Updated at 2:59 p.m. Saturday
Self-funded Brint Ryan has become Dallas’ first million-dollar Dallas City Council candidate, but real estate mogul Harlan Crow finds himself peerless among political financiers.
In April alone, Crow and his family spent $2 million to convince Dallas voters of supporting Proposition 1, which if approved next week, would block construction of a publicly owned Dallas Convention Center hotel.
And to date, according to campaign finance documents filed with Dallas City Hall, Crow’s Anatole Partners III LLC has injected about $4.7 million into the Citizens Against the Taxpayer-Owned Hotel organization run by one of his top executives, Anne Raymond.
Crow’s donations – the size of which have until now been unknown to Dallas municipal politics — represent nearly all the money the group has raised.
Citizens Against the Taxpayer-Owned Hotel’s latest campaign finance report, which covers April 1 through April 29, also indicates that the group spent more than $2.2 million during April — primarily on advertisements. Raymond could not be reached for comment.
In contrast, Vote No Dallas!, the main organization opposing Proposition 1 and supporting construction of the planned hotel, raised $735,550 and spent $818,580 in April, its report states.
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