Lone Star lobbyist launches hybrid super PAC

Introduction

A well-connected Texas lobbyist is the nation’s newest hybrid super PAC treasurer.

Randy Cubriel, an attorney who practices law in both North Carolina and Texas, where he is also a registered lobbyist, has formed “Texans for a Conservative Majority,” according to new documents posted by the Federal Election Commission.

Because the Austin, Texas-based committee registered as a hybrid super PAC, it may raise donations of unlimited size to fund political advertisements — like a super PAC — and also maintain a separate, segregated account for raising limited contributions that may, in turn, be donated directly to politicians.

Records indicate that Cubriel’s lobbying clients currently include Texas Port Recycling LP, which is “home to the largest shredder in Southeast Texas,” according to the company’s website, and Charlotte-based Nucor Corp., a Fortune 300 company and the country’s largest steel producer.

Despite his committee’s right-leaning name, Cubriel is bipartisan when it comes to political giving, according to state and federal campaign finance records.

At the federal level, Cubriel, who did not immediately respond to a request for comment, has donated small amounts to both Republicans and Democrats, including $250 to Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., in 2008; $250 to then-House candidate Debbie Halvorson, an Illinois Democrat, in 2008; $600 to Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, in 2008; and $250 to Rep. Raul Labrador, R-Idaho, in 2011.

At the state level, recent political contributions by Cubriel include $250 to North Carolina Democratic lieutenant governor candidate Walter Dalton in 2008 and $250 to South Carolina Republican state Sen. Hugh Leatherman the same year, according to the National Institute on Money in State Politics.