Big Jolly Politics

politics in Harris County and Texas

The Woodlands Road Utility District – Part Five: Texas Residency

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Woodlands Road Utility District signFor the purpose of voter registration in Texas, what is the definition of “residence”? Should your residence be determined by the Government or by you? Is length of time a factor of residency? Does bodily presence alone determine residence? Does intention alone determine residence? I have reasonable doubt that Jim Jenkins “knowingly” violated Texas law prior to voting in the 2010 Woodlands Road Utility District election and by the end of this article, I hope you also have reasonable doubts.

Jim Jenkins and Adrian Heath embarked on a journey to learn the definition of “residence” and “residency” in the context of voter registration in Texas. That journey ultimately led to the Secretary of State for The State of Texas and discovery of well settled law in Texas, as noted in election law opinion advisory GSC-1.

Why did Heath contact the Texas Secretary of State office and not the Office of the Attorney General of Texas? According to the Secretary of State website “The Secretary of State is the chief election officer for the State of Texas.”

In GSC-1, Geoffrey S. O’Connor and the Opinion Committee members addressed the following questions (emphasis mine) in the context of voter registration and “residency” of college students. Some questions are taken directly from the election law advisory opinion and some I re-phrased into layman’s terms:

Question: “What is the proper interpretation and application of Section 1.015 of the Code in the context of voter registration by and “residency” of college students, in particular, those students currently attending Prairie View A&M University?”

Short Answer: “The definition of residence for the purpose of voter registration is well settled in Texas. As stated in the seminal case of Mills v. Bartlett, 377 S.W.2d 636,637 (Tex.1964). “[n]either bodily presence along not intention alone will suffice to create the residence, but when the two coincide at that moment the residence is fixed and determined. There is no specific length of time for the bodily presence to continue.”

Question: Can The State of Texas require a voter to state that he or she will be residing in a location for a stated number of months or years in the future?

Answer: In Dunn v. Blumstein, 405 U.S. 330, 92 S.Ct 995, 31 L.Ed2d 274 (1972), the Supreme Court held unconstitutional Tennessee’s one-year durational residency requirement because such requirements penalize persons who travel from one place to another to establish a new residence during the qualifying period, and thus deny a portion of the citizenry their rights under the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment.

It is our opinion that any state requiring a voter to state that he or she will be residing in a location for a stated number of months or years in the future would face a similar challenge.

An applicant filling out a Texas voter registration form is not required to state that the residence will be his or her home forever, or for the next five years, or even the next year.

Question: For what reason is an applicant to vote required to submit their application 30 days before the election in which the applicant chooses to vote?

Answer: The applicant is only required for administrative reasons to submit the application 30 days before the election in which the applicant wishes to vote. See TEX. ELEC. CODE ANN. § 13.143 (Vernon 2003).

According to this article published in the Conroe Courier, “ James Alan Jenkins was sentenced to three years in the state prison system for illegally voting in an election in 2010….and was found guilty of voter fraud.

These public accounts describing voter fraud efforts in Virginia explain ‘voter fraud” as forging a utility bill (to be used as an identity document) and voting twice as was exposed in an OFA office in Houston. Did Jim Jenkins forge identity documents to impersonate another individual? Did Jim Jenkins vote twice?

I have my doubts and I hope you do too.

If you don’t like the law, change the law in the Texas Legislature. Convicting an innocent man of a felony and sentencing him to three years in prison is a miscarriage of justice.

Raul Torres: Real Solutions Require A New Approach

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Another post in Raul Torres’ series on improving Texas

 I want to talk to you about what I believe are some of our state’s most critical areas of concern looking forward.

