Bob Perry, the Houston homebuilder and the financier behind the Swift Boat attacks on John Kerry, has contributed over $260,000 combined to the nine Republicans on the Texas Supreme Court.
After today's news that the all-Republican court had overturned an $800,000 verdict against Perry Homes, that $260,000 in contributions sure looks like money well-spent.
Alex Winslow of Texas Watch had this to say, as reported by the AP:
"After years of forcing consumers into a lopsided binding arbitration process, the court today carved out a special decision for the man who gives the court more campaign cash than any other individual in the state," Winslow said.
The Texas Supreme Court favoring big business is nothing new but this example makes it painfully clear whose side the court is on.
When given the choice between an elderly couple who had been wronged by a large corporation and a fat cat Republican contributor, they picked the latter.
Jane Cull said she and her husband, who's 70, were devastated. They've claimed the house they bought from Perry for $233,730 in 1996 had structural and framing defects that eventually caused the home's appraised value to plummet to $41,000 by 2001.
"All we ever wanted was a home with a good foundation so we could retire and enjoy life," Jane Cull told the Houston Chronicle in Saturday's editions. "We've tried in vain and we've worked with the builder and did everything we could to avoid the legal process."
We are lucky to have three excellent Democratic candidates for the Texas Supreme Court: Jim Jordan, Sam Houston and Linda Yanez.
Visit their websites and help give them the resources they need to bring a desperately needed balance to a court that is dangerously outside the mainstream.
There are three Texan "Innovators" and seven Texan "Trailblazers." Here's the list of McCain's "Texas Fat Cats" as reported by Wayne Slater:
Innovators ($250,000) San Antonio lobbyist Tom Loeffler (McCain's national finance chairman) former Bush 41 Commerce Secretary Bob Mosbacher of Houston San Antonio developer William Powell
Trailblazers ($100,000) Houston lawyer Lawrence Finder East Texas oilman Gaylord Hughey, Jr. Fort Worth developer Ben McDavid Fort Worth socialite Kit Moncrief Laredo banker Dennis Nixon Houston lobbyist David Walde
First of all, only a Republican would seriously list "socialite" as an occupation.
Second, what may be most notable about this list is who's not on it: Houston builder Bob Perry. Perry, who helped finance the Swift Boat attacks against John Kerry in 2004, had supported and raised money for Mitt Romney.
Although Perry had contributed to McCain in the past, when his support for Romney became public, the Washington Post said the "decision [was] a slap in the face of Sen. John McCain."
On Friday, January 18th, in two posted comments on the Burnt Orange Report, Karl-Thomas Musselman, the publisher of BOR and a paid member of Rick Noriega's campaign staff, claimed (third comment down) that campaign contributions given to Rick Noriega by Bob Perry had subsequently been given away to charity. In response to a comment by Hugh Stearns, who noted that he had been criticized for commenting that Rick Noriega should not have taken money from Bob Perry, Mr. Musselman replied that Noriega had "donated that money away," and that the donations were "visible on his TEC report."
In a subsequent comment, Mr. Musselman linked to Rick Noriega's most recent Texas Ethics Commission report on campaign spending, highlighting two specific donations: a $3,000 donation to the Deployed Soldiers Family Foundation, and a $5,000 donation to the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund. Both donations were made on December 24th, 2007. According to Mr. Musselman's earlier comment, the two donations were made in order to "donate[] ... away" the money given to the campaign by Bob Perry.
As far as I know, the Noriega campaign did not issue a press release regarding these donations, and no one associated with the campaign has spoken publicly about them, until now. The claim that Bob Perry's money has been given away does bring to mind a number of questions, some of which I put up under the original post:
1) Did Rick Noriega in fact make those two donations because he wanted to give away the money that Bob Perry gave him, as Mr. Musselman claims? Or would he have made the donations anyway?
If Noriega did in fact make those two donations because he doesn't want Bob Perry's money anymore, that raises other questions:
2) Does Noriega now think he was wrong to take money from Bob Perry, or
3) Does Noriega think it was okay to take the money, but now wants to distance himself from Bob Perry politically?
4) In whose name was the money given to these charities, Rick Noriega's, or Bob Perry's?
