AUSTIN (KXAN) — A Political Action Committee (PAC) in favor of Austin’s November tax rate election proposition said it filed a complaint with the Texas Ethics Commission against the person or people responsible for a website that discourages Austinites from voting ‘yes’ on Proposition Q.
The Love Austin Campaign, managed by Joe Cascino, said the website needs to have legal disclosures required of political advertisements under Texas election law. He also pointed to yard signs seen around Austin that said things like “No on Prop Q” and “AX THE TAX!” with a link to the website, but no political disclosure.
“They are proudly using dark money to fund their mission to make cuts to core city services such as fire, EMS, parks, pools, and libraries. But Austinites are much smarter than the mystery figure behind this illegal, deceptive website thinks,” Cascino wrote.
On X Thursday night, a man named Nate McGuire said the website belonged to him. McGuire also responded to an email from KXAN at an address listed on the website.
“Find it confusing how they could file a complaint about me and not figure out who I was: I haven’t been hiding,” McGuire told KXAN. He said something similar on social media, tagging Cascino.
McGuire started the thread: “dark money enters the chat – not really that’s sarcasm ethics commission.”
In that thread, McGuire attaches what appear to be receipts from his domain registration, costing roughly $12, and the host site he’s using, which is free. He told KXAN he was not behind the yard signs.
“I am a private citizen, and I paid for the website out of my own pocket and will comply with any filings required,” McGuire told KXAN.
Is this against the law? Here’s what the Texas Ethics Commission says
While this specific complaint will have to work its way through the proper process, the Texas Ethics Commission does help work through state election code in a “political advertising, what you need to know” quick sheet.
Let’s start with the website:
“Political advertising includes communications supporting or opposing an officeholder, a political party, or a measure (a ballot proposition)…Political advertising includes communications that appear on an Internet website.”
But the quick sheet also has a list of exceptions to the political disclosure requirement which include: “postings or re-postings on an Internet website if the person posting or re-posting is not an officeholder, candidate, or political committee and did not make an expenditure exceeding $100 in a reporting period for political advertising beyond the basic cost of hardware messaging software and bandwidth.”
McGuire wrote on social media that he paid $12 for the domain. He said he used GitHub Pages to host the site for free.
McGuire’s website also has the following disclosure at the bottom: “This website is a personal project from a concerned resident of Austin. This is not affiliated nor paid for by any PAC or campaign.“
What about the yard signs?
“The deal is that even still, that doesn’t explain who paid for the signs, who is putting out the signs, who is behind that,” Cascino said. “We just have to take this person’s word for it, and we can’t do that in an election like this.”
Photos of yard signs shared with KXAN said things like “No on Prop Q” and “AX THE TAX!” with a link to the website, but no political disclosure. KXAN also found signs linking to the same website that do have a disclosure.
The Texas Ethics Commission didn’t list an explicit exception for yard signage, but it does make an exception for “circulars or fliers that cost in the aggregate less than $500 to publish and distribute.” It’s also unclear whether the use of the website link on yard signs requires the website to have a disclosure.
“I am not behind the yard signs,” McGuire said. He also told us in a statement: “If Prop Q passes Austin will become more expensive for workers, more expensive for the elderly, more expensive for families, more expensive for students – simply put Prop Q will make Austin less affordable for everyone.”
If the commission finds wrongdoing, what would happen then?
For the section of state law that addresses required disclosures on political advertising:
“A person who violates this section is liable to the state for a civil penalty in an amount determined by the commission not to exceed $4,000,” the state election code said.
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