First, Texas has an education problem.  Our public education and higher education systems are not working for thousands of students. The evidence come from a report titled, “2012: Texas Public Higher Education Almanac” released by the Texas Education Coordinating Board.  The report states that Texas ranks 35th out of 50 states in graduation rate at a 4-year institution. Only 57 {997ab4c1e65fa660c64e6dfea23d436a73c89d6254ad3ae72f887cf583448986} of all

students at a public university graduate within six years. Meanwhile, only 27{997ab4c1e65fa660c64e6dfea23d436a73c89d6254ad3ae72f887cf583448986} graduate from a 2-year College. The report also shows that 54.4{997ab4c1e65fa660c64e6dfea23d436a73c89d6254ad3ae72f887cf583448986} of students are not college ready when they enter a Texas 2-year college program and only 29{997ab4c1e65fa660c64e6dfea23d436a73c89d6254ad3ae72f887cf583448986} of these ever graduate or remain in college after three years. Finally, Texas continues to lag far behind of its 2015 goal of graduating 630,000 students.

Every day Texas fails to fix this issue we can almost guarantee that thousands  of our Texas students will fail to be future productive employees and instead could possibly become a financial burden upon society.  Yet, despite these alarming statistics only some moderate reforms have been recently adopted. I believe these moderate reforms will do very little to solve our education problems.  We must do better if we are to lead the nation as the “Texas model.”

Second, Texas has a very serious infrastructure problem. According to a report released by Texas Good Roads in June, 2012 titled, “The Cost of Doing Nothing,” Texas is faced with a bleak future if our state’s transportation needs are not properly addressed. Texas needs an annual investment of $9.9 billion a year to maintain road and bridge conditions and congestion at 2010 levels.   Texas is only spending $8.2 billion.  The Texas Legislature failed to solve our state’s water problems.  Instead they chose to put a band aid solution to this very important issue.  As long as the Legislature continues to put band aids on big problems we will never solve them.  We must do better if we want Texas to have a strong economy.

Finally, we have a future water supply problem. According to the “2012 Texas Water Summit Report: Securing Water for Texas’s Future,” if Texas does not plan for and fund the acquisition of new water sources our state’s future is endangered. This could possible lead to Texas losing thousands or perhaps millions of jobs.

According to the Texas State Water Plan, we will need to spend $231 billion over the next 50 years  to ensure sufficient water supply for our state.  The Legislature failed to provide a long-term solution to adequately solve this critical issue. Instead they chose to kick the can down the road.  We must do better to secure a brighter future for the people of Texas.

I believe we can solve these problems quickly and without raising new taxes if and only if we are bold enough to hold the line on spending, reduce the size of government,  and reduce as many of costly and burdensome regulations that we can.   The problems we have will not be solved using the same kind of thinking that has been used for the past 15 years.  We must think differently and we must act differently.

You see I believe God had a divine purpose when he created this great land we call America. He did it so that those people who had a hunger for freedom and the courage to leave their homeland only to face unknown dangers just so they could have the opportunity to be free men.  Well, I believe we haven’t lost that desire. I believe people continue to want to be free to enjoy life, liberty, and to pursue the American Dream.

From our forefathers to our modern-day immigrants, we’ve come from every corner of the earth only to be called Americans. My grandparents came from Mexico so they could become Americans just like your ancestors.  Everywhere I travel on the campaign trail I see people from all walks of life busy at work, getting an education, or starting a new business all in the hopes that one day their dreams will come true and they do so despite the interference and hardships placed upon them by government.  They are not ready to give up on their dreams and neither am I.

Unfortunately, our freedoms are becoming less and less with each passing day.  Today, government believes he is our master.  It seems to me that government taxes everything that moves, and if it doesn’t then it finds a way to subsidize it.  Just like slaves were treated over hundred years ago, government officials would have us believe that we are incapable of managing our own lives.  Well, don’t you believe them.

The truth is that our government has grown in its practice of governing in secret.  The Austin elites tell us only what they want us to know.  Perhaps they think the work they do is too complex for our understanding.  Perhaps that is why the state’s budget is so hard to read and understand even for many CPA. Perhaps that is why so many cities, counties, and school districts refuse to post their budgets on line for all the world to see. Why else would they act this way? Could it be that they truly believe that we might panic if we were to be told the truth? Could it be that if we found out they got us into these problems that just maybe, we would get mad and fire them? It makes me wonder.

