Gov. Rick Perry and Lt. Gov David Dewhurst got more money in campaign contributions from energy-related firms firms than any other candidates for state office or state legislature in the nation between 2003 and 2007, according to a new report by a nonpartisan think tank.

The Texas two Republicans received a combined $940,014 during that period, according to the report by the Montana-based National Institute on Money in State Politics.

Former state House Speaker Tom Craddick placed No. 6 on the list, taking in $319,000.

Coming in on the list below Perry and Dewhurst, but above Craddick, were Virginia's Jerry Kilgore (who was the state attorney general but later became governor) and two other governors with familiar names: Arnold Schwarzenegger of California and Rod Blagojevich of Illinois.

Some other interesting tidbits in the report:

• + Texas was one of six states that got 60 percent of the contributions by identified energy companies.



• + Texas had more lobbyists for energy companies and their climate-related coalitions than any other state in the nation in 2007 -- 425 of them.


+ The Texas Republican Party was No. 6 on the list of party groups that got the most energy contributions between 2003 and 2007 ($337,700). Above Texas were (in order) the California GOP, the Florida GOP, the Florida Dems, the California Dems and the Missouri Republicans.
+ On the other end of the spectrum, the Texas League of Conservation Voters ranked ninth in the nation among pro-environment groups giving money to candidates and party committees during the same four-year period -- $80,674. And Texas ranked sixth in the nation in the amont of money given by pro-environment and alternative energy groups and PACs -- $143,474.

The report is called Industries Storm States Over Climate Change and you can read the whole thing at this link. And to read more about climate-change lobbying on the federal level, check out the Center for Public Integrity's recent report "The Climate Change Lobby."

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