Thursday, July 31, 2008

Fort Bend County’s DA is a Fine(d) Elected Official

Now this isn’t the first time that the Fort Bend County district attorney, John Healey, has been the focus of ethics. The last time it was a local TV station reporter’s coverage of DA Healey’s employee, Mike Elliott, whose unethical behavior didn’t escape the notice of his boss, who removed him from a case that he was building against 7 innocent (as it turned out) men. Then there was the other time when Healey himself requested a list of those who were pressuring a local judge in a case he was hearing, so that he could build a witness list for his prosecution of the case.

And now, today, in FortBendNow we find that AD Healey has been fined $1500 by the Texas Ethics Commission for violations in his campaign reporting. The relevant document is here.

Now the FortBendNow article mentioned that the person who filed an ethics complaint over Healey’s campaign fund reporting was an “anonymous complainant,” so we weren’t given the source of Healey’s ethical woes in that article, but I have an idea who it was. All I can say is, this wasn’t the first time this complainant has filed one of these, nor will it be the last.

Healey denies all wrongdoing, and cites errors in arithmetic among other things, as the origin of his campaign reporting problems.

But now the matter is settled, and Healey’s campaign fund is one and a half large lighter as a consequence. That’s $1500 that won’t go to 2008 Republican campaigns, nor to his own.

This is a case of Republican campaign funds that are truly well-spent.

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