I have a question for them? Why should we become frightened? History has shown us that there isn’t any problem that “We the People” can’t solve if government would just give us the facts, all the facts.  Then, get out of the way and let us have at it.

I am convinced there is more common sense at a high school PTA meeting or at a farmer’s Co-Op meeting than in all the combine brain power found in government bureaucrats or career politicians. I am convinced that the private sector can solve all of our biggest problems if only government would invite us to do that.

Since the founding of our nation “We the People” have faced incredible challenges over the course of our history, and we have solved every one of them. A civil war, the move from an agricultural economy to industrial one, two world wars, slavery, discrimination, terrorism and numerous natural disasters. The challenges we face today are daunting, but these too will be overcome because that is just what “We the People” do every day.

  

As you can see real solutions will require a new approach, a new way to solve our problems.   The next Comptroller must be wiser, more knowledgeable, a proven problem solver, and a consensus builder to provide the leadership that will be required to build a better Texas Tomorrow.  Let me fight for you. I am the only candidate with the proven experience, training, and vision to get the job done. 

That’s all for now. Next week I will present the final segment of “My Conversation with Texas.”  I hope you tune in.  To learn more about the Raul Torres campaign visit us on the web at http://electraultorres.com or http://www.txtomorrow.org

I just thought you should know.

For Texas and Liberty,

Raul Torres signature

 

Sen. Dan Patrick at the Downtown Houston Pachyderm Club

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Sen. Dan Patrick at the Downtown Houston Pachyderm Club
Sen. Dan Patrick at the Downtown Houston Pachyderm Club

Heh, I thought about making the title of this post “Dannie does the Pachyderm” but figured the humor would be lost on some. Plus the SEO for Google would be all messed up. So I’ll just tell you about the day that Sen. Dan Patrick spoke at the Downtown Houston Pachyderm Club. Which was today. Roughly 100 people turned out to hear their hometown Senator tell them why he is the right person at the right time for the job.

My love affair with Dannie

For those of you that are not evangelical Christians or are squeamish with your Christian faith, please jump to the next section because you will either not understand this or you will be very, very uncomfortable.

I love Jesus. That is a fact. But it wasn’t always so. Raised as a preacher’s kid, I did what many preacher’s kids do – made sure that you knew Pop was the preacher, not me. So I wandered in the wilderness that people wander around in when they reject the faith of their youth and try to make their place in the world. Part of the wandering was becoming involved in politics, conservative politics specifically. And if you lived in Harris County in the 1990’s, that meant you listened to KSEV 700.

And Dan Patrick was the voice of conservatives. But it wasn’t just Dan. It was an entire cast but most significantly for me, it was a guy named Mike Richards. Mike also loves Jesus and isn’t afraid to say so. Day after day I listened to this guy talk about joy and love, even as he talked about politics. Never backing down from his faith, never afraid to discuss his faith, always striving to glorify Jesus.

Mike’s sheer audacity, his never ending proclamation of Jesus as Lord, changed my life. Forever. I didn’t just go back to the faith of my youth, I understood what it meant. For that, I will ever be grateful.

So when Dan told me today, “I can never figure out whether you love me or hate me”, I thought I’d make it clear. I love you. And that will never change, no matter what happens in politics. Thank you for the gift that you have given me and my family.

Why Sen. Dan Patrick decided to run for Lt. Gov.

Dan started his speech by telling the crowd that he didn’t start the year with a plan to run for Lt. Gov. He had drawn a two year stick in the redistricting process and could have easily won reelection and then retired at the age of 68. And he acknowledged that he had three capable opponents.

He said that he is running because of the things we haven’t done as a state and that he sees the window of opportunity to do those things closing. If “it” (name your conservative legislation) hasn’t happened, it is because the leadership of the House and Senate didn’t want it to happen.

Dan decided to run the night of Wendy Davis’ filibuster. He said there was no reason whatsoever to make her a rock star, which is what happened when Lt. Gov. Dewhurst bungled the situation.

