Report Says Stockman Did Not List All Donations

U.S. Rep. Steve Stockman’s re-election campaign committee received thousands of dollars in donations over the past two years that it has not reported, according to a report released Tuesday.

The Sunlight Foundation, based in Washington, D.C., analyzed the Friendswood Republican’s campaign filings from 2012 and the first eight months of 2013.

“We found at least $16,000 in contributions that political action committees reported giving to Stockman during the past two years but that his campaign didn't report getting,” researchers Peter Olsen-Phillips and Jacob Fenton wrote.

The contributions that Stockman did not report include $5,000 from Citizens United Political Victory Fund PAC on March 25, 2013, and $2,500 from the National Auto Dealers Association PAC on Aug. 22, 2013. Another donation, from the Republican Party of Washington, is also among those listed as unaccounted for in the report.

Donny Ferguson, a spokesman for Stockman, said the report was inaccurate. "As far as I know, those checks were never received by the treasurer and deposited," he said. "The Washington GOP check was deposited 12 months later and should be on that report. This is just more sloppy attacks from a political hack group."

The report comes one week after Stockman formally launched a separate campaign committee devoted to his run for U.S. Senate. Stockman’s other campaign committee, Friends of Congressman Steve Stockman, was $163,000 in debt as of Sept. 30, according to the FEC.

Typically, House candidates running for Senate seats repurpose their existing campaign committees rather than start new ones, according to Dave Levinthal with the Center for Public Integrity.

Stockman has drawn criticism for some of his campaign finance practices since his first term in office in the mid-1990s. Since he began his second congressional term last year, the FEC has written his office more than a dozen times about problems with his filings. Stockman has terminated two staffers for making improper donations to his campaign fund and has refused to answer questions about the source of his income, according to reports by the Houston Chronicle.