Is Fort Bend County Judge Office in Play?

I’ve been wondering for some time why I am seeing so many campaign signs to re-elect Fort Bend County Judge Bob Hebert. It’s one of the loudest signs I have ever seen. So much color that they must cost a pretty penny to make.

The common wisdom is that Fort Bend County is a safe Republican county. Only 4 county-wide offices are occupied by Democrats. So I thought that maybe it was due to that recent Chronicle article that gave a loud voice to U of H demographer Richard Murray’s opinion that Fort Bend County is about to tip from Republican- to Democratic-majority voters.

But now, seeing the article in the Chronicle’s Fort Bend blog, UltimateFortBend, I see that there is a new wrinkle in the County Judge race.

A write-in candidate.

A bat-guano crazy Teabagger “Constitutional Republican” write-in candidate.

Her name is, or actually was, Chris Meeks. That is her maiden name. Her married name is so unusual that running as a write-in candidate with a name like Christine Zubizarreta, as whe claims on her campaign website, would be a disadvantage “because a 'write in' needs an easy, short name.”

Shelley Sekula-Gibbs, my favorite write-in candidate from 2006, would have been surprised to hear that since the county elections office credited her with the votes of those who simply wrote in “SSG.” And she also got credited with the vote of the person who wrote in “Dracula c**t” (rhymes with bunt).

But I think this is simply par for the course, here. This candidate for county judge is a slice – or two – short of a loaf.

I even think I saw her once at a Republican love fest. I think it was her. She had some really interesting ideas about the world economy. The kind of ideas you hear from callers who call into all night radio talk shows.

What is interesting is that in the Chron article she is reported to have said that “she's been asked to drop out of the race for fear she may split Republican votes.”

Oh yeah.

What could be finer than to have the Teabagger Republicans, now referred to herein as Regressive Republicans split the Republican vote? With so many Democratic straight ticket voters out there, a loss of even 2% of the vote could spell a victory for Democratic challenger Rodrigo Carreon. And Chris Meeks, or Christine Zubizarreta, has refused to drop out, saying that she “will drop out if Judge Hebert puts in writing that he'll no longer collect property taxes.”

Yep, you heard it. Meeks is running on a single issue: eliminating property taxes. It even says that on her campaign signs (most of which are illegally posted on the public right-of -ways).

A red meat issue like that is bound to attract the “something-for-nothing” Teabagger crowd.

I shiver in anticipation.

Regression Comes of Age in the Republican Party

I like to consider myself a Progressive Liberal. That is, someone with core beliefs that the best thing we can do as a people is see to the weakest of us, and raise them up. That the best thing we can do as a people is to make health, wealth and happiness available to the greatest number. That the best thing we can do as a people is to guarantee that everyone gets a fair share and a square deal with opportunity for all.

That’s what lies at the core of a Progressive. More or less.

The Republicans, or shall we say now, the conservatives don’t have a progressive branch unless you consider moderate Republicans the progressive branch of that party. But now, I definitely think that a new branch of the Republican Party has formed this year. A branch that is so anti-progressive that the only word to describe it is “Regressive.”

Regressive Conservativism has come of age in the Republican Party.

I became convinced of that this week. Earlier, when conservatives were railing about the 14th Amendment, a matter of settled law for 140 plus years, I thought it was just theatrics. Then when the Bush doctrine of privatizing Medicare and allowing Social Security to play in the stock market (heck, why not go whole hog and let them play the ponies? A hit on an exacta, now that’s a great return on your investment) I thought they were just trying to impress Wall Street. When the lunatic fringe suggested that the Department of Education and the Environmental Protection Agency needed to be abolished, I thought that they were just catering to the Teabaggers. But then when people railed about refusing to turn in their census forms because . . . well just because . . . I thought it was just another way to tell that Black President they weren’t going to play ball if he continued to insist on pitching.

But I have been in denial, haven’t I? These people are serious. This week, the new flavor is abolishing the minimum wage.

