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Judge Elena Diaz -- who lost to Eric Shepperd in their race for Travis County Court-at-Law seat back in 2006 -- is preparing to run in an already crowded 353rd District Court race here in Austin. She's got a treasurer, but some of her paperwork doesn't (seem) to add up. I got the following e-mail today pointing out Judge Diaz' loan disclosures seem to be missing $40,000: - In 2006, at the end of her race, she reported $70,000 in outstanding loans. (Source)
- In 2009, when she filed her "final" report, she only had $30,000 listed in oustanding loans. (Source)
- There was no filing report between those two -- no expenditures or contributions -- so what happened to the $40,000 balance of the loan that disappeared?
Now -- chances are -- she paid it and forgot to report it, or she mis-reported it the first/second time and just needs to correct the error. But any of those mistakes probably constitutes a fine of some sort, and ethical violations for a judicial candidate don't really play that well among an electorate (re: "Austin Political Machine") that loves to jump on every mistake and gotcha moment available. Never mind the fact that you'd think someone that wanted to be a judge could report their expenditure reports correctly. The Austin Chronicle points out that: The winner of [the 353rd District Court race] will almost certainly be decided when Travis County Dems head to the polls in the March 2 primary.
I'd hope that, before Diaz throws herself full-fledge into the normal "Scholz battles" for local support for the race, she clears up the question of the missing $40,000 loan. If not, the "Austin Political Machine" are going to rip into her for this pretty hard.
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