Records made available to the public make clear that Green Party leaders – particularly Executive Director kat swift and Party Co-Chair Christine Morshedi – knowingly conspired with Republican political operatives to use money from a secret donor funneled through a non-profit corporation to pay for the collection of ballot petition signatures. Green Party leaders have acknowledged publicly that they did not have the money or the organizational ability to collect the ballot signatures on their own (Source: Dallas Morning News, June 6, 2010).
Jason Embry, in his column from the Austin American-Statesman, "Third party politicking can be tricky" offers that the importance of the story extends beyond the race at the top of the ticket:
The group that helped the Greens, Take Initiative America, has a number of Republican ties. But the sexiest revelation has been that lobbyist Mike Toomey paid a University of Texas student to collect signatures for the Greens, the student says. That effort came up short.
Conventional wisdom says a Green Party candidate takes more votes away from a Democrat than a Republican, so Toomey's effort appears aimed at helping Gov. Rick Perry beat Democratic challenger Bill White. After all, Toomey is Perry's close ally and former chief of staff.
But Toomey's interest in Texas politics extends beyond the governor's race. He is a key player in helping Republicans win more seats in the Legislature, and as this whole matter moves forward, we may learn that his real target was the battle for the Texas House, which is now split between 77 Republicans and 73 Democrats.
Any person who wants to support workers, families, teachers, doctors, open government,and fighting a failing status quo, is usually a friend and ally. In this case though, the Green Party appears to have entered into an illegal alliance with partisan Republicans who stand in opposition to the Green Party platform and their publicly stated issues. The Lone Star Project did some research (as they are prone to do) and found the direct law the Green Party violated in the Texas Election Code.
Laws Broken and Penalties The Texas Election Code prohibits the spending of corporate money on anything except a very specific list of administrative expenses that includes only the following: “office space maintenance and repairs, telephone and Internet services, office equipment, utilities, general office and meeting supplies and the salaries for routine clerical, data entry and administrative assistance necessary for the proper administrative operation of the committee” (Source: Tex. Elec. Code §§ 253.100(a)(1) - (a)(6)). The gathering of petition signatures and donation of completed petitions do not fall under this narrow list of allowable expenditures with corporate money. Therefore it is clear that the Green Party of Texas, its executive committee, Take Initiative America and other, yet to be discovered conspirators are criminally and civilly liable for their illegal petition scheme. The Green Party of Texas leaders may face third degree felony charges and punishment of up to 10 years in jail and a fine of up to a million dollars. (Source: Texas Penal Code )
This is a particularly tough story to watch unfold. I worked with the Green Party State Coordinator, kat swift, when I was working in San Antonio on environmental and water issues. swift was a strong ally and friend on protecting the Edwards Aquifer and fighting Frank Corte and other Republicans from pushing for horrible legislation increasing impervious cover and allowing more upstream water distribution, effectively starving downstream interests of water. We simply could not have won those battles with out the help of the hundreds of people, like swift, who devoted their time and passion to these issues. Sadly, it appears swift was the point person for the Green Party scheme to get ballot access with the direct assistance of the Republican Party.
It appears that kat swift was the point person through which the Green Party ballot/Republican money scheme was conducted. Records show that swift encouraged using partisan Republican money to fund the ballot initiative. After first cautioning against using corporate funds, swift reversed her position and accepted the illegal corporate contribution. In sworn testimony, Garret Mize informed the Court that swift said that Republican money to fund a Green Party ballot petition effort “would be fine.” (Source: Mize Testimony, June 24, 2010)
Not every member of the Green Party is interested in selling the souls and/or conscious for a short term win. Roger Baker was the Green Party nominee for Travis County Clerk. Announced he is withdrawing from the race.
Baker has admirably acted in a way consistent with Green Party stated ideals – particularly a passage from the Green Party platform stating the Party “intends to end corporate rule and create actual democracy” (Source: Green Party of Texas Platform). Baker, unlike his state party leaders, has refused to participate in the GOP ballot scam. He wrote the following in an e-mail to his supporters: “I find it very difficult to explain and defend the Green Party ballot access problems on the state level, while trying to run on a platform of Texas Campaign finance reform at the same time” (Source: e-mail to Green Party and supporters, June 28, 2010).
