Texas Courts on Fire: End the Corruption

by: Glenn Smith

Tue Sep 23, 2008 at 00:39 PM CDT

Despite the fact that turning ill-gotten cash into checks is a favorite laundering tactic of drug dealers and political criminals alike, the court said checks aren't "funds" under Texas law, and so transactions involving them can't be prosecuted.

The case involves indictments against two of DeLay's associates in the notorious 2002 campaign financing scheme that also resulted in DeLay's indictment and forced resignation from Congress. Earle's strong comments came in an appeal of the bizarre, Alice-In-Wonderland 3rd Court opinion.

There is no better example of the sickening corruption that has infected the Texas Courts from top to bottom since they became dominated by special interests who also control the legislative and executive branches. The courts are out of balance, and the corruption so thoroughgoing, so accepted as business as usual, that it can be hard to grasp.

But it is destroying the rule of law here, denying average Texans access to justice as the elite special interests who bought these judges escape accountability and responsibility for the harm they do all of us.

Following James Leininger's Money

by: Triangulation of Death

Fri Jul 25, 2008 at 04:36 PM CDT

Compared to two years ago, it appears that voucher sugardaddy James Leininger has pulled back a bit (so far) in his donations to candidates for state office. Leininger is the state's biggest financial supporter of private school voucher schemes. (You can read more about Leininger in a 2006 Texas Freedom Network Education Fund report on the religious right in Texas.) Vouchers take money from public schools to pay for tuition at private and religious schools.

Over the years Leininger has poured millions of dollars into the campaigns of pro-voucher Republicans, including current Texas Gov. Rick Perry. Leininger has funneled a lot of that money through political action committees. That strategy can give him and his hired hands more control over the campaigns of candidates he supports.

So far in 2007-08 election cycle, however, Leininger has given only about $815,000 to Republican candidates and PACs, according to reports available on the Texas Ethics Commission Web site. That compares to nearly $4 million Leininger had donated by this point in the 2005-06 cycle. More than $2.35 million of that money two years ago went to the Texas Republican Legislative Campaign Committee, a PAC that targeted five House incumbents for defeat in the Republican primaries because they opposed private school vouchers. Another $620,000 went to The Future of Texas Alliance PAC, which backed House Republican incumbents who supported vouchers.

Of course, Leininger's attempt to buy a Legislature that would finally pass a voucher scheme failed in 2006. He defeated only two anti-voucher Republican incumbents. In addition, a number of pro-voucher GOP incumbents - including then-House Public Education Committee chairman Kent Grusendorf, R-Arlington - lost their re-election bids.

Leininger hasn't fared much better this year. For the second time in a row, gobs of his money failed to unseat state Rep. Charlie Geren, R-Fort Worth. (Geren, a strong supporter of public schools, famously said two years ago that he wouldn't "whore for Leininger" and vote for vouchers.) This year Leininger gave $100,000 to Tom Annunziato's failed effort to defeat Geren. Annunziato's campaign got another nearly $70,000 from Empower Texans PAC, which itself has received $100,000 from Leininger.

Leininger also ponied up more than $70,000 for the failed re-election campaign of state Rep. Nathan Macias, R-Bulverde. Leininger bankrolled Macias' successful effort to unseat anti-voucher state Rep. Carter Casteel, R- New Braunfels in 2006. Macias, who also got about $80,000 this year from Empower Texans PAC, narrowly lost his Republican primary last March.

Although his spending so far is less than usual, we would be surprised if Leininger doesn't spend more money in support of pro-voucher candidates in the fall.

Dawnna Dukes Takes Tens of Thousand of Dollars from "Swift Boat" Republicans

by: Matt Glazer

Fri Jan 18, 2008 at 10:54 AM CST

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?

Brian Thompson has been endorsed by the Texas Progressive Alliance and we encourage you to fight the Republican money by donating today and volunteering your time.

