Houston Hurricane Lawyer Creates Deceptively Named Groups to Hide his Influence

Steve Mostyn – a Houston hurricane lawyer – knows that Texans don’t like lawsuit abuse or personal injury trial lawyers. During election years, he puts up the money for groups with noble sounding names so voters won’t realize that one of the state’s biggest political contributors is a mass tort lawyer.

Here are a few of Mostyn’s Groups that he uses to fund politicians:

Texans for Individual Rights – is founded by Mark McCaig, an associate of Mostyn’s law firm and another personal injury trial lawyer, Matthew Griffing. This group pretends to support conservative Republicans and is pushing a legislative proposal that would stifle job creation in Texas and create windfall profits for plaintiff lawyers.

Conservative Voters of Texas – also founded by Mostyn Associate Mark McCaig, who is using this PAC to attack conservative legislator Larry Taylor, who is running for the State Senate in District 11.

Back to Basics PAC was created by Mostyn in 2010 to attack Governor Rick Perry and candidates who support lawsuit reform. The PAC has spent just over $4 million. Mostyn has contributed $3,975,181.

Texans for Public Education, Texas Forward Committee, the Valley Political Action Committee were all established by Mostyn in 2010 to allow him to contribute to individual candidates without voters knowing directly that the money was coming from him.

Texans for Insurance Reform, Mostyn did not establish TIR, a notorious trial lawyer PAC that has nothing to do with insurance or reform. The PAC spent $3 million in support of liberal Democrats in 2010. Mostyn gave the PAC $750,000 and is its largest donor.

House Democratic Campaign Committee – Mostyn did not found the House Democratic Campaign Committee either, but it got 80% of its funding from Mostyn in 2010.

Coalition of Harris County Democratic Elected Officials – Mostyn set up the Coalition to back judicial candidates in the state’s largest county and to pay for the Democratic Get Out the Vote efforts in the final days before the election. He gave the Coalition $863,942 in 2010 -- eighty-five percent of their budget.

TLR PAC is the political arm of Texans for Lawsuit Reform, the state's largest civil justice reform organization. TLR is a bipartisan, volunteer-led coalition with more than 17,000 supporters residing in 869 Texas communities and representing 1,266 different businesses, professions and trades. For more information about TLR PAC visit tlrpac.com.

Tracking Mostyn's Contributions

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Mostyn's $10 Million Contribution in 2010 [34KB PDF]