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Despite being declared ineligible to run for Brownsville mayor, Pat Ahumada, former elected official and brief candidate for the position in the May election, was fined $100 by the Texas Ethics Commission for failing to file a campaign treasurer appointment while accepting contributions and making campaign expenditures.
The TEC issued its order and agreed resolution on Sept. 27. The agency published that document on Wednesday.
Ahumada, who was Brownsville’s mayor from December 1991 to January 1994 and from June 2007 to 2011, joined the five-way race to replace outgoing mayor Trey Mendez in January, the TEC found.
However, Ahumada didn’t file a campaign treasurer appointment and application for a place on the ballot until Feb. 15.
Ultimately, he would never get a place on the ballot because on May 1, 2021, Brownsville voters passed a term limit charter.
“On December 11, 2022 and January 9, 2023, (Ahumada) wrote letters to the City Secretary’s Office, requesting to know if the term limit charter applied retroactively and would therefore prohibit him from running for Mayor in the May 7, 2023 election,” the TEC said in its order.
A day after he filed to run, City Secretary Yolanda Galarza-Gomez informed him that his application was ineligible due to the May 2021 charter amendment that stipulated a “lifetime term limit” for mayors and other city commission members.
Ahumada had requested a temporary restraining order and a temporary and permanent injunction over the matter in state court, but that fizzled after a judge ruled against his petition later that month.
In its ruling, the TEC found that Ahumada had been spending money on his campaign as early as Jan. 11, more than a month before he officially filed.
“In response to written questions, (Ahumada) provided a copy of a check dated January 11, 2023, made out to Digital Print, for the purchase of the political advertising signs. The memo line of the check read ‘personal loan to campaign.’”
The TEC said this is a violation of Texas Education Code because he did not file his campaign treasurer appointment until Feb. 15.
The matter landed in the TEA’s hands after a complaint alleged Ahumada accepted political contributions or made political expenditures for political advertising signs without that appointment.
The document does not identify who made the complaint.
“The information submitted with the complaint showed that (Ahumada) posted photographs on Facebook of his political advertising signs for the May 7, 2023 election on February 12, 2023,” the order stated. “The information submitted with the complaint also showed that (Ahumada) submitted his campaign treasurer appointment to the Office of the City Secretary on February 15, 2023.”
The complaint also included information showing that Ahumada had two different crowdfunding campaigns to accept political contributions for his campaign.
Ahumada told the TEC that he made $4,312.57 in total campaign expenditures before filing his campaign treasurer appointment.
“In addition, the respondent stated that he had accepted $500 in political contributions on February 12, 2023, three days before he filed his campaign treasurer appointment,” the order stated.
Ahumada also told the TEC that he ended up not accepting any political contributions through the crowdfunding campaigns and “that all funds sent through those platforms were returned to contributors and not accepted.”
The TEC said Ahumada neither admits or denies the findings and consented to the order and agreed resolution.