It is tough to watch a party demand people pay attention to them when they actively sell themselves off to the highest bidder. Ideology should not be for sell. Win ballot access and races by having a commitment to organize and a strong message to the electorate. Instead, the Texas Green Party simply sold out and there could be real and damaging legal consequences to helping Rick Perry and Mike Toomey. All source material and more information can be found at the Lone Star Project.
The true test of a politician is if they have the political Will to do what is right regardless of Party affiliation. In Todd Smith, it is confirmed, he lacks the political skin to be worthy of the honorable title of Texas State Representative. He is not capable of looking out for the interests of his constituents, let alone Texas. Time and again Smith proves that he will fold under intense political pressure.
As expected, and called out by the Matt Angle at the Lone Star Project, we at Burnt Orange Report, and Texas Democrats in general, Smith has folded like a house of cards on Voter Identification---giving in to harsh partisan demands from his Republican colleagues and melting like warm butter under a hot Texas sun. Smith will bring forward the nasty, partisan Senate version of Voter Suppression legislation that is modeled after the Indiana-style bill that erects the largest of walls possible in limiting the right of Texans to vote. Smith adds another point of failure to a pathetic career as a legislator.
We at Burnt Orange Report have chronicled the political demise of Todd Smith since I called him out in 2007 on his original Voter ID vote, claiming he did so because he was "Republican." Then, with a new speaker this session, Smith managed to climb himself out of the political doghouse, being passed up for other plum committee assignments to instead carry the partisan pale known as Voter Suppression as Election Committees Chair. Despite hearing time and again from his constituents this session, even when attempting to have secret Town Halls that he really didn't want his constituents to attend, House District 92 residents showed up in mass and told Smith to do something about their electric bills, escalating insurance rates, and make college education affordable again---just leave their sacred right to vote alone.
So the questions we all have on our minds right now is will the 81st legislative session end in a crisis in leadership as the 80th legislative session did under Tom Craddick? Will Speaker Straus get weak in the knees like Todd Smith and be railroaded by partisan hacks or do what is right for Texas? Stay tuned.
In a bizarre and offensive interview with the editors of the Hotline, Dallas Congressman and newly elected National Republican Campaign Committee (NRCC) Chairman Pete Sessions (R-TX) described the Taliban as a "model" for the Republican insurgency in the U.S. House of Representatives. Listen to the interview here.
Sessions comments go far beyond typical partisan rhetoric. His praise of the Taliban is dangerous and disrespectful to the thousands of American military families with loved ones serving and, too often sacrificing their lives, for our country.
The Lone Star Project includes some fact that show how absurd the request is.
Taliban Death Toll Sessions refers to the Taliban with admiration even as 645 US soldiers have died in Afghanistan since 2001. (Source: http://icasualties.org/oef/ ) Currently there are 32,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan with 30,000 more expected to be deployed there within 2009.(CBS News January 17, 2008)
Taliban Brutality During the 1990's the Taliban, "imposed strict enforcement of fundamentalist Islamic law, banning movies, music and forcing women out of schools and into all-enveloping burqa clothing. The Taliban also provided a haven for Osama bin Laden and his Al-Qaeda organization." (New York Times, November 7, 2007)
The Taliban terrorizes Afghan citizens and kills American soldiers in order to disrupt the government the United States is supporting. In October, Taliban militants pulled as many as 30 people off a bus and beheaded them. (New York Times, October 19, 2008) The Taliban has also been blamed for spraying 11 girls with acid as they were headed to school. (New York Times, January 13, 2009)
Sessions' request is scary. It is disrespectful to our fighting men and women and to the American people.
We join the Lone Star Project in asking you, the BOR community to call Rep. Sessions' office and demand an apology.
Contact Pete Sessions and tell him to renounce the Taliban and apologize to American service families.
You can email Pete here or call him at (972) 392-0505 or (202) 225-2231.
