Clean Up Texas Politics | Austin American Statesman: Insurers Were TAB's Biggest Donors

Clean Up Texas Politics | Austin American Statesman: Insurers Were TAB's Biggest Donors: "The Texas Association of Business secretly financed its 2002 election effort largely with money from an insurance industry that was trying to fight tougher regulations at the Capitol, the Austin American-Statesman has determined after studying TAB's records.

The state's largest business organization has fought disclosing its corporate donors for almost three years, saying that would violate the companies' First Amendment rights. But among 20,000 pages of documents the business group has released, it left telltale clues that identify 18 corporations — 15 of them insurance companies — that helped finance a Republican takeover of the Legislature.

By disclosing almost two-thirds of its 30 or so corporate donors, TAB may have undercut its arguments to keep secret the other donors' names."