5) If the money was given in Noriega's name, do the charities involved know that the money was really Bob Perry's? This could be a big deal for charities affiliated with the military - it's entirely possible that they wouldn't want to take money from someone who spent millions of dollars trying to tarnish the service record of a decorated combat veteran.
6) Why did the Noriega campaign not issue a press release regarding the donation of Bob Perry's money, when it would clearly be of interest to the voting public? Why is the Noriega campaign instead using unofficial channels (e.g. this blog) to get the word out about these donations, rather than going through the press (or its own website)?
7) Rick Noriega has received $9,500 dollars from Bob Perry over the years, but the two donations listed above total only $8,000. If Noriega is giving away Perry's money, why not give it all away? Or is he simply giving away the $7,000 that he received in 2006 alone?
8) Melissa Noriega received $20,000 in donations from Bob Perry, his wife, his son, and his son's wife in her recent successful campaign for Houston City Council. Even if Rick Noriega has given Bob Perry's money away, what effect will these donations to his wife's campaign have on Noriega the senatorial candidate? Does Melissa Noriega plan to donate away all monies that she has received from Bob Perry and kin as well?
9) Is it ethical for the Noriega campaign to be donating this money to charity, and reaping the goodwill that goes along with such a seemingly magnanimous gesture, while at the same time scoring political points by having one of its paid staff members claim that the campaign has dispensed with Bob Perry's money?
Last night, KVUE News in Austin ran a story exposing the fact that Dawnna Dukes's largest donors are the same Republican moneymen who funded the insulting and offensive 'Swift Boat' ads attacking the honorable military service of John Kerry. Why would they do this? To keep Tom Craddick in power of course.
According to the KVUE News report (a must watch video), "The latest campaign finance reports show Craddick supporters are happy to help Dukes."
In the KVUE piece, Andrew Wheat of the non-partisan good-government group Texans for Public Justice elaborates:
Again, and again, and again, you see the very same people who are giving to Tom Craddick are giving to Dawnna Dukes.
"Again, and again, and again, you see the very same people who are giving to Tom Craddick are giving to Dawnna Dukes," said Andrew Wheat of Texans for Public Justice, an organization that studies the influence of money in politics.
Democratic primary voters in House District 46 need to know that Rep. Dukes is being funded by the same Republican moneymen who funded the 'Swift Boat' campaign and continue to give millions of dollars to the Republican Party of Texas, Tom Craddick, and Rick Perry.
According to documents filed with the Texas Ethics Commission, some of Rep. Dukes's largest contributors include the following Republicans and corporate interests:
Bob Perry - The largest Republican donor in Texas, who contributed more than $4,000,000 to the Swift Boat attack ads
Harold Simmons - The largest importer of nuclear waste in Texas who also gave more than $3,000,000 to the Swift Boat attack ads
Hillco - A Republican lobby shop and PAC closely allied with Speaker Craddick. According to this report from TPJ, Hillco was a conduit for Bob Perry money making its way to Craddick D's.
Bill Miller - A lobbyist who has served on Speaker Craddick's transition team and acted as Speaker Craddick's spokesperson during the previous Speaker's race.
John Nau - A Perry appointee who joined the Governor, voucher proponent Jim Leininger, and right-wing ideologue Grover Norquist, on Governor Perry's infamous yachting trip to the Bahamas - has given hundreds of thousands to Republican politicians and causes.
By her own admission, some of Rep. Dukes's largest donors are Republicans who gave more than $7 million to fund the disgusting Swift Boat attack ads against John Kerry. If she will take money from these Republican moneymen, are there any Republicans Dawnna Dukes won't take money from?
The Nation magazine says the SwiftBoaters who funded the smearing of John Kerry in 2004 are back...in fact they never left...and are preparing to once again fund a smear campaign against Democratic candidates.
This article speaks for itself and please take a few moments to read it.
Bob Perry, who, along with T Boone Pickens and Harold Simmons, provides the big bucks to the SwiftBoat campaign, spends 10's of millions of dollars funding reactionary politicians. He gets those dollars from home buyers in Houston, Dallas, Fort Worth, Austin, San Antonio and McAllen, one dollar at a time, one house or townhouse at a time....people who work hard for that money and ironically wind up helping to fund a political paradigm that promotes a burdensome health care system, denies us all clean air and a sustainable environment, promotes tragic, unnecessary, $trillion dollar wars and fails to protect victims of natural disasters, like Katrina.
