We saw in the Dan Barrett race in HD-97 that Tom Craddick is a liability. Here in Austin, Brian Thompson is making that point too.
As an incumbent, voters have to have a reason to reject Dukes and support Thompson. This ad and the other two below the fold help make that case.
Dukes's ties to Republican leadership and money, the questions surrounding her ethics reports, and the fact that she has evading her taxes has to make you wonder how "effective" she can really be in the Texas House.
Thompson on the other hand is a young, ethical leader in the community who is ready to fight for East Austin. He has taken a clear stand on important issues facing Texas, Austin, and HD-46.
The above is a MUST watch video on Rep Dawnna Dukes, by KEYE News, tells the story on how Dukes doesn't pay her bills. Dukes has actually been sued for nonpayment by:
* City of Austin
* Travis County
* Austin Independent School District
* Travis Hospital District
* San Antonio Federal Credit Union
* Austin Community College
* Sub Contractors
The Texas Comptroller had even placed a lien against her business "DM Dukes and Associates" for not paying her business taxes. Dukes business is still defunct, but Dukes continues to do business and get paid with taxpayer dollars!
You must see the video above. Now, for what I've found (what the report above doesn't cover).
1) Rep. Dukes, who voted to toll Austin freeways, is a certified contractor with TxDOT. I've put in a FOIA request to ask how much she's been paid by TxDOT and if she's been paid by the local Toll Authority (I'll report back to you on my blog- http://salcostello.blogspot.com/ - when I get answers in about 10 days).
2) Also, Capitol Annex reports that Rep. Dukes is putting up legislation for developers, then getting contracts in return.
Tonight at 10:00pm, investigative reporter Nanci Wilson of KEYE News will be airing an expose on Craddick Democrat, Dawnna Dukes. Yesterday, KEYE teased the story repeatedly. According to the previews aired yesterday, Dukes is running a defunct company that has accepted state dollars, her car has been repossessed, and subcontractors have sued her for non-payment.
Perhaps she couldn't find a way to pay those bills with her campaign credit card.
Tune in to KEYE Channel 42, or for cable subscribers on Channel 5 or in High Definition on 305 tonight at 10:00 to watch.
And remember, Dukes's opponent Brian Thompson is having his final fundraiser tonight from 5:30 to 7:30 at the Belmont on 6th. We are only $300 away from getting the $1,000 match from a donor who wishes to remain anonymous until the 8 day out report. Help raise $300 today.
Texans for Public Justice has filed a complaint with current Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle alleging that Tom Craddick has or attempted to bribe legislators.
According to Quorum Report the, "question has always been whether or not the PAC violated the Speaker Statute that says either contributing or withholding a campaign contribution based on support or opposition to a Speaker candidate was legislative bribery. The eleventh hour activation of the PAC as well as Craddick's seed money participation takes the questions another step."
The PAC in questions is the Texas Jobs PAC. The PAC has been financed with $250,000 of Tom Craddick's money and the PAC's President and CEO is Republican operative Jim Cardle.
There have already been two stories surround the Texas Job PAC and Craddick D's Kevin Bailey (who accepted money from the PAC) and Dawnna Dukes (who is pledged to Craddick but did not take his bribe).
Democratic State Rep. Dawnna Dukes considers her ties with Republican House Speaker Tom Craddick so sensitive that she turned down a $50,000 contribution from a political action committee tied to Craddick.
But Houston Democrat Kevin Bailey didn't.
Both were among a group of Democrats whose support for Craddick last year helped quell a Republican rebellion that sought to oust him from the speaker's post.
Both face opponents who charge that their ties with the conservative Craddick go against the interests of their low-income, heavily Democratic districts.
Brian Thompson commented on the Texas Jobs PAC last week and the possible quid pro quo saying:
"This sounds like Rep. Dukes is acknowledging that $50,000 was linked to a vote for Speaker of the Texas House," said Brian Thompson, the Democratic candidate who is challenging Dukes in HD 46. "Our ethics laws do not look too favorably on a $50,000 quid pro quo."
