Big Jolly Politics

politics in Harris County and Texas

Special Session and the Governorship

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Competition is a good thing and when you have two conservatives vying to be governor, it could be really good. Abbott is described by one Texas lawmaker as scheduling a “conservative home run derby” with the announced special session. The winner will be conservatives all over Texas who have waited for years for such an opportunity. Governor Abbott is playing catch up with Republican primary voters and Abbott’s 20 item special session is his way of getting ahead of Dan Patrick. Two questions remain: (1) will it succeed and (2) will the mainstream media recognize the subtlety.

Democrats have wrongly accused Governor Abbott of becoming unhinged based on the content of his special session call. Democrats see Abbott’s conservative call as a liberal disaster. What they do not see is that Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick is planning to run against Abbott. Lt. Dan has been planning this since at least November 2016 when he and his political consultant Allen Blakemore openly discussed the opportunity at the Harris County Republican Party election night watch party. When all countywide republicans were defeated in one fell swoop in Harris County, Patrick saw opportunity.

Planning and success in politics requires opportunities, not unlike the business world. Darrell Royal once said, “Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.” Sports metaphors work in politics too.

When Dan Patrick wakes up in the morning, he sees the President of the United States in the mirror, not the Lieutenant Governor of Texas. Lt. Dan sees the Governor’s Mansion as his next step to the presidency. The governorship of Texas provides a very important fundraising platform. While only thirteen presidents served as governors, four of the six latest presidents were governors: Jimmy Carter (Georgia), Ronald Reagan (California), Bill Clinton (Arkansas), and George W. Bush (Texas).

Lt. Dan’s plan requires getting rid of Governor Abbott. Patrick’s team has already begun to portray Governor Abbott as a nice enough guy, but someone who is not moving the conservative agenda forward. If you are active in Republican circles you have heard Patrick’s “Abbott has failed to show leadership” narrative. Governor Abbott is behind because he actually believed Patrick when he said that he would not run against Abbott.

This plan is being executed on a number of fronts. The bathroom bill was nothing more than a ruse to put Lt. Dan to the right of the Governor, and to get back into the good graces of Steve Hotze. The quest is to win over Republican primary voters. This will confound the Texas media. Most of the media that covers statewide politics covers it from the prism of Austin. This is the last place this fight will occur. Conservative enclaves in Houston, Dallas, Fort Worth, and San Antonio are about to be wined and dined in a way we haven’t seen in quite some time. Lt. Dan has been on a statewide tour explaining his great leadership skills.

The orchestration of the death of the sunset bill was by design. This was done to bait Abbott into calling a special session and the Texas Freedom Caucus was used by Patrick to further his agenda. Don’t get me wrong, the Texas Freedom Caucus is a group of  liberty and freedom loving patriots who are all about smaller government, but they need to be careful of Lt. Dan as well. Watching Lt. Dan throw every Houston taxpayer under the bus on the pension bill should be a cautionary tale to all.

Before he killed the sunset bill, Lt. Dan had to wait until the pension bill (SB 2190) passed the house so his law enforcement union friends (e.g., HPOU) would continue to support him and line his pockets. Patrick has always closely aligned himself with this union, which handed out more money to legislators this session than Donald J. Trump trying to get a building built in Manhattan. I hope that Governor Abbott was smart enough to cut a deal of his own before he signed this horrific legislation. Once the pension bill passed, Abbott and Straus played into Patrick’s hands – now it will be a fight.

One winner in this fight: Texas conservatives. Strong conservative legislation makes folks choose sides. This will not be good for Straus and his Republican henchman. Republican primary voters are about to learn a lot about their state representatives. Speaker Straus and his liberal house leadership, including his democratic committee chairman, are about to be whipsawed in a way not seen in these parts in a long time. Straus is unlikely to survive and the heat of the July Texas special session summer will burn through until the Republican primary.

Governor Abbott finally woke up to realize that Patrick was putting him in a corner and Abbott is fighting back with his special session call. Folks forget that your opponent gets to throw punches too. It is great to see the governor fighting back and doing his best to prove his conservative bona fides. Again, conservatives for the win.