One's home, whether an efficiency apartment or a large house, is one's sanctuary. And it's very sad when people who work hard to pay for their home wind up contributing funds to vicious SwiftBoat attacks intended to support candidates and policies which undermine their well being and security.
Is Craddick funneling Bob Perry money through Hillco to Craddick D's?
The October monthly report filed by Hillco PAC with the Texas Ethics Commission is a fascinating read. I'd encourage all of you to take a look at it on the Texas Ethics Commission web site.
According to the ethics commission filings, and a recent Texas for Public Justice Lobby Watch report, Hillco PAC received $86,666 in contributions from 6 individuals, 5 of whom are Hillco employees. The 6th contributor to the Hillco PAC was none other than the largest Republican donor in the state of Texas, Houston homebuilder Bob Perry.
His $75,000 contribution to the Hillco PAC represented 87% of their contributions for the entire month.
Hillco spent around $90,000 in political expenditures for the month. Most of their contributions were a standard $1000 contribution to various state reps. and senators. However, 4 contributions raised some eyebrows for me.
Why did Hillco give $10,000 to Kevin Bailey, $10,000 to Dawnna Dukes, and $10,000 to Kino Flores. What do these three State Reps. have in common? I can think of three things; 1) They are all Craddick D's who have pledged their "absolute" loyalty to Speaker Craddick, 2) They are all potentially facing primary opponents, and 3) Each of them knows a direct contribution from Bob Perry wouldn't go over so well with Democratic primary voters in their deep blue district.
It has been well documented that primary opponents have already surfaced against Bailey and Flores, and the Austin political community continues to be full of chatter regarding a primary challenge to Dukes. Just ask Ron Wilson, Glenn Lewis, Jaime Capelo, Roberto Gutierrez, Al Edwards, what their primary voters thought of their allegiance to Speaker Craddick. Even Robert Puente made the decision to retire rather than fight in a primary, and he had over $200,000 in the bank. (Apparently loyalty to Craddick can be a costly decision.)
Obviously, Buddy Jones and Bill Miller are flowing Bob Perry money through their PAC to Craddick D's who appear to be in jeopardy. I assume this arrangement is carefully orchestrated by Craddick to make sure the Craddick D's who are facing democratic primary challenges have a way to get resources from one of his most prominent moneymen (Perry) without disclosing that on their own ethics filings. Considering the millions of dollars Bob Perry has contributed to candidates (mostly R's but also some D's), why didn't he just give the 10k directly to Kevin Bailey and Kino Flores and Dawnna Dukes? Why did he choose instead to funnel that money through Buddy Jones' PAC?
(Some thoughts on the U.S. Senate Race... - promoted by Matt Glazer)
In a few short weeks I have gone from looking for information about Rick Noriega to put on my blog assuming that he would be the progressive candidate in the primary for Cornyn's senate seat, to asking why he was being promoted as the progressive candidate, to asking why he had taken large sums of money from Bob "swiftboat" Perry and now finally I have come to the point that I am willing to say that the draft Noriega effort was a mistake. He is a greatly compromised candidate who is not all that progressive.
I am too far out of the loop to know if there is anything for the Texas Democratic netroots to learn from the Noriega/Perry issue. My hunch is that there is. This hunch is based mostly on the silence of most of those involved in the effort to draft Noriega.
Despite the vehemence of my arguments on this one issue, I am not convinced that the effort to draft Noriega was a mistake in a broad sense. It seems that at the very least there were some aspects of this effort that could have been improved on.
By now many of you all have probably read the Fort Worth Star-Telegram article that talks about State Representative and Democratic Candidate for US Senate Rick Noriega's campaign donations from Bob "Swift Boat" Perry. For those that have not, it's right here. Mr. Perry's contributions to Republican candidates and his great contributions to smearing Senator John Kerry's candidacy are well documented at this blog and every other blog in the world that supported John Kerry for President in 2004.
Noriega has taken $7,000 from Perry since 2006. Team Noriega says its because Perry admired his work in Houston with the Katrina refugees. Which I don't, for a second, believe is a lie. Noriega has also consistently voted against Perry's tort deform interests in the Legislature.
