El Paso Matters
by Priscilla Totiyapungprasert
El Paso City Council candidate Arturo Alluin spent thousands of dollars in campaign funds on clothing and restaurants, according to his campaign finance report filed July 16, raising legal and ethical questions about the expenditures.
Alluin is running to represent District 8, which includes Downtown, the Southside and Westside. Alluin owns several restaurants in El Paso: Sushiitto in Downtown; Mykonos Mediterranean Steakhouse, formerly known as Meduza, on the Westside; and the Melting Pot located at the Fountains at Farah.
The businessman has raised more than $30,200 in monetary contributions, loaned his campaign $35,000 and spent $42,750 so far on his bid for office. More than $6,000 of his expenditures went to restaurants, including Cafe Central, Los Arcos in Ciudad Juárez and his own restaurants Mykonos and Sushiitto. Alluin often paid for food and beverages using personal funds and reimbursed himself.
The law prohibits a candidate from using campaign contributions to pay a business they own for personal services, but campaign services are allowed as long as the reimbursement doesn’t exceed the expenditure, said James Tinley, executive director for the Texas Ethics Commission.
Tinley declined to comment specifically on Alluin’s finances.
“I would have advised him not to claim,” said Roger Borgelt, an Austin-based attorney who practices in campaign finance. “I think it can be misconstrued as a personal benefit. That’s kind of a gray area … It doesn’t look good.”
El Paso political blogger Jaime Abeytia first reported on some of Alluin’s campaign expenditures.
Filing season for the Nov. 3 election officially opened Saturday, though Alluin filed his campaign treasurer report in February, allowing him to begin fundraising then. Matthew Guzman has also filed a campaign treasurer report for his candidacy for the seat. The District 8 seat is currently held by city Rep. Chris Canales, who has not filed to run for reelection as of July 20.
Alluin said he met with a variety of people and groups at restaurants, including government officials, local representatives, news reporters, neighborhood associations and unions. Alluin said he didn’t think hosting campaign activities at his restaurants benefited him personally because he applied a 50% discount to meals, meaning his business took a loss with each expenditure because of the operating margins, he said.
Borgelt said the 50% discount covers the candidate pretty well, but, “We just have to assume that that’s true.”
No state law prohibits candidates from campaigning abroad, though they cannot accept donations from foreign nationals.
Alluin said he met with constituents who were U.S. citizens in Juárez because they own maquilas on both sides of the border and it was sometimes easier to meet them for lunch in Juárez. Neither he nor his family own the Juárez restaurants listed in campaign expenditures, Alluin said.
“I’m not doing anything out of line,” Alluin said. “I’ve been living on the border my whole life and as a community I think it’s important to hear everybody’s side of where we want to go, especially business owners that have businesses on both sides of the region.”
Elsewhere in Alluin’s campaign finance report he lists multiple expenditures for “campaign clothing” at Brooks Brothers and Dillard’s, totaling more than $2,500.
Generally, campaign contributions cannot be used to purchase clothing that is adaptable to ordinary use, including business attire, Tinley said.
“I wasn’t aware of that,” Alluin said.
Alluin purchased suit attire, such as dress shirts and pants, because he “didn’t dress like this before” and those clothes are part of a candidate’s “uniform,” he said. Alluin said he had campaign shirts made, though he doesn’t think they were made at Brooks Brothers or Dillard’s.
Borgelt said he didn’t think that was an acceptable use of campaign funds. Clothing, even when worn for a campaign, is a personal expenditure unless it’s something such as a T-shirt with a campaign logo on it, he said.
More than $10,000 in expenditures also went to Isabel Salcido, a former city representative who made an unsuccessful run for mayor in 2024. Salcido acted as a campaign advisor and provided marketing material, according to the report.
Salcido said she only advised Alluin on some questions and was not his campaign manager. Alluin said he reached out to Salcido for help getting his campaign started because she had experience running for office, but he acts as his own campaign manager.
In addition to his monetary contributions and loans, Alluin received $3,500 in in-kind contributions, one of which was $1,000 worth of “hair look for social media” from a local hairdresser. Alluin said the hairdresser has been cutting his hair for the last 15 years, but since he wasn’t able to make a monetary donation, he is contributing by giving Alluin a free haircut about every two weeks.
Borgelt questioned whether Alluin even needed to report the contribution because it was for personal services and he wasn’t sure how haircuts qualified as campaign finance.
“People are permitted to donate their personal services in connection with a campaign,” Tinsley said. “Whether a particular expense is ‘in connection with a campaign’ is a fact question.”
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Actress Kaylee Hottle attends the world premiere of “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire” at the TCL Chinese Theater in Hollywood on March 25, 2024.Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images
Kaylee Hottle, as Jia, in a scene from “Godzilla vs. Kong.”Warner Bros. Pictures/Legendary Pictures via AP
