House and Senate members agreed that judges needed a pay raise. But they spent the final hours of the legislative session debating whether Texas lawmakers should also benefit from the boost.

Former Empower Texans leader Michael Quinn Sullivan has challenged a $10,000 fine from the Texas Ethics Commission for failure to register as a lobbyist for more than 10 years at nearly every level of the state court system.

Lawmakers filed dozens of bills that would increase transparency around spending in elections and strengthen penalties for campaign and lobbying violations. None are poised to pass.

The bill would cap out-of-state political donations to a candidate or lawmaker to $5,000 for a statewide election, $2,500 for a district office and $1,000 for a county office.

The bill faced fierce opposition from hardline conservatives who say it is policing speech and could allow the state to jail people over silly political memes.

Rep. Cody Harris had accused Abraham George of improperly threatening to send mailers and censure lawmakers who backed Rep. Dustin Burrows as House speaker.

The Court of Criminal Appeals will rehear a case it threw out last year. Three of the judges became targets of Attorney General Ken Paxton over another ruling and lost reelection.

The number of fines for breaking state campaign ethics laws has exploded in recent years as Ken Paxton’s office rarely pursues stricter enforcement.

The $500 fine from the Texas Ethics Commission comes after the agency found the Harris County judge broke state campaign laws barring use of government resources for political purposes.

The action comes after The Texas Tribune reported that influencers were being paid to defend impeached Attorney General Ken Paxton.

The Tribune reported last year that a company called Influenceable LLC was paid to recruit influencers to defend Attorney General Ken Paxton over his impeachment.

A 2019 law says a former lawmaker cannot register to lobby until two years after they last used campaign funds to donate to another politician. Paddie, R-Marshall, sought to get around that earlier this year by reimbursing his campaign account with personal money.

Starr County, one of the four counties that make up the Rio Grande Valley, has not been able to produce campaign finance reports that it is required to maintain, according to a GOP group targeting the area.

Paxton’s campaign admitted last week that it was having problems trying to report all his latest donor data and would file an amended report — but as of Tuesday, it had yet to do so.