Issues that Dan would focus on

Property taxes – Dan brought up the signature issue that he ran on in 2006, capping appraisals on property. He told the crowd that during his time in the Senate, he had no chance of getting his bills on the issue out of committee because the committee chairs, appointed by the Lt. Gov., didn’t support them.

Border security – Dan stressed that he is not an open borders candidate.

Education reform – No one on the ballot knows more about education than Dan does and I would agree with that assessment. Dan has worked extremely hard, first as Vice-Chair of Public Education and then as Chair to learn the issues involved in Education and conservative ways to address them. If you look at the reforms included in HB5, they will be remembered as a seminal change in Texas education for years to come. Dan also fought very hard for school choice – we didn’t get what we wanted but we got more than we’ve gotten in almost two decades.

Dan is a rock solid conservative

Dan made sure the crowd knew that he doesn’t wake up in the morning wondering what he stands for. He said that since he has been in the Senate, he has been ranked the most conservative. He touted Michael Quinn Sullivan’s naming of him as one of three Senators that received A grades for the session.

Dan will pass bills on these issues

Dan made it a point to say that he will address and pass bills on these issues:

  • Sanctuary cities
  • Border security
  • School choice
  • Continue to reform education
  • Reduce property taxes

Dan stressed that he is not running just on some grand vision, but to get things done.

Dan will not appoint half of the Democrat senators as committee chairs

Committee chairs decide what legislation will pass. Republicans have great conservatives on the bench but they cannot be effective because the Democrat committee chairs block their bills. Although this theme doesn’t play well with me, it will play well among the majority of Republican primary voters. I’d hate to see Austin become as partisan as Washington, D.C., but I’m in the minority on that one.

The election is not about friends – not electing a 12th grade president

This is about electing someone with an impeccable conservative record, someone that has demonstrated themselves to be a conservative and has proven he can get things done. In God We Trust in the Senate, Under God in the Texas pledge, cutting business taxes $172 million, passing the sonogram bill.

Messaging to ethnic groups

Dan says that we are the party of minority groups and need to get this message out to them:

  • Pro family
  • Pro marriage
  • Pro life
  • Pro work
  • Pro American

Commentary

The primary thing I was looking for today was how well the crowd reacted to Dan. This club is full of judges and lawyers, but also precinct chairs and grassroots activists. And because of the location, everyone knows or knows of Dan. He received a standing ovation when he was introduced, which is not common but not rare either. And during his talk, he received a lot of applause. At the end, he received another standing ovation, which is fairly rare with this group. There were a lot of SD7 folks in attendance, so that helped and but I still got the impression that he was on target and well received.

One other note, his energy level was back to normal. He had worked so many hours during the session passing the education reforms that he looked very fatigued. But a couple of weeks off seems to have refreshed and energized him.

HCRP Chair Jared Woodfill managed to extract a public promise from Dan to engage in and work hard in areas that are traditionally ignored by Republicans. It was not only an interesting move by Jared, it was bold. But the problem for Dan is that he has been in office since 2006, hasn’t reached out to these communities, and in fact has supported the very people that have made it virtually impossible for the party to reach these communities. And Jared has done the same thing even longer. How these two will accomplish what they promised today is unknown but I do hope that people hold them to their promises.

During the question/answer period, I asked him to address the theory that if Dan is elected Lt. Gov., the Senate as a whole will strip him of his power. Dan dismissed this out of hand, saying that it would take all 11 Democrats (assuming Wendy Davis’ seat turns Republican) plus 5 Republicans and Dan didn’t think that 5 Republicans would turn on a conservative Lt. Gov. because they would have to go home and face the voters.