Just now, when the economy needs to get more money into the hands of people, so they’ll spend it, people are now talking of putting less money into the hands of people, and actually think that’s a good idea.

This is just craziness.

All of these ideas, very regressive ideas, are part and parcel of the new Regressive Wing of the Republican Party.

And I bet they’re not done. In undoing a century and a half of progress, the Regressives can have a lot on their plate. Areas for future consideration:

• Abolish votes for women.
• Abolish the 40 hour work week.
• Overturn Child Labor Laws. Make the spoiled brats work in the mines. It was good enough for my grandfather after all.
• Abolish the USDA. It should be up to the meat packing industry to police itself, and salmonella.
• Overturn Roe v. Wade. Make getting an abortion a capital offense.
• Reinstitute prayer in public schools.
• And last but certainly not least, abolish the two-party system. One is enough and it’s just too expensive to allow a dissenting party to run a campaign. As a matter of fact, why not regress all the way to 1776 and bring back the British Monarchy?

God save the Queen!

Rick Perry’s Many Crimes and Misdemeanors

In the latest polling, 7% of Texas likely voters are still “Undecided” in the race for Governor of Texas. 

How that works given what we are all finding out about Governor Perry’s crimes and misdemeanors being revealed in the press is beyond me, but I suspect that these people are staying blissfully ignorant because reading the news or seeing it on television is not in their normal schedule.

Things are bound to turn around as the time for them to vote comes up, and they start to pay attention. My guess is that this 7% are finally going to be exposed to the brutal truth that their governor of the past 10 years is as crooked as a barrel of fish hooks.

As my gift to you, here is Texas Government Code Section 556.004:

§ 556.004. PROHIBITED ACTS OF AGENCIES AND INDIVIDUALS.

(a) A state agency may not use any money under its control, including appropriated money, to finance or otherwise support the candidacy of a person for an office in the legislative, executive, or judicial branch of state government or of the government of the United States. This prohibition extends to the direct or indirect employment of a person to perform an action described by this subsection.

(b) A state officer or employee may not use a state-owned or state-leased motor vehicle for a purpose described by Subsection (a).

(c) A state officer or employee may not use official authority or influence or permit the use of a program administered by the state agency of which the person is an officer or employee to interfere with or affect the result of an election or nomination of a candidate or to achieve any other political purpose.

(d) A state employee may not coerce, attempt to coerce, command, restrict, attempt to restrict, or prevent the payment, loan, or contribution of any thing of value to a person or political organization for a political purpose.

(e) For purposes of Subsection (c), a state officer or employee does not interfere with or affect the results of an election or nomination if the individual's conduct is permitted by a law relating to the individual's office or employment and is not otherwise unlawful.

Pennsylvania: Toomey Grabs Defeat Out of the Jaws of Victory

The Pennsylvania US Senate race is one that I have been watching with interest from clear on back to when outgoing Senator Arlen Specter ratted out on his Republican brethren and joined the ranks of the Democrats in the US Senate, giving Democrats, for one brief shining moment, a filibuster proof majority.

Specter wasn’t going to win in a head-to-head primary contest against Teabagger Pat Toomey, whose uber-conservative group, Club For Growth was once tagged by former Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee the “Club For Greed.”

Specter only outpolled Toomey once in a Quinnipiac poll taken in February 2010.

So when Specter switched sides, he met with yet another primary challenger in retired Navy Admiral and present Congressman Joe Sestak. And Sestak cleaned his clock. Democrats don’t like voting for Republicans who say they are Democrats just for the convenience of job security.

Sestak, however, faced the same problems that Specter did in polling himself against Toomey. His numbers have always been slightly better than Specter’s ever were, but he has always trailed Toomey in any Pennsylvania poll.

Until the latest Hart Poll conducted between October 8 and October 10, a telephone poll of 604 likely voters. A poll with a 4% margin of error.

The Hart Poll has Joe Sestak leading Pat Toomey by 3%, 47% to 44%.

Now that is still within the margin of error, but the point is that this is the first time that we see Sestak’s numbers higher than Toomey’s. It shows a trend.