We will keep our eyes on this story as it develops. The full complaint can be found here.
Brian Thompson has had a lot of ammo to keep Dawnna Dukes in the news over the past week. As Paul Burka points out on his site, "Thompson was in a heads-I-win, tails-you-lose position". All because of $50,000 tied to Tom Craddick.
Rep. Dukes suggests that accepting $50,000 from a Craddick-funded PAC equates to sacrificing or compromising her "independence" in the race for Texas House Speaker. According to the Statesman article, "Campaign cash was hard to come by in January in Texas House District 46, which includes East Austin, but Rep. Dawnna Dukes still passed on an offer of $50,000 that came indirectly from House Speaker Tom Craddick. 'The contribution was available,' Dukes confirmed Wednesday. But she said that she didn't want to be distracted by what she anticipated would be attacks by her opponent if she took the money and that she wanted to remain independent to support the speaker candidate that's best for the district."
"This sounds like Rep. Dukes is acknowledging that $50,000 was linked to a vote for Speaker of the Texas House," said Brian Thompson, the Democratic candidate who is challenging Dukes in HD 46. "Our ethics laws do not look too favorably on a $50,000 quid pro quo."
Even though Dukes publicly said no to Craddick's money she seems to have spent a few cents on billboards in Austin. The message is bizarre for a Craddick D. Dukes claims she, "fights for change and wins." Interesting since she continues to vote and support the most conservative speaker in Texas History.
The change she has won includes:
Dukes voted against fully funding CHIP
Dukes voted against giving our retired teachers a cost-of-living adjustment
Dukes voted against cleaning up dirty school buses to reduce cancer causing pollution that Texas kids are forced to breathe on their way to school
Dukes could have killed a Republican tax bill that raised taxes on 90% of Texans and did nothing for public education but, instead, she was vacationing in France
Dukes has violated state law by failing to properly report more than $89,000 in "campaign" credit card expenses, which earned her a well-deserved ethics complaint
Dukes supported toll roads, and her sister received a contract from the tolling authority - perhaps it was merely a coincidence (inspiring videos like this)
Dukes passes a bill for a tenant of a local development never to disclose that she has a personal contract with the developer
While Dukes publicly sells out and continues to support Tom Craddick and refuse to pledge for a candidate besides ultra conservative Tom Craddick, Thompson publicly endorsed Thompson.
Brian Thompson, Democratic candidate for HD 46, announced that he is supporting Democratic State Rep. and Chairwoman of the Legislative Black Caucus, The Honorable Senfronia Thompson, for Speaker of the Texas House.
"Of the candidates who are currently running for Speaker, no one better represents the values of House District 46 than the 34-year veteran legislator and Chairwoman of the Legislative Black Caucus, State Representative Senfronia Thompson," Brian Thompson said. "It's time for Democrats to start acting and voting like real Democrats, not enabling the failed Republican ideology of starving public schools and denying children health care which has characterized the Tom Craddick regime."
Dawnna Dukes is too close to Craddick, and that's why he wants to pay the coins to keep her in office. While Thompson continues to be an impressive candidate he is also looking forward to the 81st legislative session and pledging to support the best candidate for Speaker-Senfronia Thompson.
Laylan Copelin is reporting that a complaint has been filed with Texas Ethics Commission against Rep. Dawnna Dukes.
Jake H. Gonzales, the executive director of Campus Alliance for Progress, filed the complaint because Dukes has reported about $90,000 of credit card charges on her campaign account over eight years without detailing how she spent the money.
The ethics commission has long required office-holders to spell out their political expenses instead of just showing payments to a credit card company. Without the details behind the credit card bills, the public cannot determine how a candidate or an office-holder is spending the campaign contributions.
