Interactive presentation: Vendors fund nearly half of incumbent Houston ISD trustees' campaigns

With elections coming up next week for three positions on the Houston school board, Texas Watchdog presents an interactive package on the campaign fundraising by the nine incumbent school board members.

Our analysis of three years' worth of campaign donations shows that vendors and contractors to the Houston Independent School District gave nearly half of all contributions to the incumbents in the past three years.

Use these graphics and interactives to delve deeper into contributions by vendors, HISD employees and advocates for charter schools.

Click here to read more about who's giving to the trustees in our exclusive story today by Jennifer Peebles and Mike Cronin. And click here to see our list of the 20 biggest donors to the trustees in the past three years.

We're also publishing a spreadsheet we created of the more than 1,300 campaign contributions the nine incumbent trustees received in the past three years. See the story above for the link.

Also read our profiles of the incumbents and their challengers: School board President Paula Harris and her challenger, former HISD principal Davetta Daniels; incumbent Trustee Manuel Rodriguez and his challenger, Houston Community College administrator Ramiro Fonseca, and incumbent Trustee Juliet Stipeche and her challenger, Dorothy Olmos. 

Early voting in the HISD races and other local elections in the Houston area is going on now through Nov. 4.

Note: The Texas Watchdog analysis includes donations from as recently as late September -- the most recent campaign finance records available. Trustee candidates are required to disclose more recent donations on forms that must be turned in today. 

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Contact Jennifer Peebles at jennifer@texaswatchdog.org or 713-228-2850. Follow him on Twitter at @jpeebles or @texaswatchdog.

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German Gutierrez Wednesday, 11/02/2011 - 09:36PM What is the definition of a "vendor" here. Anna Eastmans' campaign was funded by J.D. Arnold, major stakeholder for Kipp/Yes charter schools. Kipp/Yes leases property and conducts "vendor", at arms length business activity with HISD. Whether the trustee's campaign is funded by vendors or for-profit charter schools both lend themselves to trustee's acting without the best interest of HISD and it's children.