Like I said above, I love Dan as a person. He didn’t address his tendency to bring his emotions into legislation – forced generators, state intervention in education, checkpoints, etc., so I remain skeptical about his candidacy. But I’m reminded of what I wrote in May of 2007 in the midst of his first fight on property appraisal caps:

From the very moment that Dan Patrick declared his candidacy for Senate District 7, he has faced overwhelming odds. Three polished, experienced and connected politicians ran against him in the primary. News media ridiculed him daily, laughing at the audacity of a radio talk show host daring to run for public office. There was no way, they said, that his “small” base of listeners could propel him to victory.

After crushing his three primary opponents, their message changed to “of course he won, he has the bully pulpit of a radio station every day”. And “even though he won, he’ll be a joke in the Senate, no one will listen and he won’t get anything done”. Or “Patrick is just grandstanding and won’t devote time or effort to legislation”.

…

All I can say is thank you Sen. Patrick. And thank you to the voters of SD 7 who put him there.

Ineffective freshman my arse.

Regardless of any reservations I might have, if Sen. Dan Patrick does make it to the top of this mountain, I’m certain that he will be an effective conservative Lt. Governor.

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Lt Governor's race not heating up

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Texas Lt Governor logoWith four major declared candidates, you’d think that the race for Texas Lt Governor would be in high gear. Instead, it seems to be four guys talking to themselves and Republican primary voters (RPV’s) not caring much about what they say. Is this just the summer blues and voters will engage after Labor Day? Is it that the candidates are so similar that RPV’s can’t discern between them? Are RPV’s so focused on national issues that they are overlooking this race? I don’t have a clue but let’s take a look at the campaigns, in no particular order.

Dewsastrous phone call

As I noted earlier, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst had a great showing at the Downtown Houston Pachyderm Club. And he’s been working hard all across Texas reaching out to Tea Party groups. His campaign focuses on getting former Ted Cruz supporters to help him. Seems like an odd strategy to me but its a strategy I guess, something that was lacking in his campaign against Cruz. Despite the strategy, he doesn’t seem to be making inroads among grassroots conservatives that are also RPV’s. There is no excitement, no buzz about his campaign when I attend meetings in Harris County.

And no amount of strategy can overcome the Dewsastrous phone call he made trying to throw his influence around and get a step-niece out of jail. if Dewhurst stays in the race, we are going to be bombarded with that recording between January and March 2014. The old saying that all publicity is good publicity doesn’t apply when you are supposed to be the frontrunner. Click here for a taste of the mockery that abounds about that phone call.

Patterson’s social media lead

I saw on Texas Insider that Jerry Patterson had a huge lead in social media. Well….not so fast.

[table id=19 /]

As you can see in that table, Patterson does lead on Facebook by about 25{997ab4c1e65fa660c64e6dfea23d436a73c89d6254ad3ae72f887cf583448986} over Dewhurst. And that is probably a good thing since RPV’s tend to be older and Facebook attracts older users. I’m not sure I’d call it huge though. And that table also shows the weakness all of the campaigns have with younger voters, who tend to use Twitter more frequently.

Patterson just released a video that is very good called Washington West. Very good on everything but image. Maybe it is just me but I don’t think that sitting position works.Reminds me of an old geezer sitting on the front porch whiling away the days.

Dannie’s Dewfeed and CScope

Sen. Dan Patrick is doing a good job of getting his name out there. First with his Dewfeed.com website mocking Lt. Gov. Dewhurst, then with his “debate” on CScope with SBOE member Thomas Ratliff. But for all the buzz on “dewfeed.com” in the Texas political media, it hasn’t reached outside of that. If you don’t believe me, just ask the people around you if they’ve heard of it.

The CScope debate helps him a lot with RPV’s, specifically the far, far right that will certainly vote. It will only be a problem for him if one of his opponents points out that what he is doing is removing local control and inserting centralized state government into schools. That will not play well with most Republicans. But thus far, no one has done that.

Staples MIA

The Todd Staples campaign has been a huge letdown thus far. I was hoping that he would bring a lot of energy and excitement into the race with his youth. It hasn’t happened at all – just look at that table above on social media.