This game is probably over for now and (unfortunately) Lt. Dan will have an advantage in a 2018 Republican primary against Abbott. Remember, the goal is for Lt. Dan to be in position to primary Donald Trump in 2020 or step into his shoes if something should happen. I was reminded of Dan Patrick’s press conference to announce that he was not running for governor. I was also reminded that Kay Bailey Hutchison denied 18 times (six times on television) that she was running against Rick Perry before she did.

Competition is a good and the real winners here will be conservatives. We need more conservative competition for ideas in Texas and nationally, it is healthy for our Republic.

Devon Anderson Shoots the Messenger!

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I-told-you-so

The messengers have been indicted. Yesterday, Mary Lou Keel’s grand jury indicted David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt for their involvement in the Planned Parenthood investigation. Keel, the judge of the 232nd District Court is currently running for the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.

This result was foreshadowed by District Attorney Devon Anderson’s prior decision making. As you likely know, Devon Anderson was appointed by Rick Perry to the position after her husband, Mike Anderson, passed away months into his first term. Following this appointment, Devon was placed on the 2014 ballot to complete her late husband’s term. On December 20, 2013, after she knew that she did not have a primary opponent, a Harris County grand jury no billed Douglas Karpen, a local doctor accused of performing late term abortions. Four former employees of Karpen accused him of delivering live babies during the third trimester and killing them by snipping their spinal cords or twisting their necks. The evidence was compelling and any decent prosecutor from the DA’s office could have taken the case to trial with these witnesses. Anderson of course no billed Karpen. Anderson decided to stick with capital murders on video. That is the level of evidence that she is comfortable with.

One of Anderson’s largest campaign contributors is a criminal defense lawyer named Chip Lewis – Karpen’s attorney.

Devon Anderson has highlighted the work of Ann Johnson, hired by Mike Anderson to “specialize and combat human trafficking.” In 2012, Ann Johnson ran as a pro-Planned Parenthood Democrat against State Representative Sarah Davis.

Anderson has never been called to task about her judicial bypass record as a District Court Judge.

Here we are and Devon Anderson is again on the ballot.  Now, she seeks a full term as District Attorney – again, without a primary opponent. Devon Anderson and her arrogance have succeeded in going where no DA has gone before. Can you imagine a sitting Harris County DA going to the left of the Los Angeles District Attorney or the Manhattan DA’s office? Is this Texas Justice?

While we wait for the records to appear on the Harris County District Clerk’s website, you may research Devon Anderson on Big Jolly. You need to ask yourselves why Dan Patrick, Ryan Patrick, Jared Woodfill, Hotze, and others have been such big supporters of the Andersons. Hate to say I told you so, but . . .

https://bigjolly.com/devon-anderson-cancels-debates-2/

https://bigjolly.com/voted-kim-ogg/

https://bigjolly.com/harris-countys-tough-crime-da-devon-anderson/

https://bigjolly.com/da-devon-anderson-delay-victor-trevino-trial/

https://bigjolly.com/appointment-devon-anderson/

Charge against David Daleiden

Charge against Susan Merritt

Perry grand jury not the problem

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It isn’t often that I agree with Houston Chronicle columnist Lisa Falkenberg but her column on the Perry grand jury that indicted the Texas governor is spot-on.

In Harris County and other Texas jurisdictions where judges use the “pick-a-pal” system to empanel grand jurors, bias and corruption are natural byproducts. The judge picks a pal, called a “commissioner,” to go out and find some more pals to serve on a grand jury and supposedly mete out justice. The process, as I’ve written, has been outlawed in the federal system, and is still only used in Texas and California.

But it wasn’t used in this case.

Richardson didn’t ask a buddy to empanel the grand jurors. The members were randomly selected from Travis County jurors who answered a summons – a similar process to the one used to select regular trial juries.

Attorneys on both sides didn’t respond to my questions on whether potential grand jurors were screened for any conflicts or biases that would keep them from fairly considering the case. Tyus hasn’t returned phone calls or email, either. But a few other grand jurors have told the Chronicle that the indictment had nothing to do with politics.

And who is Perry to say it did? A presidential contender and a man facing two felonies, that’s who.