The Lone Star Project recently filed a criminal complaint against Olson for being registered to vote and voting in two different states. While living in Virginia, Olson voted in a handful of local and state elections, but in 2003, Olson also went up to Connecticut and voted in a special election.
Olson has been asked repeatedly why he committed voter fraud, and he has a lot of reasons..
AP (10/15/08) - Was it a trip to Texas? "Olson's campaign produced a document that suggested he was flying to Texas on Senate business that day. The document for Aug. 12, 2003, to Aug. 15, 2003, shows a $643.50 charge for a flight, but no time of day is provided. At the bottom of the document the itinerary is listed as Washington, D.C., to Houston, Harlingen, Austin and return."
AP (10/15/08) - Was it Olson's baby? "It doesn't make sense that he would drive four hours to Connecticut ... when his son had been born a couple months (before)," Goldstein said.
FortBendNow (10/4/08) - Was Olson working in DC? "Pete Olson never owned property in Connecticut; his father owned property in Connecticut," Goldstein said. "On the day of the vote (in Connecticut), Pete Olson was working in his office in Washington, D.C."
FortBendNow (10/4/08) - Was it an imposter? Goldstein also pointed out that while a Peter G. Olson may have voted in the August, 2003, special election in Newtown, it was not candidate Olson.
Matt Angle, Director of the Lone Star Project, told Fort Bend Now all these different answers led to more questions.
When the Lone Star Project found the voting records, Angle said he raised the issue of whether or not Olson voted illegally. Olson's changing stories and dismissive attitude toward the allegations, Angle said, led him to file the complaint.
"Rather than giving a straightforward answer, he had two or three different answers," Angle said.
Angle noted that Olson gave various media outlets different answers about the illegal voting allegations. Those answers included Olson spokesperson Amy Goldstein telling FortBendNow that Olson was working in his office in Washington, D.C. on the day he was alleged to have illegally voted in Connecticut. Goldstein also said that a Peter G. Olson may have voted in the Connecticut election, but it was not candidate Olson.
Angle said Goldstein then gave the Associated Press several other answers. Goldstein told the AP "it doesn't make sense that (Olson) would drive four hours to Connecticut" when his son had been born only a few months earlier, and later told the wire service that Olson was on a trip to Texas on Senate business on the day of the vote.
Regardless of the excuse, the reality appears to be that Pete Olson committed voter fraud and now he wants to be a Congressman for Texas. The 22nd Congressional District has already given Tom DeLay the boot, voters shouldn't elect someone who is as ethically challenged as DeLay.
Earlier, KT, Matt and I compared and contrasted the "old media voodoo predictions and new media facts and analysis" styles of making predictions on Texas House races. Our fundamental problem was that the old media -- and the old consultant class, which is apparently who Burka was talking to -- use terrible, terrible logic and analysis at looking at House races. They are thinking about things as if we still lived in the 1980's.
Many Democrats, though, believe that research and facts should dictate analysis and predictions.
The Lone Star Project has, for the past few years, done excellent work on fact-based research and analysis. Matt Angle, director of the Lone Star Project, shared with me how they analyze House races -- and it is really quite interesting.
Lone Star Project's Advanced Analysis Structures for Analyzing Races
First of all, I must impress on our readers that this is just the "top line" analysis numbers. There is a much, much, much more sophisticated voter identification processes that goes into all of this -- but that's not we're talking about. This is the "top line", or the basics, as to how the Lone Star Project uses fact-based research and analysis to predict House races, and Angle shares it with us as a learning tool for our community:
From Matt Angle, in an e-mail he sent me earlier today (edited for easier reading):
Our straightforward, “top line” analysis starts with
An expected vote calculated by the National Committee for an Effective Congress (NCEC), after consultation with the Lone Star Project. NCEC uses advanced statistical models to predict the expected vote down to the precinct level. Some obvious key elements of their calculation are the number of eligible voters, the number of registered voters, demographics and historical turnout patterns.
The Lone Star Project takes the NCEC projected vote to calculate our 2008 win number.
