In Texas, political candidates running advertisements are required to post who paid for the advertisement with a notice on the advertisement. The required notice is usually something along the lines of “political advertisement paid for by,” followed by the candidate’s name and sometimes the name of the treasurer. For nonprinted materials, the paid for statement must be “clearly spoken” if that advertisement is audio only, like for example on a radio station.
The Texas Ethics Commission provides exemptions to the notice requirement when it is impractical to add the notice to campaign material, for example balloons. However, most political material is required to carry the notice. The penalty for not using the required notice is a civil penalty under state law, “not to exceed $4,000.” The Ethics Commission sets the fine.
The Renard Johnson Campaign has been running a political campaign video on the Fit Fam El Paso Instagram channel since July 9. In the video, Renard Johnson asks viewers to make donations to the local animal shelter. In the 45 second video, Johnson’s monologue includes statements that he is “running for mayor,” and “this is what a mayor should do.” The video ends with the candidate’s campaign logo.
El Paso News reached out to the campaign yesterday via email asking about the video. Laura Zimmerman, the campaign manager, responded via email by thanking us “for flagging” the video and adding that it “looks like the disclaimer is in the caption now.”
As can be observed in the screenshot above, the required disclaimer was added to the July 9 video after we had inquired about it.
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Fit Fam El Paso Political Advertisements
We reached out to Fit Fam El Paso through Instagram’s chat service. Fit Fam El Paso has been notorious for keeping the identity of the person who runs the Instagram channel a secret, although the name of the individual allegedly behind it has been shared on social media.
In the chat session, a spokesperson for the channel wrote that they charge $49 for 24-hour stories or $220 for advertisements as posts on their Instagram channel. The 24-hour stories are social media posts that disappear after 24-hours. Regular posts stay on the channel indefinitely, like the Johnson advertisement.
They only accept cash-based payments for advertisements and not credit cards, although some digital payment platforms, like Paypal, will accept a credit card to process the payment to Fit Fam. But because of how Fit Fam El Paso accepts payments for advertisements it is difficult to track political payments to the Instagram channel because the payment to them can show up in many forms, including in-king contributions by individuals or payments made via credit cards on the candidate’s campaign reports.
El Paso News reviewed Johnson’s latest campaign finance report and did not find any payments made that would account for the Fit Fam El Paso advertisement.
Because the Fit Fam El Paso advertisement by the Johnson Campaign appeared on July 9, it is possible that any payment from campaign funds made to them will not appear until the next report because Johnson’s current report only covers contributions and political expenses through June 30.