I told you earlier that this was going to be a nasty race but even I didn’t expect mailers to go out six months before the filing deadline. A reader contacted me after receiving this attack on Chris Daniel:
Click here if the viewer doesn’t open:
Completely illegal because there is no identification on it as to who paid for it but hey, who cares? And that is the big question: who sent this and who does it benefit?
The easy answer is that Daniel’s announced candidate, Court Koenning, sent it out because it “hurts” Daniel. Well, maybe. I talked to Court about it and he was unaware of it and denied any participation in it. I also spoke with one of his campaign staffers, who also said that he was unaware of it and denied participation in it. And you know what? I believe them. You’ll have to decide for yourself and yes, I admit that I can occasionally be snookered but both Court and his staffer seemed genuinely surprised by it.
Plus, it really doesn’t benefit Court if you think about it for a minute. I mean, an ethics complaint on a technical detail is very common despite the claim of the anonymous sender. And the fine of $500 is routine as well. Add in that the letter was sent to Daniel’s supporters and it just doesn’t make sense because no one that is listed on Daniel’s website as a supporter is going to drop him over a technical error on a campaign finance report.
So who does it benefit? Well, Chris Daniel. How? It gets this out of the way early and gives his consultant an easy out to start attacking Court Koenning. You know how it works – hey, he did it first! We’re just responding! Remember who Daniel’s campaign consultant is? Umm, hmm. Allen Blakemore. Dirt. Slime. No ice machine. And someone that is known to have used this method in the past.
Interesting campaign trick if I’m right.
I also talked to Chris and he explained the complaint. It was filed by the yahoos up in the Conroe/Huntsville area that file the bulk of ethics complaints in Texas. They call themselves the Texas Ethics Advisory Board and use the reports to mine data. Chris explained that the report that the complaint was based on was one filed before he hired the Blakemore firm and that they now do his reports for him and there have been no further complaints filed. One of the errors was leaving a line blank instead of inserting a zero. That is why these technical violations are meaningless. You can view the entire Order and Resolution by clicking here.
If my theory is correct, you can expect a lot of dirt flying Koenning’s way sooner rather than later.
Rhymes W. Right says
I suspect this is one coming out of the Dan-ocratic faction that has gotten Koenning to run against Daniel in the first place.
Rhymes W. Right says
And you are right — it isn't going to change my mind on Chris. I asked him about the matter personally when the complaint was resolved and got essentially the same explanation you gave.
Adrian Heath says
The only Yahoos where the Texas Ethics Commission is concerned are the legislators, judges, and candidates for the same, who pretend to be worthy to represent us, yet behave like autonomous rulers, and who actually crafted and created the TEC yet decline to keep the very rules they created.