Perhaps the case had no effect back in 2005 but last I looked, a Governor, Texas media outlets and blogger didn’t cotton too well to elected officials remaining in office after an arrest and / or conviction for DUI or DWI back in 2009 or as recently as April 2013.
From the Houston Chronicle circa 2005:
“U.S. Rep Kevin Brady R- The Woodlands, pleaded no contest Tuesday to a drunken driving charge in his home state of South Dakota…he was convicted and fined $350.”
The account describes the sobriety test given to Brady by the South Dakota state trooper:
“The officer smelled alcohol on Brady’s breath and asked the lawmaker to step out of the car. he administered a breath test and several sobriety tests to Brady, who refused a blood alcohol test, as was his right under state law.”
Gene Green, D-Houston was quoted as saying “I think he’ll do fine…I can’t imagine (the case) having any effect.”
Contrast the no call for Brady’s resignation after his DUI conviction, no call for Montgomery County Judge Alan Sadler’s resignation after his 2009 DWI arrest, to the arm flailing, chest thumping calls for Travis County DA Rosemary Lehmberg to resign after her April 2013 DUI arrest.
Kuffner almost let the cat out of the bag here, but didn’t go far enough in publicizing Texas Local Government Code Chapter 87 (removal of county officers from office; filling of vacancies), Sec 87.013 general grounds for removal (a) an officer may be removed for:
“incompetency, official misconduct, intoxication on or off duty caused by drinking an alcoholic beverage”
…in that Sec 87.012 does not apply to Congress.
Must be another one of those Congressional “loopholes”; something stinks to high heaven IMHO.
If Texans don’t like the law, the proper remedy is to repeal the law or portions of it in the Texas Legislature, not selectively enforce the law to protect your allies and punish others.
Of course the laws are applied unevenly.
Yvonne Larsen — there's a real simple reason for the law not applying to Congresscritters. City, county, and state officials are elected to offices established by either the state constitution or some statute. As such, the state may regulate qualifications for them and the circumstances under which an official may be removed from that office. Senators and Representatives are elected to an office established by the US Constitution, with the qualifications and the like established pursuant to that document. Nowhere does the state have the authority to alter the qualifications or the terms of service for those offices since the US Constitution is superior to any state constitution or statute.
Yes, Rhymes. I was willing to take risk in approaching this subject, knowing that it is the US Constituion that is the reason for this Texas law not applying to the Congresscritters. A few principles however, are worthy of discussion. One is the faux outrage over calls for Lehmberg’s resignation, which brings to light the function of the Travis County Public Integrity Unit and the types of ethics complaints they investigate, including the complaint filed on Governor Perry. The second principle relates to the selectiveness wtith which complaints filed with the Travis County PIU are reported to the public. Yes, I am implying and asserting I have direct knowledge of another coercion complaint filed with the Travis County PIU….
This sort of thing has slowly eroded the trust that the citizens have in their elected officials and government. People are beginning to understand that their government does not consider them to be equals, sovereign citizens and their source of authority, but rather an inconvenient source of revenue which must occasionally be placated.