The trend is just this: people are starting to realize that the change that the Republicans are promising if they are elected is a change back to status quo ante. That is, Republicans promise to bring back everything that Bush and a Republican majority put in place between 2001 and 2006. Back to a kleptocracy. Back to Wall Street greed.

Back to the bad old days that inspired two successive Democratic victories.

Pat Toomey along with Sharron Angle, Joe Miller, Christine O’Donnell, and Mike Buck are way out there on the political spectrum. When moderate Republicans and Independents start to realize that undeniable fact, they will see that they have little choice but to support Democratic candidates who, unlike their Republican opponents, haven’t completely lost their minds.

And when that happens, there goes a Republican majority in the Senate.

Someone Finally Noticed Atacosa County’s Chilean Flag Gaffe

It’s something of an irony that right now, as the Chilean mine workers who have been trapped deep underground for 2 months are just about to be rescued, a printing error on Atacosa County’s absentee ballot was finally noticed.

It seems that the Chilean flag, which is similar in appearance to the Texas Lone Star flag, has been posted as a symbol of Texas pride. Apparently it has been printed that way for years but nobody noticed it until this year.


Here is the Chilean flag.

Here is Texas’s state flag.

Here is the flag that is printed on Atacosa County’s absentee ballot.

OK, an honest mistake or someone’s idea of a prank that got better with each succeeding year?

That’s OK though, Texas and Chile have nothing on Indonesia and Poland.

Flag of Indonesia

Flag of Poland

Is DADT Done?

A San Diego federal judge has struck down the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” law as unconstitutional and has issued a “worldwide injunction” against enforcement of the law, a law that was once hailed as a path for gays and lesbians to serve in the military, as long as they didn’t reveal their sexual orientation, and the military didn’t ask about it.

In issuing her injunction, Phillips observed that DADT has a “direct and deleterious effect” on the military’s ability to attract and retain service members during time of was, and has resulted in the loss of valuable and critical skills by discharging gay service people.

US District Judge Virginia Phillips, also said this, courtesy of the Associated Press (as seen in the Houston Chronicle):

“Furthermore, there is no adequate remedy at law to prevent the continued violation of servicemembers' rights or to compensate them for violation of their rights.”

By this, I believe she is referring to the proactive efforts by anti-gay personnel in the military to expose gays who are serving in the military – essentially undermining the “Don’t Ask” part of DADT.

In formulating the policy it was President Clinton’s intention to just make the issue go away by ignoring it, something that anti-gays in the military simply had no intention of doing. From ThinkProgress:

“Clinton was assured that the military would not pursue witch hunts against gay soldiers, but his policy led to that and resulted in hundreds of other abuses. The regulations prevent the military from initiating cases, but they instruct commanders to begin investigations once a servicemembers’ orientation is known. As a result, the history of DADT is riddled with witch hunts and with discharges that feel like with hunts. Soldiers were both unintentionally outed by circumstances outside of their control or illegally pursued by their commanders.”

So it really is a moot point. Enforcement of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell is impossible because the law offers no remedies for soldiers who fell victim to the ill-intent of their commanders and fellow servicemembers.

The spirit of DADT, in essence, became perverted. A worldwide injunction is right and just.

I just wonder if a federal district court judge has purview over military regulations.

I thought it didn’t work like that.

For once I hope I’m wrong.

Republican Choices and the Railroad Commission

You have to like the Texas Republicans for their consistency. When they cast their votes at least there aren’t any surprises. The current race for Texas Railroad Commissioner puts all of this under a microscope for easy analysis.

Back in the primaries the incumbent Republican Railroad Commissioner whose term was up for re-election was primaried by a virtual unknown. Victor Carrillo, the incumbent and the highest-ranking Hispanic person in statewide office received a surprise primary challenge by a no one from Giddings, Texas, wherever that is. Apparently Giddings is a large enough town to support a full-time CPA, because that is Republican candidate for Texas Railroad Commission Dave Porter’s main claim to fame.