We build toward a win number by stacking the votes Kerry received in 2004 with the 2008 Democratic primary voters who did not vote in 2004. This calculation combines a realistic and conservative base performance (Kerry in 04) with the likely benefit a Democratic candidate will receive from the improved political environment and new Democratic participation in 2008.
Compare that with the models that Burka is repeating, which I guess is being spread by Republicans. Not even close, huh?
Angle also shared four PDF models for the four races Burka listed in his post. To see how much better of an analysis the LSP (and even BOR) has in comparison to what Burka shared, here are links to the relevant analysis from all three of us:
HD 96 - Democrat Chris Turner vs. Republican Rep. Bill Zedler
We post this to show how much better it is to use real numbers and real statistics to determine predictions -- and how being public and accountable, as Angle has done today and as we at BOR always strive to do -- is better than using ridiculous models from Austin insiders, like Burka has done.
All the more reason to believe Democrats are much, much more organized and prepared to win this year.
P.S. If you like the analysis of the Lone Star Project -- or are at least thankful for them openly sharing their top-line analysis like this -- feel free to donate some dollars to their cause.
Virtually every Democrat in Harris county hopes that the local party can replicate what its peers in Dallas did in 2006. It's more than just partisan bickering, too. Every countywide office is held by a GOP member, and power has gotten to their heads. No government can work like that; period.
(And Houston has thought that it might one day secure an Olympic Games -- let's secure overall good government, first. Theoretically, that should be easier.)
Matt Angle of the Lone Star Project thinks that this power is only increasing the chances of Republican loss:
With each passing day, the all-Republican county leadership in Harris County, which includes the city of Houston, is demonstrating why they should be replaced. Virtually every Republican county-wide office holder is directly or indirectly involved in an ethical or administrative scandal.
To help facilitate the arrival of good government, the Lone Star Project has launched a Republican Rap Sheet. Here you can examine the misdeeds of the Republican sheriff and Republican chief executive officer of the county.
And then at that point, we'll know why we're voting against them.
Tom Craddick's miscalculated political attacks are already having a negative impact on his party. As Phil reported yesterday, Tom Craddick has decided to go to war against Capitol staffers.
As Quorum Report and Phil quickly note the first three targets were three highly public critics of Speaker Tom Craddick.
Both House Democratic Caucus chair Jim Dunnam (D-Waco) and Craig Eiland (D-Galveston) have even been mentioned as possible speaker candidates should the House flip into Democratic control next November. Byron Cook's (R-Corsicana) personal privilege speech last session was remarkably forthright in referring to Speaker Craddick as corrupt.
As Quorum Report also notes, Craddick continues to bully "colleagues" by "ignoring the more traditional House practice of notifying members about possible improprieties and offering the members an opportunity to cure any problems. Instead, these "issues" that Phillips knew about in April went public in a May news story along with referrals to the Travis County District Attorney's office."
In any event, after the Statesman broke the story, House Administration Chair Tony Goolsby (R-Dallas) notified Dunnam, Eiland and Cook and gave them ten days to explain treating apparent part time employees as full time. We have posted Eiland's letter with a summary in a separate story.
After the Statesman broke the hit piece news story, House Administration Chair, Republican Tony Goolsby, told Dunnam, Eiland, and Cook they have 10 days to explain why employees were being listed as full time. In another moment of Republican hypocrisy, Goolsby as chair, told members to do as he says, not as he does.
Again, as Quorum Report states:
lobbyist Jennifer Shelley Rodriguez appears as a full time employee on Goolsby's Monthly Financial Statement from January to March of 2004. In January and February, her full time status earned her $500 a month. In March, she pulled down only $326.09. Rodriguez, the daughter of former Senator and current lobbyist Dan Shelley appears to have been a registered lobbyist in 2004 with at least 14 clients.
Again, according to the Monthly Financial Statement received by each House member, another full time employee making $500/month was Jennifer Fein. She held this status from September 2005 to January 2006.
In 2003, before SB1370 was passed, Goolsby had Eric Goldberg as a full time $500 month employee from January 20, 2003 to May 10 of the same year.