Copelin points out that the Dukes' violations are hardly news at this point because they were first brought to the campaigns attention in December (when KVUE first reported the issue). In the same KVUE piece, Dukes said she would be filing an amended report, but has yet to do so.
Now Dukes is amending her response not her reports.
Dukes said her opponent is just trying to distract her from their March 4 Democratic primary showdown. She did not promise to correct the reports before the primary.
This is one of many reasons I continue to support Brian Thompson with my time and money.
The Austin Chronicle has an interesting piece out today, "Dukes Under Siege".
This is a longer story about Dawnna Dukes and her Democratic challenger Brian Thompson. Let's get some of the disclosure out of the way. I support Brian Thompson and I am not affiliated or paid by the campaign. As long as Craddick D's continue to support Tom Craddick, I will do whatever I can to defeat them in the primary.
Brian Thompson has been endorsed by the Texas Progressive Alliance and we are asking any person motivated to take back the Texas House to donate to the slate or Brian Thompson directly. And there are a lot of reasons why.
In Richard Whittaker's piece, Dukes continues to rationalize her continued support for Craddick by pointing to legislative committee appointments and Craddick's political back scratching. However, to this date, Dukes has not pointed to a single legislative achievement for House District 46 or Austin that she couldn't have achieved with out Craddick. What we do know is she does like the Republican money that has come into her campaigns because of her support for Craddick.
According to KVUE, Dukes has received over $10,000 from assorted Republicans, Craddick loyalists, and Conservative PACs.
Rep. Dukes's "top donor is HillCo PAC, which is in part funded by the largest (Republican) political donor in the nation, homebuilder Bob Perry. Perry gained notoriety for helping pay for the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth ads against Democrat John Kerry in the 2004 presidential race. Dukes also counts among her contributions a $1,000 individual donation from Perry himself, as well as $1,000 from Bill Miller, a longtime Craddick friend and consultant.
Maybe this money is the reason Dukes continues to support Tom Craddick. Just today she reaffirms her possible support for Tom Craddick.
Even now, she says, she would not rule out backing Craddick as speaker again next session.
This loyalty and support to Craddick and his money are the reasons a site run entirely by minorities call Dawnna Dukes a Craddick D. This combined with Thompson's vision for a better Austin and strong progressive credentials are the reasons the Texas Progressive Alliance, Lon Burnam, and six democratic clubs in Austin have all endorsed Brian Thompson.
This is in stark contrast to Dawnna Dukes, who rather than embracing her own political party and House Democratic Leadership, she attacks. Colin Strother says:
[Democrats for Reform] spokesman Colin Strother says the group is simply a loose affiliation of 15 House members, committed to pursuing a progressive agenda, who signed off on a 16-point agenda to protect and extend vital services. "This doesn't have anything to do with Craddick and had some pretty ambitious and progressive goals," he said. The list was compiled, he said, because there had been no agenda set by the Democratic leadership.
Rep. Helen Giddings said in their final press conference that, "this is the reason we made the votes we made the very first day of session." A veiled quote on their vote for Tom Craddick. (Because I know it will come up, the reason I have the quote written down is because I worked at the Capitol for House Leader and MALC Chairman Pete P. Gallego during the 80th session).
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?
According to a recent report from the Texas Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC), at least 3422 Travis County children remain uninsured through the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) as a result of the draconian budget cuts enacted by the Republican-controlled Legislature in 2003. When given the opportunity to rectify this injustice, Rep. Dawnna Dukes joined 74 House Republicans and seven Craddick Democrats to defeat a Democratic amendment that would have fully funded the Children's Health Insurance Program.
Rep. Dukes's vote against fully funding the Children's Health Insurance Program is a perfect example of why her allegiance to Republican Speaker Tom Craddick is an issue in this campaign.
Her vote against fully funding CHIP proves that pledging your absolute loyalty to this Republican Speaker means voting against the best interests of your district and denying at least 3422 Travis County children the health care they need.
