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?
By now many of you all have probably read the Fort Worth Star-Telegram article that talks about State Representative and Democratic Candidate for US Senate Rick Noriega's campaign donations from Bob "Swift Boat" Perry. For those that have not, it's right here. Mr. Perry's contributions to Republican candidates and his great contributions to smearing Senator John Kerry's candidacy are well documented at this blog and every other blog in the world that supported John Kerry for President in 2004.
Noriega has taken $7,000 from Perry since 2006. Team Noriega says its because Perry admired his work in Houston with the Katrina refugees. Which I don't, for a second, believe is a lie. Noriega has also consistently voted against Perry's tort deform interests in the Legislature.
Having said all that, this is still the man who spent millions of dollars in 2004 against John Kerry and helped invent the word "swiftboating." In 2006 Perry, alongside such Republican faithful as Tom Craddick and Texans for Lawsuit Reform, tried to stem the Democratic tide by giving prolifically to the opponents of Joe Heflin, Hubert Vo, Joe Farias, Juan Garcia, Donna Howard, Valinda Bolton and Ellen Cohen.
So what does this all mean for you? Should Representative Noriega have said, "Thanks, but no thanks" to those contributions? Does this influence your future decision on who should be the Democratic Nominee that knocks off John Cornyn? Does anyone believe that Perry's admiration of Noriega's work in Houston will in any way, shape or form keep Perry from Swiftboating Noriega in a general election match-up against Cornyn? Should we, as Democrats, take a principled stand on those members of our party who take money from Bob Perry?
Ed. note -- answer these questions in our new BOR poll, on the right.
Sean-Paul Kelley over at the Agonist has more, including the $20k Melissa Noriega, Rick's wife and Houston City Councilwoman, has also taken from Swift Boat Bob.
Please check out the link below that I just copied from the Huffington Post. We need to hit this guy where it can hurt him....in the wallet. He is a major homebuilder in Texas. Can we get a boycott or at least a campaign outing his company for the piece of slime it supports?
