Texas Railroad Commissioner Walt Christian: Today’s “Mad Magazine” Ethics Scofflaw

Texas Election Code Section 253.035: Restrictions on Personal Use of Contributions at (a) and (b) states:

 “A person who accepts a political contribution as a candidate or officeholder may not convert the contribution to personal use.”

“In this section, “personal use” means a use that primarily furthers individual, or family purposes not connected with the performance of duties or activities as a candidate for or holder of a public office.

 The table below proves that Walt illegally used campaign funds to pay for a subscription to Mad Magazine.

First and foremost, for Walt to describe his illegal purchase of Mad Magazine as a “News Subscription” doesn’t pass the involuntary laugh test. I’m sure that Mad Magazine has never been accused of being involved in the reporting of “news.”

It cannot be disputed that purchasing a subscription to Mad Magazine was not in furtherance of and/or in connection with Walt’s performance of his official duties as Railroad Commissioner or activities as a candidate for public office.

To be fair to Kenny, he may have felt compelled to engage in lawbreaking because he felt he was under consideration for an article wherein he would be pictured on the front page of an upcoming issue.

Given some of Kenny’s rather questionable conduct in the past, it may well be that his actions sparked interest for his outstanding repeated violations of Texas Ethics Laws, which lead the editors of Mad Magazine to consider him an upcoming front page poster boy.

And lastly, Walt joins his long-time friend Kenny Paxton, Texas Attorney General who also violated the law via the illegal use of campaign funds to pay for a subscription to Mad Magazine.

In closing, there are many, many more instances of Walt violating ethics law by expending campaign funds illegally. With that said, more postings will be forthcoming shortly.