Big Jolly Politics

politics in Harris County and Texas

Legislative Session

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The 85th Legislative Session was different in many ways. Two things changed the narrative this session. First, Empower Texans successfully augmented the mainstream media with the conservative perspective. Social media is important and our friends at Empower Texans are mastering it. Michael Quinn Sullivan and Empower Texans covered the session well and kept viewers well informed on the progress of conservative legislation as it moved through the House and Senate. The weekly live broadcasts by Sullivan and Jim Graham of Texas Right to Life really enhanced this session and highlighted the defects in House leadership. Second, the Texas Freedom Caucus led the charge against liberal legislation and successfully thwarted Straus and his henchmen. Conservatism had a voice this session.

Houston conservatives lost this session with the passage of SB 2190 – the pension bill. Turner ran his bill through the legislature with the assistance of Lt. Dan, Senator Joan Huffman, and House members supported by the Houston Police Officer’s Union (HPOU). This bill may help HPOU in the short term, but at what cost? Our city and our firefighters were ignored this session. HPOU has 750 million dollars in bond proceeds in the bill to pay for their Deferred Retirement Option Plans (DROP). These DROP benefits often contain millions of dollars per officer in addition to their 95{997ab4c1e65fa660c64e6dfea23d436a73c89d6254ad3ae72f887cf583448986} retirement pay for life. Now you know why the City of Houston is 10 billion dollars in debt. There are a lot of officers wishing to retire and run out the door because they negatively view the shift in criminal justice policy (i.e., Kim Ogg as DA and Art Acevedo as Chief of Police). This November, Houstonians will vote on the bond and repeal of the property tax cap.

On a much lighter note, the Texas Freedom Caucus (TFC) kicked butt and proved much more fun to watch than the Houston Rockets. Jonathan Stickland made a name for himself this session and helped the conservative cause against Straus and his liberal policies. The caucus is composed of a group of freedom and liberty loving conservatives from around the state who waged a war with the liberal agenda (including some “Republicans”) all session. The TFC revolt was entertaining and important. This revolt led to some great floor fights between impassioned, true conservatives fighting with liberals over the policies that govern our state. I say great because the TFC push revealed the weak, false conservatives à la Straus henchmen.

Dan Huberty

The TFC revealed a number of local representatives who are weak on conservative issues. For example, a number of local representatives worked against Houston Fire on the pension bill. This list includes Jim Murphy, Dan Huberty, and other (current and/or former) clients of Allen Blakemore like Dennis Paul, John Zerwas, Kevin Roberts, and Mike Schofield. Blakemore’s tentacles are a sure sign of poison in the water. Thanks to these folks, Houstonians will need to hold on to their wallets with all their might!

I truly do not understand why Sarah Davis keeps up this charade. Davis does not have a conservative bone in her body. I bet that the Fox News Channel has been removed from all of the televisions in the Davis home. Please remember that the Harris County Republican Party, under the leadership of Paul Simpson, placed the entire countywide campaign on the shoulders of Davis. And Davis was all in with Devon Anderson (the DA who jailed a sexual assault victim). As you know, this experiment failed miserably.

Davis fought against every pro-life bill this session – and seemed to enjoy it! Simpson’s effort to keep Davis in office cost every Harris County Republican in 2016.

Briscoe Cain and Valoree Swanson were our local superstars this session. Both quickly aligned themselves with the TFC and became valued members of this merry band of rebel rousers. Throughout the session, I turned to Brsicoe to find out what was going on with particular items of interest. Valoree provided crucial support to pro-life bills and had a good session. The liberal media attacked both and now you know why – they were effective in moving conservative legislation. Importantly, both members voted against Turner’s pension bill.

Throughout the session Lt. Dan worked hard to position himself for a run against Governor Abbott. Yesterday, Governor Abbott proved that he can handle Lt. Dan when he named twenty issues for the July Special Session. Put your chin straps on because it will be a ride

Big Jolly will keep you informed throughout the summer.

Simpson’s Inability to Unite the Party

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Will a #NeverTrumper be able to lead the Harris County Republican Party to victory in 2018? Paul Simpson has kicked off the new year with a series of meetings to try to justify his losing campaign of 2016. Simpson and his team met separately with bloggers, including David Jennings and me, candidates, and judges and he is now on a road show to explain his losing 2016 campaign. Simpson has a lot of data to go with his talking points as to why Harris County Republicans did so poorly. This is my review of Simpson & Co.’s efforts in the 2016 election cycle.