Some of the “MIA” could be specific to me because he isn’t focusing on Harris County. But if you do like I do and set up Google Alerts on each of these guys, Staples is rarely in the news. There is just no buzz about him out there and that is the death of a candidate. Perhaps his team is conserving their resources and waiting until high primary season but they should still be trying to gain “free media” exposure.

Elbowing to the right

Where are the big ideas? Big ideas are not the same as big taxation. Where is the vision for the future? Each of the candidates seem to be trying to elbow their way to the right of the others. Well, except Staples – I’m not sure what he’s trying to do. But none of them are talking about big issues or future vision. None of them are trying to expand the party by attracting independents to vote in the primary. The “playing to the base” isn’t helping the party grow and isn’t helping Texas prepare for the future.

C’mon guys, give us a good race. Give us someone to vote for instead of settling for the mediocre.

If you are in Houston, you can see Sen. Patrick tomorrow at the weekly meeting of the Downtown Houston Pachyderm Club. And ask him questions. Like, hey, Senator, you said you were going to run a positive campaign on the issues. What happened?

Raul Torres: To Be Excellent We Must Do Better

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It would have been nice if our local, county and state elected officials would for once decide to reduce the size of government so they don’t have to raise more fees or taxes to feed the government’s hunger.  But, I get this uncomfortable feeling that our many of these folks has adopted the same principles of the feral government that says, “If it moves tax it.”   We can do better.

Next, I wish to talk briefly about unemployment and the causes of it. Currently, there are over 830,000 people in Texas and approximately 12 million people in America that are unemployed. Being unemployed is a terrible feeling for anyone to have to endure. I should know because I have been unemployed.   To me, there is no greater personal tragedy than a person who is willing to work and has a much needed job skill but is unable to find a job.   We can do better in creating more jobs for Texas families and as your next State Comptroller we will.

Now, regarding the campaign that is before us. An effort will be made in this

Raul Torrescampaign to suggest that there aren’t any real differences between the other candidates and myself.  Well, I believe there are and these differences are fundamental.  One of them has to do with our approach to government.  Two of my opponents have served as legislators for a combined 40 years.  I believe this is what real folks call “a career politician.”  For most of their adult life both of them have been a part of the Austin Establishment.  Most of my adult life has been spent outside of government raising a family and running a business.  My experience in government is only two years during the time when I served as a Texas State Representative.

When I became a State Representative, My colleagues and I inherited a state budget that was had a $25 billion shortfall.    My colleagues and I balanced the budget without a tax increase and passed the most conservative pieces of legislation in the history of Texas.  Yet, I know for certain that the state budget was filled with unnecessary wasteful spending.   That is why I authored and worked diligently to pass SB 563 with the help of Senator Mike Jackson.   This bill was the first step of my plan to reduce billions of dollars of wasteful spending in state government.  This was the first piece of legislation of its kind in all the nation and other states are now following our example.  By implementing Lean Six Sigma into state government Texas can save $10-$20 billion per year! We can do better and as your next Comptroller we will.
Unfortunately, my opponents, who were informed of the results of SB 563, didn’t think that reducing wasteful state spending was worth their time or something that would benefit Texas taxpayers. Imagine that. It’s apparent that my primary opponents forgot their so called conservative principles of limited government and responsible spending two items which protect Texas taxpayers.

This past May, my opponents, who claim to be conservatives, passed a new budget that included a 26{997ab4c1e65fa660c64e6dfea23d436a73c89d6254ad3ae72f887cf583448986} increase in spending or another $22 billion in more spending than we did during the 2011 budget. Plus, my opponents failed to pass many other conservative pieces of legislation that were available during the regular session.  For example, my opponents failed to pass legislation that would have placed a constitutional limit on spending, and also failed to pass legislation that would increase or improve transparency on many different areas of government.   Finally, they also failed to address school finance, but they did manage to pass over 1500 more laws calling for and more and bigger government.

I had never in my life thought of seeking or holding public of office and I’m still not quite sure how it all happened.  In my own mind, I was a citizen who was concerned about family’s future and the past 30 years as I watched the world pass by me I concluded that government wasn’t the answer, but rather was the problem.