DPS Still Won't Hand Over Leininger Tapes to Observer

by: Phillip Martin

Thu Sep 20, 2007 at 02:25 PM CDT

In 2005, there was a great deal of discussion that the influential millionaire, James Leininger, was holding private meetings with members in a room off the back hall of the Texas House. The Observer requested those videos, to determine whether or not a man who has spent millions of dollars on his pet issue -- school vouchers -- was, in fact, in the back halls of the Capitol. So now, two years, later, why haven't those tapes been released? The latest Texas Observer editorial:

he Texas Department of Public Safety has now spent more than two years and almost $166,000 in lawyer fees fighting a Texas Observer request to release information we believe should clearly be made public. Attorney General Greg Abbott agrees. A state district judge agrees. The state public records law is on our side...

On October 24, in a courtroom at the University of Texas at Austin, DPS will try again to keep the information secret, this time in an appeal before the Third Court of Appeals. If that fails, and it probably will, we have no doubt DPS will go for a fourth strike by appealing to the state Supreme Court.

James Leininger and his 10 Million Friends

by: Matt Glazer

Mon Jul 30, 2007 at 11:14 AM CDT

A director and the founder of medical technology company Kinetic Concepts Inc. sold 153,500 shares of common stock, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing Thursday.

In a Form 4 filed with the SEC, Dr. James R. Leininger reported he sold the shares for $63.01 to $64.04 apiece Tuesday and Wednesday.

I wonder what the good, neo-conservative doctor is doing with an additional $10 million.  It is striking that since February 25, 2000, James Leininger has spent $8,984,351.21 of his own money to support out of touch candidates like Carole Keeton Strayhorn, Ben Bentzin, Talmadge Heflin (now employed by Leininger at the conservative think tank Texas Public Policy Foundation), Eugene Seaman, and Jack Stick.  Those are just some of the losers he has wasted his money on.

What this does show is a renewed commitment to shoving vouchers down our throats and forcing unnecessary constitutional amendments on to the ballot year after year.

Who will he support this year? We do know he had $10 million more to spend on conservative, anti-choice, anti-education radicals… and that’s a lot of money.

TPJ Study Removed

by: Burnt Orange Report

Wed Apr 25, 2007 at 05:08 PM CDT

The purpose of the study is admirable, to track extravagant travel by elected officials paid for by lobbyist, the primary methodology used is too faulty for us to keep the study on our main page. Sadly, the data collected appears to have been sloppy at best.

While controversy surrounds the study, some facts are irrefutable.  Rep. Mike Krusee is at fault.

Rep. Mike Krusee, R-Williamson County, a "lobby favorite." Krusee, chairman of the House Committee on Transportation, took nine lobby-funded trips in the period reviewed, 2005 and 2006 through the eve of the November elections, the report said.

For instance, J. McCartt, a lobbyist whose clients include contractor Fluor Corp. and PBS&J, an engineering firm, flew Krusee to Las Vegas to deliver the keynote address at a PBS&J toll summit after the 2005 regular legislative session.

Krusee's office issued a statement Tuesday stating that he "learns from other parts of the country and innovative industries about how to get traffic moving, how to improve safety and how to build roads in cost-effective ways."

Training from groups like  EMILY's List and Annie's List is not the same as PBS&J flying Krusee to Vegas or James Leininger taking Rick Perry to the Caribbean.

An Autism Voucher Bill: Could This Open The Door?

by: Vince Leibowitz

Tue Dec 19, 2006 at 11:56 AM CST

When people with disabilities and politics meet, it is a touchy subject.

When millionaire voucher advocates are so desparate to get a "leg up" for their pet projects as to exploit the needs of handicapped children, you know they are in dire straits. (See a post of mine from yesterday , where I discussed this).

Nevertheless, this is a subject that must be addressed and I'll tread as lightly as I can.

The long and short of this is that State Sen. Florence Shapiro (R-Plano), has announced that she will push legislation to let the parents autistic children pick what schools their children attend with-you guessed it!-the help of taxpayer funded school vouchers.

This is perhaps the most dangerous of all the voucher plans that has been proposed to date. Why? It is, for lack of a better word, "warm and fuzzy." Who doesn't want to help children who suffer from this terrible condition? What lawmaker wants to see a mailer sent out in their district that says, "Your Senator voted against kids with Autism." It's a hard bell to unring.