Simpson and his consultant, Kevin Shuvalov, prioritized voter turnout in HD 134, home to Sarah Davis. The re-election of Sarah Davis, the self-identified pro-choice “Republican” was a priority to Joe Straus as Davis carried all of Planned Parenthood’s bills last session.

In the 2016 election, Texas Right to Life specifically targeted and campaigned against two Harris County “Republicans”: Sarah Davis and Devon Anderson. By now, you know that Anderson prosecuted pro-life heroes David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt for their brave videos that unveiled Planned Parenthood’s misdeeds. It should be noted that Davis endorsed Anderson.

Davis’s district is one of the most liberal Republican leaning house districts in Texas. When Anderson, in a last ditch effort to defeat her opponent, claimed that her opponent would be a weaker district attorney because of her sexual orientation, I know that Davis had to think twice about her endorsement.

Davis and the Harris County Republican Party were aided by Kevin Shuvalov, a political consultant who also does work for Straus. A very rudimentary knowledge of HD 134 and Harris County would have told you turning out the vote in the most liberal house district would not be helpful to countywide Republicans, it was not. It did help Sarah Davis.

At the outset, it was clear that Harris County Republicans would have an uphill battle. Given Ted Cruz’s posture, many of his supporters were #NeverTrumpers. Instead of using the momentum of conservative victories such as the defeat of the so-called equal rights ordinance, Simpson and the gang harnessed the #NeverTrump movement and explicitly directed voters to not worry about the top of the ticket but make sure that they vote for our judicial candidates. This approach was flawed in many ways.

First, Simpson never made a compelling argument for a Republican judiciary. Why are Republicans better on the bench? Second, by running a #NeverTrump campaign, Simpson failed to get Trump supporters to the polls.

Simpson is now claiming that two factors led to the downfall of Harris County Republicans: (1) Donald Trump and (2) Devon Anderson. Anderson’s horrendous decision to jail a rape victim and indict pro-life activists certainly did not help the Harris County Republican effort in 2016. Whether you agree or disagree with Anderson’s positions, the real damage was the endless fodder for campaign commercials that she provided to her opponent. Judging Anderson by her record, she was a failed district attorney and had to go.

Unbelievably, Anderson’s campaign made a succession of errors. First, she made this video immediately after Channel 2 broke the story on Jenny, the jailed sexual assault survivor. Then, it was revealed that another survivor and a witness were jailed in order to compel their testimony. The Anderson campaign, while criticizing her opponent for “using” Jenny, deployed Jenny’s father as a campaign tool to say that he supported the jailing of his vulnerable child by the Harris County District Attorney’s Office.

You cannot encourage people to vote straight ticket with a problematic candidate like Devon Anderson on the ballot. In the past, problematic candidates have been removed from the ballot to avoid a disaster like we saw in 2016. The party ballot is as good as its weakest candidate and this was true with Anderson.

Paul Simpson’s belief that moderate, establishment Republicans could win elections in Harris County without social and fiscal conservatives is a false narrative. The biggest mistake in the campaign was to not utilize our most recognized successful brands. There are three brands that have been out for over twenty years: Conservative Republicans of Harris County (Hotze), the Link Letter (Lowry), and the Texas Conservative Review (Polland). Voters are conditioned to these brands in primary and general elections.

All three brands focus on different turnout. Hotze messages to seniors in a mail-in ballot program. Hotze’s brand is very effective and seniors expect to get his piece in the mail the way they have for over twenty-four years. Lowry’s Link Letter focuses on early voters and systematically sends the Link Letter out to well-conditioned voters. Both Hotze and Lowry have an identifiable social conservative voting base. Polland is different and I will come back to that in a minute; however, the sophistication of these so-called slates is unique.

Branding is important and Hotze and Lowry understand that social conservatives are reliable voters. The social conservatives can sway primary votes and this is where their influence has been most visible. Simpson and company have underestimated these brands in general elections and actively worked against them. The 2016 election proved this point.

Gary Polland and the Texas Conservative Review focus on election day voters. Gary’s brand is a reflection of him and is the most moderate of the three brands. Gary’s brand is influential in general elections and has a conservative Jewish following. Watching what Barack Obama did to Israel on his way out the door gives us an excellent opportunity to expand our base in Harris County. Gary is Jewish in case you did not know. All three of these brands work well together in general elections.

