Company behind East Texas water grab hires a political consultant to Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick

The Texas Senate voted against delaying a controversial East Texas groundwater export project on the same day the company behind it hired one of Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick’s top advisors as a lobbyist.

Conservation Equity Management, a company affiliated with Dallas investor Kyle Bass, hired Allen Blakemore on Tuesday, the same day the legislation hit the Senate floor, according to lobbying records filed at the Texas Ethics Commission. Blakemore is Patrick’s political consultant and has also worked on the campaigns of several Republican senators.