Houston businessman Ronald A. Kapche gave all but $7,790 of his $508,834 in campaign contributions to a single candidate: Ronald A. Kapche. The money went to support Kapche's bid for the House seat in Houston's 7th Congressional District vacated by Republican Bill Archer. But Kapche's deep pockets didn't buy him much: He never made it past the GOP primary, receiving only 5 percent of the vote.
During the race, Kapche's campaign was dogged by the news that he had not been paying property taxes on his home. Kapche insisted that he had been working to rectify the matter with the IRS since 1997. "It was not my intent to get out of it," he told the Houston Chronicle. "It was my intent to pay it."
Kapche repeatedly tried to hitch his political wagon to George W. Bush, saying he had been appointed by the governor to improve state job training programs as director of the Texas Workforce Commission. In fact, Kapche had been appointed by the commission, not the governor, and had quit after only a year amid criticism that the commission had cut hundreds of jobs, failed to hire minorities in upper-level positions, and ignored food-stamp recipients who stood to lose crucial benefits under welfare reform.
Kapche is currently president of International Partners, a company dealing in international trade. He owned and operated several offices of Manpower, Inc. before selling the franchise back to the parent company in 1995.
-- Brett Coker