Simpson does not want to recognize the importance of these assets. Donald Trump certainly knew that he needed social conservatives to win the Presidency just as Simpson needs social conservatives to win Harris County. I have asked Simpson more than once what his plan is to unite the local party. He does not have one. This will not sit well with Republican candidates on the 2018 ballot. Simpson may have been a transitory candidate and the efforts to replace him are well underway. The question is will he be replaced by a candidate who can reach out to all factions within the local party. This will not be an easy task.

David Jennings analysis

Tidying up the 2016 Harris County Republican election disaster

Harris County Republican Party disaster continued…last one!

Harris County Republican Party disaster continued…last one!

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So, is this my last look at the disastrous 2016 election results for Paul Simpson’s Harris County Republican Party before offering promised solutions? Maybe. We’ll see.

As I said in the previous look at the HCRP’s disastrous results, I don’t think that Republicans in Harris County understand how bad it really, truly was. I still see people saying that it’s okay, we’ll do better in 2018, it’s all Trump’s fault, yada yada, yada. The level of delusion is fairly amazing if you ask me. And no, I do not think that Paul Simpson is 100{997ab4c1e65fa660c64e6dfea23d436a73c89d6254ad3ae72f887cf583448986} at fault for the disaster although it is a given that he must bear the brunt of the blame. It is very disappointing that he is, publicly at least, trying to shift the blame and not taking any responsibility for it. Oh well.

In this data exercise, we are going to look at the county from a State Representative District and County Commissioner Precinct by State Rep straight party voting perspective. That’s a long sentence to say that the charts below should be self explanatory but if not, think about your State Rep and your County Commissioner and how they affected (or didn’t affect) the 2016 general election in Harris County.

Lots of data, not much commentary because I really, truly want other people to chime in via comments or email. I understand that many people don’t want to put their thoughts out publicly, so email is okay. And as usual, I won’t make your email public unless I ask you. And I promise that I will have plenty of commentary and specific suggestions in the very near future. For now, I prefer to continue thinking about it and talking to various HCRP players.

When you look at the data, remember that redistricting happened between the 2010 and 2012 elections. I’ve chosen to use the party affiliation and name for incumbents entering the 2016 election. Let’s get started.

First up, total ballots cast 2008 – 2016 by State Rep district sorted by 2016 high to low:

harris county republican party 2016

Wow, you’d think that the R’s would have wiped out the D’s by looking at that table. Let’s look at the turnout percentages:

harris county republican party

Interesting. The R district vs D district turnout is very close to total ballots cast, again indicating that Republicans should have cleaned the Democrat’s clock. And wow, Sarah Davis’ district must rock for Republicans! Right?

Now that you’ve seen the total ballots and turnout percentage, let’s take a deeper dive into straight ticket voting. Because, you know, that was Paul Simpson’s campaign theme in a nutshell – Harris County Works! Vote straight Republican and go home! This table shows each State Rep district sorted by the straight ticket Republican vote for each district:

harris county republican party

Huh. The districts are staring to shift a bit. Now let’s show a table sorted by the net (R straight votes minus D straight votes) straight ticket vote between Republicans and Democrats:

harris county republican party

Oops. Looks like the high turnout in a more than a couple of R State Rep district didn’t translate into a straight ticket voting for R’s onslaught.

Now let’s look at the State Rep districts in terms of ‘Independent’ or non-straight ticket voting:

harris county republican party

There is a whole lot of strategy packed into that table if you choose to see it. But if you are a consultant from Austin advising Paul Simpson, you probably don’t.

I thought it might be interesting to take another look at the voting by County Commissioner Precinct, this time in terms of State Rep districts.

harris county republican party
2016 Harris County Net Straight Ticket Republican Voting for County Commissioner Precincts 1 and 2 by State Rep District
harris county republican party
2016 Harris County Net Straight Ticket Republican Voting for County Commissioner Precincts 3 and 4 by State Rep District

Once again, a whole bunch of strategy outlined in those tables. But hey, I’m just a blogger! What do I know?

And of course, we have to know how the County Commissioner precincts did in terms of net difference between R’s and D’s in straight ticket voting. Because, you know, we have to know!

harris county republican party

harris county republican party

And as we saw earlier, Harris County County Commissioner Precinct 1 swallows up the other three in favor of Democrats.

