakemore.

I guess that would make sense, if he campaigned in shorts.

In all, Davis had to repay his campaign fund more than $13,000.

And file amended reports.

Campaign in shorts! I wish I had thought of that. The boots were campaign signature items? Apparently not since Davis took them off his reports when he amended them. I've been to Jersey Boots. Cool place. Photos here.

Casey raises some new questions about Davis' campaign spending on gas. Double dipping:

Has Davis been double dipping?

Seems there are about 15 examples of him charging his campaign kitty for gas about the same time he charges the state for mileage.

For example, last March 6 he charged his campaign $66.51 for filling up in his district. Two days later, on March 8, he charged another $60.29.

He later filed a mileage claim to the state for a round trip to Austin on March 8, collecting $161.98 for 364 miles.

On March 22, he paid campaign cash in the amount of $60.23 to a Chevron station in La Grange, on the way to Austin.

Later he collected another $161.98 from the state for mileage on a trip to Austin on the same day.

You get the idea.

Blakemore and Davis said he wasn't really double dipping. The campaign charges were simply his best guess for how much he had spent on gas doing political work around the district.

"You are mixing personal uses and political uses," said Blakemore. "That's where he says, 'I did a lot of driving out (for political purposes) this week.' Two or three tanks later, he says, 'I'll take the next tank of gas on the campaign.' "

Maybe so, but campaign records indicate Davis rarely went a week without charging more than $60 to fill that big Suburban tank, and often he filled it with campaign-funds gas twice a week.

Of course, that could be sloppy record keeping.

Mixing personal and political uses? Davis ethics reports show that he averaged $142 per week on gas out of his campaign during one reporting period. Casey doesn't mention that Davis' reports show gas being purchased sometimes two or three times in one day. Gas for staff in addition to Davis? I have no idea. I do know it is very rare to see that much gas bought from campaign cash.

For reference, here's information on Davis hiring TRMPAC lawyer Ed Shack, a KHOU story on Davis' campaign finance report problems and more about the personal use expenditures that disappeared from Davis' reports when he amended them.

Back to his Road to Damascus moment on reversing his position on CHIP. Glad it happened, for whatever reason.