| According to Jason Embry at the Austin American Statesman, District Judge John Dietz denied Rick Perry and the Republican Governors Association push to throw out a lawsuit brought against them by Democrat Chris Bell.
Bell was the Democratic nominee against Rick Perry in 2006 and he has claimed Perry made concealed money Perry received in the final weeks of the campaign.
Bell has alleged that reporting errors made by the Perry campaign on campaign-finance reports kept the public from fully seeing the source of money that the governor received for his re-election in the final week of the 2006 race. He has argued that the governors' group did not follow proper state procedures in making the donation.
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At issue is $1 million that came to the Perry campaign from the governor's group in the final month of the campaign.
Laylan Copelin described the lawsuit back in 2007 in more detail.
Gov. Rick Perry His office says delay was not intentional.
Gov. Rick Perry was trying to hold off three challengers, including Democrat Chris Bell, whose campaign was running out of cash despite a last-minute infusion of $2.5 million from Houston lawyer John O'Quinn.
As Texans were judging whether it was fitting for a would-be governor to accept so much money from one Texas lawyer, they had no opportunity to know who was behind $1 million in donations to Perry from the Republican Governors Association until weeks after the Nov. 7 election.
State law requires out-of-state political committees - and the candidates who take their money - to disclose information that will let voters determine who is behind the donations.
Neither the Republican Governors Association nor Perry did that.
Perry has claimed that the lawsuit is political in nature since late 2007. Judge Dietz's ruling yesterday keeps the lawsuit moving and keeps Perry's questionable campaign finance situation in the headlines going into the final days of the session and into the upcoming primary season.
The full background of the case can be found here. |