Even veteran criminal defense lawyer Dick DeGuerin, who has defended Perry saying he appropriately used his veto power, hasn’t blamed the indictment on politics.

“This is not one where Rick Perry’s lawyers can say ‘this is Ronnie Earl at it again’,” DeGuerin told me, referring to the former Travis County district attorney often criticized for going after political enemies.

(click here to read the entire column on HoustonChronicle.com)

Judge Bert Richardson picked the grand jury from among regular folks responding to a jury summons. A cross section of the community is what grand juries should be made of. If people are upset that more Republicans weren’t on the grand jury, perhaps they should tell Republicans to respond to those summonses.

As we’ve documented many times, the “pick-a-pal” grand jury system used in Harris County is ripe for abuse and has been abused. Mrs. Falkenberg’s recent spotlight on the system is very much welcome and we hope the judges in Harris County stop using the system until state law is changed to do away with it.

I am curious to know if she now wishes that she hadn’t praised the 185th Grand Jury that was used to oust former DA Pat Lykos. Here is what Falkenberg wrote back in October, 2011:

Grand jurors of the 185th criminal court, you are my heroes.

I had lost all faith that any elected official would get to the bottom of the BAT van controversy, that any of them would care enough to figure out whether the Houston Police Department or Harris County District Attorney Pat Lykos‘ office were trying to cover up faulty evidence. Or whether the DA’s office tried to retaliate against the whistle-blower who brought problems with HPD’s blood alcohol testing vans to light.

(click here to read the entire column on Chron.com)

Heroes? Hardly. Useful tools for a DA candidate named Mike Anderson and his trusty consultant? Absolutely. Led by a Wyatt-Earp wanna be foreperson? Without a doubt. Facilitated by a judge that didn’t like Pat Lykos? Yep.

Remember, not a single indictment was handed down after this prolonged witch hunt, the two fired lab clerks also lost in Federal court and are being forced to cover court costs, and those BAT vans are still in use today.

Perhaps her earlier column explains why Falkenberg has refused to write about the 185th in her series on abusive grand juries in Harris County. Hopefully she can get past that and shine some light on the abuse that took place in the 185th courtroom.

Harris County DA Anderson stands with Rick Perry

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I LOL’d when I saw this Facebook post on  Harris County District Attorney Devon Anderson’s page:

devon anderson supports rick perry

Well, of course she does! The guy gave her the job of Harris County DA!

The irony of DA Anderson standing with Perry on this is hilarious. After all, Devon Anderson wouldn’t be in office right now if her husband hadn’t used a corrupt grand jury to defeat a reform minded incumbent. Then, when he passed away, Gov. Rick Perry appointed her to the job. And now Gov. Perry is crying foul about a corrupt grand jury? Good lord, you really can’t make this stuff up. Want to learn more about the corrupt grand jury that resulted in Mrs. Anderson’s appointment by Gov. Perry? Click here and scroll through the posts on Judge Susan Brown’s 185th Runaway Grand Jury.

Clearly his appointment of Devon Anderson to fill Mike Anderson’s seat was politically motivated as well. The grieving widow didn’t bother to fill her appointment application out in full but was appointed swiftly anyway. How do I know this? Because at the time he appointed her, I filed a Public Information Act request for the applications of everyone that applied for the job. Mrs. Anderson was the only one that didn’t bother to list any of her accomplishments during her legal career. The others had page after page of accomplishments, published articles, and examples of why they would be right for the job. But our Governor didn’t need to see any of that from Mrs. Anderson. Click here to read her application for yourself. Click here to learn more about Mrs. Anderson’s opponent in November, Kim Ogg.

About Perry’s indictment, another irony is watching the right and left reverse their arguments. In Perry’s case, the right is blasting the process and wants the indictment quashed. The left is supporting the indictment and telling us to let the process play out. Now go up to Ferguson, MO and you get the reverse. The right is telling us to let the process play out and the left is demanding swift “justice” (i.e., throw the officer out the window). How about we all calm down and let the legal system do its job in both cases?

