| TCUL PAC is made up of fourteen directors appointed by the Chairman of the Board of the Texas Credit Union League Board of Directors. The appointments are for two years and represent each of the director districts (not asset categories however) from all over Texas. The President and CEO serves as the Treasurer of TCUL PAC under the bylaws and must register with the Texas Ethics Commission as such. The TCUL PAC Board of Directors also works in conjunction with the TCUL Advocacy staff as liaisons.
CULAC is made up of national officials appointed to the Board by CUNA. For a current list of directors, contact CUNA.
The goal of TCUL PAC is to provide direct monetary contributions to support those elected officials or candidates for state offices who support credit unions regardless of party affiliation or stances on other issues. These offices include Governor, Lt. Governor, Comptroller, Attorney General, Senators, and State House members. All other state offices (i.e. Land Commissioner, Judge or Railroad Commissioner) are eligible for contributions from the state PAC, but generally such contributions are rare. No contributions to federal candidates are given by TCUL PAC because of election laws governing contributions.
The goal of CULAC is to provide support, either by funding receptions to attract more donations or direct contributions, to Federal candidates or office holders who support credit union positions regardless of party affiliation or stances on other issues. These offices include President/Vice President, U.S. Senator, and U.S. House of Representatives. No contributions are made to state candidates from CULAC.
There is no set formula for determining how a contribution is given. The key criteria to be considered are:
- Support of credit union issues in votes or in public comments.
- Ability to influence legislation of interest to credit unions (i.e. Elected officials who serve on financial institution or related committees have a greater potential impact on our legislation than a person who serves on a transportation committee. Similarly, the speaker has a great deal of influence on what goes to the floor and therefore impacts our legislation greatly.) more so than just their one vote.
- Great support by people in the credit union movement. This can be reduced when both candidates are heavily supported by credit union (members).
- Ability to be successful in getting elected. This is evident where a heavily favored incumbent may not be a friend of credit unions, but the likelihood of their ouster is not significant and therefore it is not a good use of our very limited funds to support a dark horse candidate.
- Local input. As much local input as is possible helps make decisions about who to support. There is no substitute for first hand knowledge from the district.
Contributions are made by both PACs based upon requests from participating credit union members, requests by the staff of either TCUL or CUNA, or direct solicitations by the elected official. Generally, where possible, a contribution will be sent to a local PAC participant to be delivered to the elected official. This contact is consistent with our desire to create more direct contact in the district and associate a constituent with a contribution. Where possible, a staff member from CUNA or TCUL will attempt to deliver the check with you. At times, the request for money will be urgent and this distribution method will not be followed. It is the goal of TCUL PAC and CULAC to allow the local participants to deliver the check whenever possible.
The party of a candidate, their stance on issues not related to the financial services industry in some way (i.e. school vouchers or prayer in school) are not taken into consideration.
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