by James Thompson

 

According to Project Vote Smart, Greg Abbott’s 6th highest campaign contributor is Ray L. Hunt. Mr. Hunt contributed $152,110. According to Forbes magazine, Mr. Hunt’s financial holdings add up to $6.3 billion. Forbes indicates Mr. Hunt, at 71, remains chairman and CEO of Hunt Consolidated. His son, Hunter Hunt, is the chief executive of Hunt Consolidated. Hunt Oil Company is one of the largest privately held oil companies in the US.

 

According to Texas Monthly, Mr. Hunt is one of H. L. Hunt’s 14 children. Forbes magazine writes:  “According to Forbes calculations Ray Lee is the richest of all his siblings, having built up a business empire over the past 40 years. His trophy assets include the iconic Reunion Tower and the shiny new headquarters of Hunt Consolidated in Dallas. Like his father, Hunt is deep into the oil business; Hunt Oil is one of the largest privately-held oil companies in the U.S. In 2011 he sold a one-third stake in his Texas Eagle Ford shale fields to Japan’s Marubeni for $1.3 billion. He also raised $600 million from banks that year to build a high-voltage power line in Texas that connects the state with Mexico’s power grid. He owns vast ranches, farmland and real estate developments across the west. Overseas, Hunt was one of the first U.S. oil companies to land an oil exploration deal in the Kurdish region of Iraq after the toppling of Saddam Hussein. He’s also leveraged his big balance sheet to partner on liquefied natural gas plants in Peru and Yemen (though terrorist attacks have plagued the latter project).”

 

Texas Monthly magazine writes about Mr. Hunt: “He occasionally makes the wrong kind of headlines, as in 2007, when he inked a deal with the regional Kurdish government to look for oil in northern Iraq. Iraqi Arabs were incensed that the Kurds were trying to shut them out, the State Department expressed annoyance that the agreement might undermine the fragile Iraqi government, and Bush critics accused Hunt—a longtime Bush family friend who’d recently given Southern Methodist University $35 million to purchase land for a presidential library and museum—of working a sweetheart deal. No matter. Earlier this year, Hunt Oil hit it big in Kurdistan and the Bush library and museum opened to great fanfare in University Park.”

 

Mr. Hunt is the owner of vast wealth across the globe. Clearly, he was born with a silver spoon in his mouth, the son of Texas oil wildcatter H. L. Hunt.

Texas voters should consider this contributor to Gregg Abbott’s campaign before casting their ballots in November.