The Texas Ethics Commission has fined Cary Jennings, the campaign treasurer for Planned Parenthood of North Texas' political action committee, $3,000 for failing to disclose spending $26,695 to support four political candidates in the November, 2008 state elections.
The Ethics Commission also found Planned Parenthood of North Texas Action Fund Political Committee had either failed to report or made mistakes with political contribution and expenditure totals on more than 17 monthly reports required by state law.
The action fund accepted the fine without protest and has improved its reporting procedures, fund director Kathryn Allen said.
The political action committee in a November 2008 report said it spent $26,695 for mass mailings the previous month. However, the report failed to say the mailings were made in support of Wendy Davis, who was running for state Senate and Dan Barrett, Carol Kent and Chris Turner, who were running for state House seats, according to the Ethics Commission findings.
The following month, the political action committee reported spending $15,410 in one day to the same company for a blitz of campaign telephone calls on behalf of Davis, Kent, Turner and Robert Miklos, who was running for the House. The Commission took note that this disclosure of candidate support was not reflected on the report's cover page.
The committee filed 17 corrected campaign finance reports on Sept. 14, 2009.
Allen said the committee made procedural errors in reporting because it is a relatively new group, inexperienced in proper campaign finance filing.
"This has all been a learning process for us," Allen said. "We have procedures in place now that should prevent us from making these kinds of human errors. I'm glad to have this behind us."
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