Get it? The Republican incumbent, appointed to the position in 2003 – by Rick Perry – and an Hispanic, was challenged by a guy with a WASPy name like Porter. Carrillo had his butt kicked in the primary despite the fact that he was the incumbent in a low profile (aka below the radar) position and outspent this nobody by twelve times.

Clearly, Republicans turned out in this primary, attracted by the opportunity to re-nominate Rick Perry and send Kay Bailey back to Washington and took this as an additional opportunity to get rid of “the Messican.”

Carrillo thought so, too. From the Dallas Morning News on March 4th:

“Given the choice between 'Porter' and 'Carrillo' – unfortunately, the Hispanic surname was a serious setback from which I could never recover, although I did all in my power to overcome this built-in bias.”

So Republican voters got rid of the more experienced incumbent and voted for the inexperienced nobody, but a White inexperienced nobody, and now we have this bean counter running in a race against Jeff Weems, a Democrat, and a petroleum engineer.

And now, according to this article in the Austin American-Statesman, Porter is getting the support from the Republican establishment, but not the support of the monetary kind. Porter is way behind in getting campaign contributions.

Lots of people, it seems, see this as a Republican year, Porter is a shoe-in in this downballot race, so instead of opening up their wallets, Republicans, and even the oil companies which is the industry the Railroad Commission regulates – or is supposed to anyway - are sitting on them.

Leading me to point number two in my microscopic analysis of the mind of the average Texas Republican voter: when there isn’t an ethnic question in a political campaign, go for the inexperienced Republican over the experienced Democrat.

Choose the lesser of the two.

Jeff Weems, a Democrat, is also a son and grandson of oil patch workers. Petroleum runs through his veins and drips from his DNA. Weems is simply the candidate that requires no training or startup time.

But this is how it is, isn’t it? Republican leadership expects a win in this race because Texas is a Red State. They could have run Shirley Temple for this office and she would have won because she is a Republican.

And could sing and dance once.

It’s just amazing, isn’t it, that Texans elect inexperienced and unqualified people to office because they can’t get by that race thing within their own party, and can’t get by that D thing even when there is a clear cut, no question, by God, sure and certain difference in qualifications between the candidates.

Nevertheless, Jeff Weems has a better chance running against this unknown and unqualified bean counter than he would have had against an incumbent. But that is only if the so-called “Independent Voters” come out and vote in this obscure down ballot race.

“Independent Voters” say that they vote for the man and not the party. Well this is their chance to prove that they aren’t just blowing smoke when they claim this. I’ve never believed this claim.

I dare them to prove me wrong.

No Federal Bailout Money for Texas; Perry’s Outstretched Hand Gets Slapped

Isn’t it funny how Texas governor Rick Perry thinks he can have it both ways when it comes to federal bailouts? Twice, by my count, Rick Perry has either outright refused federal bailout money, or used a bailout for things it was not meant to be used for.

Back in March the feds wanted to give Texans $555 million to help with the growing unemployment rolls. But Rick Perry turned that down because it would require Texas to change some of its retrogressive laws.

Which was, you know, kind of the point.

Then there was the $3.2 billion in federal stimulus money that Rick Perry gladly accepted last year. The purpose of it was, as found in Texas application for the funds, was to provide “money for textbooks and a $1.9 billion increase in school funding, which will provide for an $800 raise for all Texas teachers and other school workers.” When he received the funds, Perry immediately pulled a fast one by placing the money directly into the state’s education budget while at the same time extracting a like amount of state money already there, using it to balance the state’s budget.

This, by the way, according to Barbara Ann Radnofsky, running for Texas Attorney General, was not only an illegal act, but also an act that now threatens the loss of an additional $830 million in federal education dollars that are meant to save school districts from having to lay off teachers.

So really, it comes as no surprise that this time Rick Perry has again held out his hand for federal dollars despite the fact that he is writing a book that voices his disdain for getting federal bailouts. Perry has asked for President Obama to declare thirteen counties in Texas as a major disaster area as a result of Tropical Storm Hermine which hit Texas last month. Doing this qualifies Texas to receive federal disaster assistance as it did when Bush issued a declaration following Hurricane Rita and Ike.

FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate, however, just turned Perry down flat.

From the Austin American-Statesman:

“Based on our review of all of the information available, it has been determined that the damage from this event was not of such severity and magnitude as to be beyond the capabilities of the state, affected local governments, and voluntary agencies. Accordingly, we have determined that supplemental federal assistance is not necessary.”

Cold, huh?

What jumped out at me was the assertion that recovery from the disaster was something that could be handled at the state and local level. It definitely harkens back to Rick Perry’s famous assertion that Texas is weathering the economic disaster and recovery better than any of the big states. So really, in his statement, Fugate is saying just this: since Texas is so much better off, you don’t really need federal assistance, do you?

Especially after stealing $3.2 billion from Texas education.

And Texas educators.

Republican House Leadership to Texas: Use It or Lose It

Back in September, September 14th to be specific, Texas’ junior senator, John Cornyn submitted Senate Bill 3774, a bill to extend the deadline – a fast approaching deadline – for expenditure of funds under the Social Services Block Grant of 2008. This was a small part of a huge bundle of bills rolled up into HR 2638 and was meant to provide funds for “health services (including mental health services), and for repair, renovation, and construction of health care facilities (including mental health facilities), child care centers, and other social services facilities” that were affected by major disasters (like Hurricane Ike).

But apparently it had one small problem. The deadline extension specified in Cornyn’s bill, September 30, 2012, was too long. So on September 29th, in a move to save his bill and get it passed, Cornyn introduced an amendment to move the deadline up one year, to September 30, 2011. He also inserted language to put his bill in compliance with the recently passed Pay-As-You-Go Act of 2010.

The amendment passed and Cornyn’s bill, specifically meant to keep unspent but allocated funds available for expenditure for another year, something to the tune of $40,000,000, was passed in the Senate by unanimous consent on that very day.

The Senate sent the bill to the House, and they asked for unanimous approval as well, I guess to speed it along. The deadline was that very day, September 30, 2010.

And it was there, in the House Appropriations Committee, that the bill was killed.

By Republicans.

Here is an account of this in the Houston Chronicle. In summary, it looks like “Republican leadership” decided that if Texas couldn’t spend its disaster money in two years it obviously didn’t need the money.

There was also a concern, one that we hear often repeated, that the bill was coming to them just before the recess and they didn’t have enough time to study it. My guess is that they were also a little miffed about the unanimous consent request, and probably had a feeling that someone was trying to pull something.

So they killed it.

Finger pointing ensued on Capitol Hill. No one was taking the blame for this. The only thing anyone agreed about was the suddenness of the bill’s appearance. And about the fact that it would only take one objection on the House floor to deny unanimous consent.

So they killed it.

And in so-doing, they added to Texas’ unemployment rolls when the dozens of social services agencies that were to be kept running if the bill passed started laying off their employees this past week.

John Cornyn and Pete Olson are apparently pretty steamed about this. People who had jobs and who were helping others now don’t and aren’t. So now maybe Olson and Cornyn might want to take another look at their same tired old complaint about not wanting to pass a bill before reading all 18,000 pages of it.

When Republicans do that, sometimes people lose their jobs.

Republican Lethargy in Fort Bend County is Palpable

I have been aware of the fact that for some time there has been a dearth of campaign signs going up in Fort Bend County for Republican candidates. No, really, even compared to the last mid-term election in 2006 the scarcity of Republican campaign signs is noticeable.

And now I see that there is someone, a Republican no less, that is in apparent agreement with me. Bob Haenel, who writes for a local rag called the Fort Bend Herald Coaster has looked around the Richmond/Rosenberg area and sees that a virtual forest of Democratic campaign signs have been put out, and only a few rare occurrences of Republican signs have been noted. Haenel sees this as a sign of increased energy in the Democratic Party.