I believe that if government is operated like we operate our homes and our Raul Torresbusinesses then government could solve many of the problems facing us today. I am convinced that career politicians, those who have been part of the problem, are not necessarily the best qualified to solve those problems. Albert Einstein once said, “”We cannot solve our problems with the same level of thinking that created them.”   How true this is.

 

As you can see in order for Texas to be excellent we must do better. We can do much better and as your next Comptroller we will! That’s all for now. Next week I will present another segment of my conversation with Texas. To learn more about the Raul Torres campaign visit us on the web at http://electraultorres.com or http://www.texastomorrow.org.
I just thought you should know.
For Texas and Liberty,
Raul Torres signature

Sen. Tommy Williams: Special prosecutor needed?

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A special prosecutor may have been named to handle Texans’ for Public Justice’s criminal complaint against Governor Perry but will that same special prosecutor handle the complaint below? Or will the complaint below be among the 54 cases to be dropped by the Travis County Public Integrity Unit?

Sen. Tommy Williams
Sen. Tommy Williams

In a complaint received by Travis County District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg’s Public Integrity Office on December 11th, 2012, it is alleged Texas State Sen. Tommy Williams exerted improper influence through the use of his office to ensure the Texas Attorney General reached a decision to file criminal charges against the complainant and others. In doing so, the complaint alleges Senator Williams violated state laws prohibiting public officials from using their office to influence the outcome of a proceeding on the basis of considerations other than those authorized by law.

I received a copy of the complaint from the complainant.

The complaint outlines that State Senator Williams violated Texas Penal Code Section 36.04 which reads:

a). a person commits an offense if he privately addresses a representation, entreaty, argument, or other communication to any public servant who exercises or will exercise official discretion in an adjudicatory proceeding with an intent to influence the outcome of the proceeding on the basis of considerations other than those authorized by law

b). for purposes of this section, “adjudicatory proceeding” means any proceeding before a court or any other agency of government in which the legal rights, powers, duties, or privileges of specific parties are determined.

c). an offense under this section is a Class A misdemeanor

Specifically included in the complaint was a series of emails; all obtained as official responses to a (n) open records request (s). Dated September 15, 2010 from Tommy Williams non-Senate email to or from members of The Woodlands RUD legal counsel, or their agents, representatives or related entities, one email summarizes the results of a conference call he (Williams) concluded with the (Texas) “Attorney General’s office on the voter fraud in the 23 June township election.”

In that email State Senator Tommy Williams documents the three step process two individuals should follow to submit a letter requesting assistance from then Texas Secretary of State Hope Andrade challenging the result of The Woodlands RUD May 2010 general election contest. Williams directs the two individuals to:

“address your complaint to the Secretary of State, send your complaint to (name withheld) and he will walk it over and put it in the right person’s hands at the SOS office.”

State Senator Williams is so acutely aware of the email he sent from his non-Senate email address that the closing sentence of his email reads in part:

“While I am happy you brought this to my attention I would ask you to contact me through my Senate office at [email protected] on matter of official state business.”

The complaint further alleges Senator Williams violated the Texas Open Records Act in regards to an open records request made by the complainant to Patsy Spaw, Secretary of the Senate. Ms. Spaw claims to have made a search of Senator Williams email records relevant to the open records request and found that no responsive records existed. Yet when another entity made almost the exact same request, an email from Senator Williams was produced.

I have a copy of the September 15, 2010 email from Texas State Senator William’s non-Senate email address and I am not publishing it at this time.

You though, dear reader, can read a copy of the complaint filed with Rosemary Lehmberg’s office here.

For readers of The Woodlands Road Utility District series, you will immediately recognize this complaint is related to the RUD case.

Will this complaint against Williams be one of the 54 cases to be dropped by the Travis County Public Integrity Office? Will “Texans for Public Justice” support the complainant? Or is TPJ simply an organization supporting Public Justice for Only Some Texans?