A former legislator who chaired a powerful state House committee is under investigation by the Texas Ethics Commission (TEC) for his alleged violations of a Texas revolving-door law that restricts lawmakers from leaving office to become lobbyists.
The legislator under scrutiny is former Republican state Representative Chris Paddie, who resigned his East Texas seat in March 2022 to become a lobbyist and consultant for private sector interests. His departure came at the height of his power: As chairman of the House State Affairs Committee, Paddie played a central role in the state’s response to the deadly electric grid failure in 2021. But his attempted career transition, a common one in Austin, was thwarted by a 2019 lobbying law that Paddie himself had co-sponsored, which bans departing legislators who contributed campaign funds to fellow lawmakers from lobbying in Texas for two years after their last donation.
Before leaving office, Paddie made several campaign contributions to Republican House colleagues. In December 2022, Paddie registered as a lobbyist with the state and disclosed a list of clients—including Vistra, the state’s largest power company. As the Texas Observer reported then, Paddie claimed he’d come into compliance with the revolving-door law because he had personally reimbursed his campaign for the roughly $50,000 in contributions he’d made to other lawmakers.
