The Texas Democratic Party received a reimbursement check this week for court fees incurred during the Tom Delay ballot lawsuits. That court win is a testament to the ongoing Democratic revolution that has finally penetrated our state. It comes as another nail in the coffin to the faction of the Republican party that bought our state with corrupt and unlawful practices.
The Republican Part of Texas has successfully moved the Temporary Restraining Order filed by the Texas Democratic Party into federal court according to Quorum Report.
Yesterday, the Republican Party of Texas filed a Notice to Remove in state court which automatically moved the issue of replacing former Congressman Tom DeLay on the November ballot into federal court.
Democrats had obtained a Temporary Restraining Order on June 9th preventing the convening of electors in the four counties in CD22. The TRO effectively prevented Republicans from choosing a replacement for DeLay on the November ballot.
According to RPT attorney James Bopp, the relocation into federal court was automatic and required no hearing.
The TDP responds.
"The issue here has nothing to do with State Court or Federal Court. The problem with DeLay’s parting scheme is more fundamental: it's illegal.
"Tom Delay and the Republican Party willfully and intentionally conspired to run a bogus primary to allow DeLay to raise funds for his legal defense, hoping to use state law to have a handful of party bosses hand pick their nominee instead of the voters.
"If the Republicans really cared about giving the voters a choice, they would have asked their Governor to call a special election instead of leaving DeLay's seat vacant for six months, and they would have never let Tom DeLay dictate this illegal scheme. As a matter of precedent, Texas voters cannot allow political parties to "move" congressional candidates out of Texas when they look like a loser so they can find a better candidate."
The Republican Party of Texas, trying to save their losing candidate Ben Bentzin in the HD 48 race, has sent out their first attack on Donna Howard. The mail piece (front and back) attacks Donna Howard for supporting a bond proposal that would have put a second high school in Eanes when she was on the school board, saying that the school would have "wasted taxpayer dollars."
Why is this ad such a failure? Because when the second high school proposal came out, Karl Rove, Maragaret LaMontagne (now Maragret Spellings, President Bush's Secretary of Education), and Karen Hughes all agreed with Howard. In fact, it was Jerry Hughes (Karen's husband) that made a motion to build a second Eanes high school in the first place. Not only did those three Republican leaders agree with Howard, they signed a letter of support (PDF) for a second high school.
What does all this mean? It's politics as usual for the Republican Party of Texas, which means pulling out dirty smear campaigns to try and taint the only candidate in the HD 48 race that will put people ahead of politics.
Be sure to visit Donna Howard's website to support a candidate that wants to stop playing politics as usual and start delivering real improvements to our public schools.