Now as a former sign putter outer myself, I know that this is simply not true. The number of signs that have been put out may be a little higher than in the recent past, but that’s mainly because more Democrats than ever before have filed to run for county offices.

More candidates, more signs.

So yes, there is a greater energy simply because more Democrats are laying it on the line, but if signage, or lack of signage, is an indication of anything, it is an indication of 1) Republican lethargy, and 2) more than a little hiding in plain sight.

You see, I think the two are related.

I have it on good authority that some of the Republican signs that you see are out there because of this article. Last September, the Chronicle ran a story on a local U of H demographer who predicts that Fort Bend County, is changing in its demographics and will soon have a majority of Democratic voters. Democratic voters who vote a straight party ticket.

Longtime Republican officeholders took one look at that article and went out and bought themselves some campaign signs then and there. They can no longer depend on Republican turnout and Republican straight ticket votes to do the trick.

And then there’s this poll at Fox News. Fox News found out last March that most Republican voters – as in 79% of them – want to vote out all incumbents.

In Fort Bend County, incumbent officeholders, with the exception of four individuals, are all Republicans.

Leading me to my final thesis: there may be good reason for this Republican lethargy. The best way to identify yourself as an incumbent is to put out big campaign signs touting that fact. We see this effect nationwide in conservative areas where Democrats are running for re-election and neglect to include on their campaign signs their party affiliation.

Republican candidates may just be hiding in plain sight with crossed fingers on both hands expecting the worst and hoping for a nice surprise when the worst fails to occur.

Kind of like a blogger I know.

A Statewide Property Tax?

This story in the Austin American-Statesman riveted my attention this evening. It’s about how legislators are going to try (again) to fix the state’s broken way that it raises money for public schools.

Right now, some of the money comes from the state budget. And some of the money comes from local property taxes. And yes, some of the money comes from the state lottery but that revenue has long ago simply reduced the total amount that the state contributes to the pot.

And some of the poorer districts get money from some of the wealthy districts because of the inequitable distribution of wealth across the state. That’s the Robin Hood Law and it is in serious trouble in the courts.

So to make things equitable, legislators are tossing around the notion of proposing a constitutional amendment that would allow the state to collect up to 1 dollar per 100 dollars of assessed value. Local districts they say, could assess up to 20 cents per 100 dollars if they want to.

So that’s a maximum of $1.20 per $100 assessed value. Currently, the limit that school districts can assess is $1.17.

Now the last time that I saw Texans flooding to the polls to vote on a constitutional amendment, in 2005, it was about forbidding any form of gay marriage in Texas. They voted for it in droves.

So it stands to right that when they put this one on the ballot for voter approval, we should see something similar, right?

Right.

When

Tom DeLay’s Lawyer Says Rick Perry Should be Investigated

Dick DeGuerin, a Houston lawyer/celebrity who has steadfastly defended disgraced former congressman Tom DeLay in the remarkably diverse ethics problems he has faced since 2005, dropped a small nuclear bomb in the Texas gubernatorial contest today.

Dick DeGuerin, whose definition of “unethical behavior” must, of necessity (or he wouldn’t be able to sleep at night), have a much more laid-back definition of what qualifies as financial political chicanery, has called for an investigation of Governor Rick Perry’s Texas-Emerging-Technologies-Fund-grants-for campaign-contributions scam.

It was all outlined last weekend in the Dallas Morning News but executive summaries of the two articles can be found here.

The list of people who benefited from Rick Perry’s approval of grants from the Texas Emerging Technologies Fund, a fund that he has just about exclusive say over who gets what, is pretty exhaustive but the executive summary lists, for example, David Nance, who has received a $6.5 million grant from Perry’s fund, and he subsequently ponied up an $80,000 campaign contribution to Perry. In total, Perry has taken in more than $1.266 million in campaign contribution from fund grantees who received a total of $16 million in TETF grants.

That’s a nice return of an investment of, well, nothing. Nothing but influence over the fund, which Perry has plenty of.