And of course nothing would be complete without Michael Quinn Sullivan blaming Texas House Speaker Joe Straus of all people for the whole Perry mess. Instead of using his usual platform of Empower Texans, he takes it to Brietbart Texas “News”, telling us that Phil King tried to move the funding for the Public Integrity Unit out of the Travis County DA’s office and under the Texas Attorney General’s office. I guess that Tim Dunn has decided to fund Brietbart’s Texas operations. At any rate, Mike tells us that Straus’ “lieutenants” blocked the move and gives us the House journal report on it.

But as ususal with Mike’s attacks on Straus, it’s just half-true. Sure, 18 Republicans joined the Democrats to block the amendment. But what Mike doesn’t bother to tell you is that the very next amendment by King (Amendment No. 28) was to study moving the office from the Travis County DA and it was adopted unanimously. The report on that study would have been due September 1st this year had the governor not vetoed it. What that tells me is that there were still 18 House Republicans that put the best interests of the state ahead of partisan politics. That’s a very good thing, not a negative. Imagine if King’s first amendment had been adopted, then Ken Paxton gets elected to the AG post. He has far worse ethics and legal problems than the Travis County DA, so we’d be back at square one trying to move the funding back to Travis County. Knee-jerk reactions are never good public policy, regardless of which party they come from.

Texas politics. What can you say that hasn’t already been said?

UPDATE

Rep. David Simpson wrote a blog post yesterday on his reasons for voting against King’s amendment.

I voted against the measure because: (1) it was unconstitutional and (2) fraught with unintended consequences.

It perplexes me that the same people who are decrying the actions of the Ethics Commission are also questioning the votes of members who opposed granting the Commission an unconstitutional task.

Click here to read his entire post.

 

Governor Perry – The Texas Democrat Party Official Who Threatened to Kill NRA Members is Behind SB 346!

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Yvonne Larsen
Yvonne Larsen

The Texas Democrat Party official who threatened to kill NRA President David Keene and all NRA members is an “interested party” supporting the passage of SB 346. The bill you are considering signing into law is based upon public comments submitted in writing to the Texas Sunset Advisory Commission by John Cobarruvias! To make matters worse, another “interested party”,  the River Oaks Area Democrat women (ROADwomen), the ones who hold holiday parties at Planned Parenthood, also submitted public comments to the TSAC.

In December 16, 2012 Big Jolly Politics published Houston blogger & Democrat Precinct Chair John Cobarruvias’ Tweet advocating for the murder of NRA members:

yvonne-sb346-1

Governor Perry! You are an NRA member, too!

Rhymes With Right posted a follow up piece further explaining Cobarruvias is not only an elected member of the Texas Democratic Party Executive Committee, John has a history of violating federal law & threatening acts of violence against his political enemies at the State Capitol.

Remember what happened in California when businesses and people in support of Prop 8 were targeted for harrassment? How about the IRS witch-hunts targeting Conservatives? Where will it end?

ROADwomen and Planned Parenthood have been exempted from the bills’ requirements:

(c)  A person or group of persons accepts political contributions if its members or donors make  a payment, including dues, to the person or group of persons and, at the time of making the payments, the members or donors have reason to know that their payments may be used to make political contributions or political expenditures or may be commingled with other funds used to make political contributions or political expenditures.

It’s bad enough we had Republican Senators who sided with Democrat Senators & voted in favor of SB 346.

Please veto the bill!

TSTA Poll: Texans happy with Gov. Perry, Republican Legislature

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You’ll probably recall that last week the Texas State Teachers Association issued a press release touting a poll that claims that Texans overwhelmingly support using the Rainy Day Fund to “restore” cuts in public education spending. Predictably, it was picked up by the Texas press and presented verbatim – the dean of the Texas political media presented it without critique, saying “This was a very good poll for supporters of public education.”

But what struck me was that the press release didn’t link to the poll questions. In fact, you won’t find them listed anywhere on the TSTA.org website. Well, I take that back – you will find three charts that support the press release. Somehow, Charles Kuffner over at his OfftheKuff blog obtained a Powerpoint presentation about the poll  that is very interesting. So interesting that Kuffner didn’t talk about it much.