Okay, that’s enough for today. Like I said, I’ll keep thinking about it but I’ve dropped enough hints and clues here for anyone that is paying attention to know what I’m going to say.

And here is another clue but maybe one you didn’t think of. The Sarah Davis that won in 2010 on a Tea Party, anti-Obamacare wave is not the Sarah Davis that won in 2016 on a platform of pro-abortion, pro-LGBT causes. Think about that real hard.

Adios, for now.

Never Bet Against Trump

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MOON TOWNSHIP, PA - JUNE 11: Republican candidate for President Donald Trump arrives in his plane to speak to supporters at a rally at Atlantic Aviation on June 11, 2016 in Moon Township, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Jeff Swensen/Getty Images)

This was the most interesting election of my lifetime. One hundred years from now scholars and political pundits will be writing and talking about this particular Presidential election. Donald J. Trump was not only a most unusual candidate, he also had an uncanny ability to read the electorate. You see the left completely imploding and many on the center or moderate right still in bewilderment that someone could be elected without their money or help. I would make the argument that the fact that Trump’s campaign repudiated the establishment was the reason he succeeded. Two years ago, we had an election in Harris County in which establishment Republicans led by Paul Simpson wrestled control of the Harris County Republican Party from social conservatives. Simpson’s election two years ago had a direct impact on Trump’s race in Harris County, which resulted in the largest defeat of the modern Harris County Republican Party. I wanted to look at the presidential race in Harris County because the establishment Republicans who fund and support Paul Simpson did not want Trump to succeed.

I started looking at the canvass and made a few calls. I always check in with Ed Johnson (PCT 440) because technically Ed knows how to move the needle in his precinct. I, of course, had a theory that the #NeverTrumper precinct chairs did worse than those that supported him.

Looking at Ed Johnson’s precinct, a DJT supporter, you can see a result that differed from the overall county result. Ed supported DJT and his results reflected his desire to support him. Ed has always run the numbers for the Harris County Republican Party and we have known each other for more years than either of us are willing to admit. Ed’s resources are very different as a precinct chair. Ed has the ability to track who has and has not voted in his precinct and can use an auto-dialer to call those who haven’t voted. Ed’s software is very sophisticated. Understand that he has lived in the same home for many years and knows many of his voters through school, church, community, and political activities. Let’s look at what he did for DJT in his precinct.ed-johnson

Now, look at Joe Pelati’s precinct. I do not know whether Joe supported DJT or not but it is a different result than Ed’s precinct. Here is someone without the resources of Ed Johnson to message or communicate with his voters in the way Ed does. I know both of these gentlemen and use them as examples because of their involvement in the Harris County Republican Party and the proximity of their precincts.  Obviously, Ed Johnson’s messaging in his joseph-pelatiprecinct made an impact on the results for DJT. These are “close in” Westside Republican precincts and what I consider to be the heart of where I look for Republican election results. You can tell what is going to happen to Republican voting in Harris County by watching this area.

Let’s look a little further west in Katy. Another party activist and someone engaged in local party politics is Kelly Horsley. Again, Kelly’s GOTV ability is nowhere near Ed’s; but, I do think it is interesting to look at her precinct. Keep in mind that Kelly’s neighborhood is much newer than Ed’s and I suspect that her longevity of knowing her neighbors is vastly different. Although she lives in a Westside Republican stronghold, the results are vastly different than Ed’s precinct. I do want to know if Kelly actively campaigned for Trump or towed Simpson’s party line and chose to not mention Trump and focus on down ballot candidates.kelly-horsley

So, let’s look at some more precincts.

The workhorses of the Republican Party are our women’s clubs. We have had some amazing Republican women involved with the Harris County Republican Party. Judith Jones used to have the highest turnout of any precinct in the City of Houston – precinct 289. There were others: Pat McCall, Louise Wing, and, of course, Ann Lee. These women ran their precincts and delivered votes. They met, traded strategies, and competed with each other on voter turnout. They were friends and competitors during a time when the Democrats controlled everything. They turned our county red and kept it that way for years and few know their names. The history of turning our county red is a history every precinct chair should know.