Of this scam, Dick DeGuerin said this:

If anyone knows anything about the Public Integtrity Unit it's DeGuerin. From the Dallas Morning News:

"DeGuerin knows his way around the Travis County DA's Public Integrity Unit. He defended Republican Kay Bailey Hutchison against charges of using state equipment to run for office and he's defending former Majority Leader Tom DeLay right now on charges of violating campaign finance laws."

Yes, DeGuerin is right. That’s criminal behavior, and yes, that’s our governor.


Underlining a central but implied thesis that I carry from one blog post on Rick Perry to another: if Bill White fails to oust Rick Perry from the governor’s office on November 2nd, Texans will certainly get exactly what they deserve.

“This is the kind of thing a Public Integrity Unit ought to investigate. If the fundraisers promised or suggested that grants would go to political donors and then that happened, that's criminal, plain and simple.”

Rick Perry is a Coward

Back to Basics has released a full page advertisement that is appearing in 41 Texas newspapers this week. Its message couldn’t be clearer: Rick Perry is a Coward.

Rick Perry refuses to place himself in a public forum where Texans can ask him the questions that need asking. The public deserves to hear Rick Perry defend his 10 years as Texas’s governor. Ten years that has seen Texas’ unemployment levels soar, and budget deficits hit the ceiling and keep on going.

He has to answer for Texas teachers who are now unemployed despite the fact that Texas school enrollments are higher than ever.

He has to answer for the up to $21 billion budget deficit that many see looming on the horizon.

Texans deserve no less than to hear Rick Perry speak, and see how he stacks up against the other candidates running for his office.

Here is the Back to Basics ad. I think it’s a winner.

Perry and Abbott Waste Taxpayer Money with Frivolous Lawsuit

The Corpus Christi Caller-Times called it today: Rick Perry and his chief counsel, Attorney General Greg Abbott have committed an egregious act as any Texas Republican will likely admit – they have filed a frivolous lawsuit.

But more damning is the fact that they are using taxpayer money to do this.

This is about the $820 million that the federal government has allocated to Texas to augment its education budget. An infusion of cash so that Texas teachers aren’t laid off and Texas students aren't made to sit in overcrowded classrooms.

A tidy sum, this $830 million. A sum that can make a real difference. But Rick Perry and Greg Abbott divined a way to look this $830 million gift horse in the mouth. Have divined a way to make themselves look like crusaders tilting at the federal government while it desperately tries to get Texas to accept this money.

The problem is the Doggett Amendment. Crafted by Texas Congressman Lloyd Doggett, this amendment requires the governor of Texas to “guarantee no drop in state education funding for the next three years, as a condition of receiving the $830 million.” This was in reaction to the 2009 shell game that Perry played with the $3.2 billion federal stimulus check that was issued especially for the state’s education fund. Perry simply placed it in the education budget, then reallocated a like amount from Texas revenue to other places.

In short, he used the $3.2 billion, meant to augment Texas education, to balance his budget.

So according to the Doggett Amendment, all they have to do is make a political promise. All they have to do is promise that the state’s education budget will stay at the same level that it is at for three years. But this, they say, they cannot do because the Texas Constitution ties their hands.

From the Caller-Times:

“Their primary assertion, however, is that the Doggett Amendment would require Perry to violate the Texas Constitution because the Legislature, not the governor, allocates funds and can do so only two years at a time. The Doggett Amendment requires a three-year guarantee.”

This reading, while true, begs the question: no one asked them to allocate funds, they simply asked for a guarantee. They make guarantees all the time. They even make them and renege on them. That’s politics.


But no.

Perry and Abbott spend taxpayer money to make a political point, and in so doing, deny Texas much needed education funds as the Education Commissioner proposes $260 million in slashes to the education budget.

But it gets even better. It seems that Greg Abbott’s opponent, Barbara Ann Radnofsky had out-lawyered Greg Abbott again. She read further on down in the Texas Constitution and found that what Perry did with the $3.2 billion last year was illegal.

And I thought is was just bad taste.