Having said all that, this is still the man who spent millions of dollars in 2004 against John Kerry and helped invent the word "swiftboating." In 2006 Perry, alongside such Republican faithful as Tom Craddick and Texans for Lawsuit Reform, tried to stem the Democratic tide by giving prolifically to the opponents of Joe Heflin, Hubert Vo, Joe Farias, Juan Garcia, Donna Howard, Valinda Bolton and Ellen Cohen.
So what does this all mean for you? Should Representative Noriega have said, "Thanks, but no thanks" to those contributions? Does this influence your future decision on who should be the Democratic Nominee that knocks off John Cornyn? Does anyone believe that Perry's admiration of Noriega's work in Houston will in any way, shape or form keep Perry from Swiftboating Noriega in a general election match-up against Cornyn? Should we, as Democrats, take a principled stand on those members of our party who take money from Bob Perry?
Ed. note -- answer these questions in our new BOR poll, on the right.
Sean-Paul Kelley over at the Agonist has more, including the $20k Melissa Noriega, Rick's wife and Houston City Councilwoman, has also taken from Swift Boat Bob.
Elite Republicans have planted some very poisonous seeds. These seeds threaten the very DNA of our party.
I was stunned recently to find out that Hillary Clinton has been taking large sums of money from Rupert Murdoch. Two quite obvious questions rose quickly out of the fog shock. Why did she take the money; and why did he offer it?
I suspect that the answer to the first question can only be found in a parallel universe where ethics are completely different than in the universe most of us inhabit. In the Clinton Universe it is okay to play politics with the lives of American soldiers and Iraqi families. I can only guess that such justifications grow from a well-fertilized ego that assumes that the losses will be balanced by the good seeds that she will sow once she is lord of the manner, and if Murdoch's money helps her get there, all the better.
The answer to the second question, why he gave her the money, seems much more obvious. This is a win-win proposition for Murdoch. If he can sow inferior seeds in his neighbors' fields, his crops will sell for a premium at market. Hillary is Murdoch's genetically engineered seed of choice. Not only does she poll worse than other Democratic front-runners head to head with Republicans, he knows that her biography will play well on his Fox News. I bet Monica already has a lucrative contract for the exclusive with Murdoch's Ann Coulter. Murdoch's HarperCollins publisher is likely poised to release new titles that cover the Vince Foster conspiracy. And if by chance everything were to backfire and Hilary were to actually win the election, she would be beholden to him. There really is no down side for him.
Unfortunately, this does not seem to be an isolated technique. I have since learned that Bob Perry, of Swift Boat fame, is financing a Democratic candidate in the Texas senatorial race against John Cornyn. The blightedly conservative Cornyn, who is suffering from too much Bush in his garden, has an approval rating of -3%. He is very vulnerable. Perry is sowing weak Democratic seeds, and spreading lots of green fertilizer in Cornyn's field. Rick Noriega is a little know, five term member of the Texas House of Representatives without a lot of his own money.
Sadly, many Democrats are helping propagate these Republican germinated recessive Democrats. They accuse fellow Democrats who have the audacity to question Murdoch and Perry's motivation in funding these candidates of splitting the party, being trolls and conspiracy theorists. And through all of the invectives there is no explanation offered. Ironically, the supporters of these candidates suggest that, despite this very questionable practice, their candidate is the progressive choice, not stopping to consider that maybe support of weak progressive candidates is the intended attack on progressives.
I have been criticized for making it clear that I will not support any candidate in the general election who takes money from the likes of Murdoch and Perry. Even if these candidates would be better that their Republican opponent in the short run, they are engaged in selling out, not just the race, but control and viability of the Party. Integrity means finding a point at which you stand on principle. I have confidence that Murdock and Perry are well below the surface of the fertile ground of the collective integrity of the Democratic. These candidacies are working hard to spin this betrayal in a positive light. But as more and more Democrats learn of this practice, I am confident that we will not allow our party to be weakened by Republican engineered eugenics.
Molly Ivins wrote,
If Democrats in Washington haven't got enough sense to OWN the issue of political reform, I give up on them entirely.