First off, guess what? Texans are happy with Governor Rick Perry, the Republican controlled legislature, and the direction of the state. How about that? You think the dean will talk about that? How about Kuffner? I’m guessing not because that would destroy the perception that they spend most of their time pushing – in fact, look at what Kuffner wrote in the very piece that included the Republican positives:

It’s great to have public opinion on one’s side. But there’s a disconnect right now between public opinion and what’s happening in the Capitol. Part of that is a function of the way legislative lines are drawn, since the opinion of Republican primary voters is so often at odds with the opinion of everyone else, including Republican non-primary voters.

Except that there is no disconnect according to the very poll he cites, which was paid for and published by the very left leaning TSTA. From the poll:

  • Political Mood:  State Direction and Governor Perry Rating – Voters remain happy with the status quo; only Democrats are negative.
  • Rating of Texas State Legislature – As with Perry, a majority are positive toward the Legislature with Republican voters leading the way.

No disconnect at all. In fact, after reading this line:

Awareness of 2011 Education Budget Cuts – A 58{997ab4c1e65fa660c64e6dfea23d436a73c89d6254ad3ae72f887cf583448986} majority claim recall of the $5 Billion school funding budget cuts of 2011.  Independents (64{997ab4c1e65fa660c64e6dfea23d436a73c89d6254ad3ae72f887cf583448986}) and Austin market (70{997ab4c1e65fa660c64e6dfea23d436a73c89d6254ad3ae72f887cf583448986}) voters are most aware as are Republican Primary voters (66{997ab4c1e65fa660c64e6dfea23d436a73c89d6254ad3ae72f887cf583448986}).

I’d have to say that the biggest disconnect in Texas politics is the one in which “progressive” bloggers like Kuffner claim that Texas Republican primary voters are “stupid”, “dumb”, “idiotic”, etc. After all the attacks on us, it is nice to see that we Republican primary voters are the most informed group in the state. We already knew that, of course, but it is nice of the TSTA to confirm it. Not that they wanted anyone to know about it but still, it is nice.

Now, about the whole “Texans overwhelmingly support using the RDF” nonsense. Take a look at the questions and you’ll see why they got the results they wanted.

QUESTION: Next, some background information about this.  Two years ago, the Texas Legislature CUT over 5 Billion dollars in public school funding in order to balance the state budget while at the same time maintaining 6 Billion dollars in the state’s reserve Rainy Day Fund.  Since then, the Texas economy and tax revenues have grown so that now the state’s surplus Rainy Day Fund is now nearly $12 Billion. Given this, would you FAVOR or OPPOSE having the Texas State Legislature restore the 5 Billion dollars they cut in public school funding by putting that money back into public schools?

Well, isn’t that special? The big bad Texas legislature took away money from schools even though they had plenty in the bank. Now the bank fund is twice the size! NOW can we have it back? OF COURSE we favor giving the money back to the children! We aren’t mean!

Or take a look at this one:

QUESTION: Which is closer to how you feel about the impact the 5 Billion dollars in spending cuts had on Texas public schools over the last 2 years?

•  These cuts hurt the quality of classroom instruction

OR

•  These cuts were absorbed by cutting waste and overhead without really harming the quality of education Texas students receive

That’s laughable.

What if the question had been worded this way?

QUESTION: Allen ISD built a huge football stadium, several superintendents received pay raises even as they laid off teachers, and most graduates have to take remedial courses in college. The state spends 60{997ab4c1e65fa660c64e6dfea23d436a73c89d6254ad3ae72f887cf583448986} of it’s budget on schools. Given those circumstances,

•  Should we put more tax money into these failing schools

OR

•  Hold the budget line and tell them to improve at educating children?

Wonder what the answer would be to that question?

I converted the Powerpoint to a PDF if you want to read the whole thing:

TSTA Poll on School Funding

I also find it interesting that the same people that trash Comptroller Susan Combs for “missing” the revenue forecast for the last biennium are taking her word as gospel for the upcoming one. If we shouldn’t have cut funding based upon her inability to forecast revenue two years out, then we darn sure shouldn’t increase funding based on her forecast this time. The prudent thing for the legislature to do would be to keep funding about where it is now and if the revenue does increase, spend it at that time . That way, if revenue doesn’t increase as projected, we won’t have to hear the “progressives” whining about budget cuts.