From the Caller-Times (again):

“His opponent, Democrat Barbara Ann Radnofsky, setting out to prove that this is just needless political theater, read further into the Constitution and found something that appears to trump Abbott’s legal premise:”

“‘The Legislature shall not have power to ... in any manner divert from its purpose, any special fund that may, or ought to, come into the Treasury; and shall make it penal for any person or persons to borrow, withhold, or in any manner divert from its purpose any special fund, or any part thereof.’”

That $3.2 billion was a “special fund” meant to benefit education. It was diverted. And it is “penal” to do that.

In short, Rick Perry did what any Columbian drug lord does as a standard business practice, he laundered money. But at $3.2 billion, Perry certainly did his money laundering in a grand way.

.

This Time Vote Veronica Torres for District Clerk

Veronica Torres for Fort Bend District Clerk

We have on the ballot in Fort Bend County a rematch in the District Clerk race. Veronica Torres, a Democrat was barely edged out in 2006 by the former Assistant DA’s wife Annie Elliott. The final vote was 51,202 (54.04%) to 43,538 (45.96%). If that doesn’t seem impressive, then take a look at all of the other county-wide races that were opposed in that election. Veronica got more votes than any of her fellow Democrats.

This means that some of those who voted for Veronica Torres were Republicans.

But the election results also revealed that in that race that 5,781 people who voted in that election chose not to vote for either candidate. Granted this is not enough voters to have made a difference in the outcome, but it does support one of my theses in 2006 that voting for District Clerk is just not as sexy as voting for governor. In that election, there were four candidates for governor and 98,667 Fort Bend Voters had one opinion or another, and only 1,854 under votes were recorded in that race.

So, as I indicated above, we have a rematch of two employees of former District Clerk Glory Hopkins. Some voters made the mistake of voting for the lesser qualified of the two simply because of the R after her name, or maybe because her husband was a wheel in the DA’s office. And then some voters made the mistake of not voting for either.

Most times in life we don’t get to correct past mistakes we make. There are no “do overs” or as they say in golf, no “Mulligans.” This time you can correct that little mistake. This time cast your vote for Veronica Torres for District Clerk.

The background for this race is something I discussed in this blog four years ago. It was a sordid tale full of intrigue and lawsuits. Go and read about it to refresh your memory of how the Republican Party purged their candidate for District Clerk, Glory Hopkins, a 20-year veteran of the position who ran afoul of the county’s political machine, and who had the misfortune of being primaried by the wife of the 2nd most powerful person in the District Attorney’s office.

And now consider this. In this rematch the playing field has leveled a little. This time instead of being the wife of a Republican who had both power and influence in the county government, Annie Elliott these days is the wife of a former ADA, Mike Elliott, who was soundly and not just a little indecorously fired by District Attorney Healey.

At the time Elliott charged that Healey did this so he could win in the Republican primary that took place earlier this year. Healey was opposed by two Republican attorneys and yes his former employee’s antics did come up in the election. But now consider this: Elliott’s firing and Healey’s renomination earlier this year exposes the suppurating wound that still exists in Fort Bend County government: cronyism that borders on incest.

Like for instance, as reported in FortBendNow, how Annie Elliott benefitted from her husband's position as county prosecutor by receiving campaign contributions from a roofing company that her husband was helping by filing criminal charges against one of their competitors.

A vote for Veronica Torres is a vote to end the cronyism that pervades county government. So in voting for Veronica Torres, you get a two-fer: not only can you cast a vote against cronyism, you can also cast a vote for the better-qualified candidate.

But don't just take my word for it. Veronica Torres has received the endorsement of Annie Elliott's former boss, Glory Hopkins. Hopkins made the endorsement as a life-long Republican who simply opts for the most qualified rather than the most connected candidate. In her endorsement Glory Hopkins said that Veronica Torres is "the most qualified candidate for district clerk. I, like many others, trust her…I believe that with her education, experience and ethics, she will serve the public trust."

Geez, I wish people would talk like that about me.