And finally, Ernest Stromberger, former executive director of Independent Insurance Agents of America shows up for 20 hours a week from December 2, 2002 to January 8, 2003.
We identified these issues and requested comment from Goolsby but had received none as of press time.
Republican Speaker Tom Craddick seems to be so singularly focused on keeping his job that he doesn't care who he takes down with him. As the Lone Star Project points out:
Few Republican's played a more prominent role in protecting controversial State House Speaker Tom Craddick than Goolsby. In addition to supporting Craddick for speaker, Goolsby was put in charge of "bringing in the muscle." After Craddick declared his "absolute" authority to rule the Texas State House, Goolsby brought in, "uniformed Department of Public Safety officers [who] guarded entrances at the front and rear of the chamber." It was an "unusual show of force," (Fort Worth Star-Telegram, May 27, 2007) and clearly intended to intimidate members of the legislature.
Now, rather than defending his partner in power, Goolsby is left defending himself from Craddick's politically motivated attacks. Speaker Craddick needs to take a nice long look in the mirror and ask himself if throwing his ever shrinking base of support under a bus is the best way to maintain control over the House. It seems unlikely.
A 2006 cynical smear campaign and voter suppression scheme orchestrated by Republican State House Representative Tony Goolsby (HD102, Dallas), along with Dallas County Republican Party Chair Kenn George and a Dallas GOP consultant, may have backfired. Monday, former challenger Harriet Miller, with support from the Lone Star Project, filed a lawsuit in the 192nd State District Court showing that their attack "constitutes slander" and was committed with "actual malice."
The Goolsby/George scheme entailed the blatant misrepresentation of election returns in order to file a false voter fraud complaint against Goolsby's Democratic challenger, Harriet Miller, with the Dallas County District Attorney. The false complaint was then used as a political prop to libel and attack Ms. Miller, while also suppressing African American voter turnout in House District 102. The Lone Star Project detailed the scheme in a special report last year.
For complete details, the complaint, the background, research, and supporting evidence, take a look at the Lone Star Project website.
Last night was an incredible success for TexBlog PAC. Over 150 individuals, candidates, elected officials, and bloggers attended the inaugural fundraiser at the home of Austin attorney Amy Clark Meachum. Our friend and fellow TexBlog PAC board member Vince Liebowitz drove in to town to celebrate with us, and there is a lot to celebrate.
TexBlog PAC is less than two months old, and already we can say that it is an overwhelming success.
In less than two months over 5,000 people have signed up to take back the House. We have raised over $10,000 from a little over 100 donors. We have a working coalition that includes our largest supporter to date, the Texas Democratic Party, the Lone Star Project, the House Democratic Campaign Committee (who's board includes Rep. Jim Dunnam, Rep. Pete Gallego, and Rep. Garnet Coleman), and Democracy for Texas. This doesn't even begin to cover the more than a dozen Democratic State House Members that have given generously.
A very special thanks to the 7 Democratic House members who took the time to attend the event last night-- Pete Gallego, Lon Burnam, Elliott Naishtat, Eddie Rodriguez, Tracy King, Mark Strama, Valinda Bolton.
All this and we are just getting started. Not a single person on the board is getting paid for their efforts, and still, every blogger across the state is devoting their personal time and energy to this project. We are uniquely committed to taking back the State House, and it appears you are too.
Last night, my former boss, Rep. Gallego spoke to the crowd and told them we are at a crossroad. In 2001, we had 78 Democrats in the House. In two short years that number fell to 62 because of Tom DeLay and Tom Craddick. Over the past 4 years, we have increased our numbers from 62 to 70 Democrats in the House. It is our turn to join with groups like DFT, HDCC, TDP, and local counties and organizations to help win the next 6 seats.
Texas Bloggers will only be as successful as you allow us to be. Your donations will allow us to build a movement and elect good Democrats next November.
To all of you who made it last night, a huge thank you. To those who have supported us, thank you. We have one year to work together and take back the people's house. Help TexBlog PAC achieve that goal.
Last night we proved we were more than an echo chamber.