Really, Bill Ceverha Must Go

by: Matt Glazer

Wed Dec 13, 2006 at 11:20 AM CST

Were you as astounded as I was to read the article in the Austin American Statesman this morning about the dismal performance of the Employee Retirement System? 

If the year ended Sept. 30, the employee fund's investment return of 9.6 percent was in the bottom 10 percent of $1 billion-plus public pensions tracked by Callan. Returns were similarly dismal for the two-, three- and five-year periods ended Sept. 30.

Attaboy! 

I guess the bottom 10% is exactly the kind of return you should expect when a BANKRUPT LOBBYIST is appointed to the ERS Board?  Yep, you guessed, bankrupt Bill Ceverha again. 

As a future state employee, I'd like to personally thank Speaker Craddick for that stunningly brilliant appointment.  I'm glad to see him putting the best interest of Texas employees and retirees over his own personal politics.  After all, who's more qualified to manage $23 billion than Tom DeLay's indicted treasurer who cooked the TRMPAC books and broke state laws in the process.

Even though the investment performance was dismal, maybe we should give bankrupt Bill the benefit of the doubt. 

Perhaps he was too busy counting his "gifts", and cashing those checks from Bob Perry, Harlan Crow, Boone Pickens and Earl Nye to do his due diligence this past year.

George Antuna: Alcohol, Accidents, Ambulances and Lies

by: Matt Glazer

Tue Oct 31, 2006 at 00:45 PM CST

On two separate occasions, George Antuna- Republican candidate for State Representative in House District 118- has exhibited the sort of reckless judgment that seriously undermines his ability to faithfully serve the constituents of HD-118.

According to the first attached police report, between 2:16am and 5:15am in the early morning of June 21, George Antuna and a lady friend of his (5 feet 4 inches, 195 pounds, oy) were pulled over by the police in Selma after a long night of imbibing and carousing and who knows what else.  Antuna’s lady friend was neither his wife nor the mother of his twins.  Rather curious, George. 

During the police stop, George Antuna was told to stay in the car.  Antuna’s lady of the evening tried the ol’ “do you know who he is?” routine, pointing to Antuna and telling the cops, “He works for Rick Perry."  Can’t a drunk girl in a truck with a Rick Perry staffer just get on down the road?  Not so fast my friend…

According to the police report, “I detected a strong odor of an alcoholic beverage from Antuna. I believed Antuna was intoxicated and unable to operate the truck.”  Woops.  Now, we wouldn’t want to embarrass Governor good hair by getting arrested for DWI, would we?  The police officer described Antuna as having slurred speech and “bloodshot and glossy” eyes.  If I were him, the thought the ass whipping coming from the wife would make my eyes bloodshot too. 

Rather than take the bullet (Republicans love to refer to this treasured quality as accountability), Antuna pulled a Gene Seaman and dropped his lady friend under the bus.  Though, to Antuna’s credit, at least this woman was neither his wife nor the mother of his twins. 

The police arrested Antuna’s lady friend for driving while intoxicated.  They drove him to the police station so he could sober up and get a ride home.

What a great dad – leave the wife and twins at home, throw back a few, get loaded with the lady friend and fall asleep in the truck at 2:00 in the morning.  Gotta love those Republican family values…

Selective Alzheimers: Did Strayhorn & Perry Forget About 1998?

by: Vince Leibowitz

Thu Oct 19, 2006 at 07:15 AM CDT

I was really shocked when I didn't see a photo of O'Quinn with horns and a pointy tail. After all, if you listen to the talking heads of the campaigns of Carole Keeton Strayhorn and Rick Perry, you just might get the impression that Chris Bell was selling his soul to the devil himself in order to bring his message to the people of Texas. That, of course, is rhetoric typical of the Strayhorn and Perry campaigns.

What is most entertaining about Perry and Strayhorn's feigned shock and dismay that someone would put so much money into Bell's campaign is how quickly those two have forgotten about being recipents of similar contributions—from someone far more sinister than a mere trial lawyer: Dr. James Leininger.