San Antonio's police union spends $900K to fight Prop A

Protect SA, a political action committee created by the San Antonio Police Officers’ Association, brought in nearly $900,000 from the start of the year through March 27, according to its campaign finance report.

And it’s not just law enforcement spending thousands of dollars to defeat the measure in the May 6 municipal election. The wide-ranging charter amendment has drawn the ire of the business community, which formed the San Antonio Safe PAC last month to fundraise against it.

Supporters have raised just a fraction of the opposition’s haul, reporting $50,000 in monetary contributions and nearly $53,000 in in-kind donations.

Prop A would decriminalize abortion and marijuana, ban police chokeholds and no-knock warrants and create a city justice director. Of particular concern to the union and business groups is the provision that would require police to issue citations for certain low-level misdemeanor offenses, including theft and graffiti.

Police fundraising to slow

Protect SA PAC raised about $880,000 from Jan. 31 through March. Most of that money — $866,225 — came directly from the San Antonio Police Officers’ Association, while the union’s main PAC kicked in the rest.

Protect SA reported spending everything it raised in the first three months of 2023 on advertisements, including mailers, yard signs, cable commercials, and TV and newspaper ad buys. It also hired Noisy Trumpet to handle media requests and manage the PAC’s website and social media accounts.

“I’m not out asking officers for more money, but we are getting contributions slowly, a little bit at a time — $50 here, $25 there, so whatever we get we’ll use toward this fight,” SAPOA President Danny Diaz said. He declined to say how much the PAC expects to raise between now and May 6.

In 2021, SAPOA spent $850,000 to defeat Proposition B. That measure, which failed by less than 3 percentage points, would have stripped the union of its right to collectively bargain for a contract with the city.

Any money raised by San Antonio Safe won’t be publicly known until closer to election day since the PAC didn’t start taking contributions until after March 27, the end of the three-month period covered by the latest campaign finance reports due Thursday. The PAC held a Tuesday fundraiser, setting the minimum suggested donation at $1,000.

The next campaign finance reports are due eight days before the election.

‘Grassroots’ fundraising

The two PACs formed in support of Prop A raised a combined $50,000, all of which came from the Texas Organizing Project.

SA Justice Charter PAC and San Antonio Justice Charter PAC also received about $52,800 of in-kind donations. Much of that came from Act 4 SA and its action fund. The local police reform group is one of the main organizers behind Prop A.

Another chunk of the in-kind contributions came from progressive organizing group Ground Game Texas, which helped with about $22,500 in staff support and management consulting.

Act 4 SA Executive Director Ananda Tomas said Prop A supporters expect to raise more money in the coming weeks.

“But it won’t be $900K,” Tomas said via text message. “We are grassroots after all and don’t flood elections with money like the police union does to get their way.”

In 2021, Fix SAPD, the group behind Proposition B, spent $950,000 during that election cycle.