The Harris County Republican Party did not do anything without consulting these women first ann-lee– the party’s version of local control. Every politician in the state darkened their doorsteps. It is an anachronism of times past. The local community-oriented precinct structure was a successful model for years. I say all this because, of course, in a sea of blue, Ann Lee won her precinct for Trump. Ann Lee’s precinct is just west of Meyerland by the Jewish Community Center and dominated by Clinton precincts on all sides. Ann Lee was a strong Trump supporter and a convention delegate. We sit next to each other at the Downtown Pachyderm and never do I fail to learn something from her and her great spirit.

Republicans must win the power hook to be successful in Harris County. This hook includes Sarah Davis’s Texas House District 134 and a large Jewish enclave located in Meyerland. Conservative Jewish voters are reliable Republican voters in national elections. Democrats mary-jane-smithhave become increasingly hostile to Israel and the country’s political leaders. Conversely, Evangelicals and the Christian right fight to protect Israel. Let’s take a look at the power hook and see what happened to some precincts headed by local party activists. Not surprisingly, Mary Jane Smith lost her precinct to Clinton. My guess is that MJS worked against Trump. The residents of Mary Jane Smith’s precinct can tell you what her message was for Trump. Experience has told me not to listen to her.

I also looked at precinct 133 led by precinct chair Kent Adams aka Mr. Sarah Davis. Kent’s precinct overwhelmingly supported Hillary Clinton and, I suspect, voted for Sarah. I imagine that Kent failed to support Trump believing that this would help his wife’s campaign. I think that it is important to note that Kent supported Devon Anderson’s campaign and Sarah endorsed and promoted Devon Anderson. Ironically, the Andersons supported Ann Johnson, Sarah’s 2012 uber-liberal general election opponent. I am sure that I will get an explanation someday.kent-adams

Republicans were crushed in the hook. Another #NeverTrumper in this area is Precinct Chair David Gratvol. Although David’s precinct is a little east of what I consider the hook, I am throwing his precinct in here because he is a big Sarah Davis and Paul Simpson supporter. Also, when the Access Hollywood tape was released, David bet me that Trump would go down in defeat. Had I lost this bet, David would have been eating at Tony’s on my dime.david-gratvol-1

Paul Simpson and the consultant advising him, Kevin Shuvalov, made a tactical decision to run against the President-Elect. Both men did this believing the polls showing that Trump would hurt the down ballot races in Harris County. They treated the entire county as a microcosm of HD 134 – Sarah Davis’s House District. The truth is that the entire county is not reflective of HD 134. Senate District 7, parts of West Houston, Kingwood, and the Clear Lake area voted Trump. The party messaging left little reason for social conservatives to come to the polls and vote down-ballot.

I believe there are a lot of reasons for this failure and the precinct chairs had little or nothing to do with the messaging decisions of the county party. These decisions were made by Simpson, Shuvalov, and their establishment financiers who did not like Trump. The establishment financiers like Norm Adams and Dick Weekley oppose Trump’s strong stand on illegal immigration because they need cheap illegal labor to operate their businesses.

Certainly, Ted Cruz and Devon Anderson were problematic to the local election results too. I do think that many precincts were winnable; but, Simpson’s messaging killed the party and down-ballot races. Understand these are my conclusions following a cursory review of the canvass and I write this for discussion purposes. We can have a well-funded party lacking principals or a principled party with few funds. It worked for Trump!

I have added some other precinct results I found interesting.

robert-hall meg-weekley john-baucum greg-aydt fred-blanton elizabeth-ingersoll david-jennings dave-smith charlotte-blakemore angelina-gooden

Texas Right to Life PAC targets Devon Anderson, Sarah Davis

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The Texas Right to Life PAC is running radio ads in Harris County targeting District Attorney Devon Anderson and State Rep. Sarah Davis.

Hello, I’m Jim Graham, President of Texas Right to Life. Please listen carefully about two fake Republicans on the ballot right now. If you vote a straight Republican ticket, I ask you to unmark two politicians who stabbed pro-lifers in the back. Unmark Devon Anderson and unmark Sarah Davis. While in office, these two have sided with Planned Parenthood and turned their backs on unborn babies. They don’t deserve to be reelected. No political party owns your vote. Join the resistance. Fight the establishment. Vote pro-life.

Former HCRP Chair Woodfill on Sarah Davis

Enough is Enough! Demand that State Rep. Sarah Davis
Disavow Her Planned Parenthood Endorsement

Jeremiah 1:5 states, “I knew you before I formed you in your mother’s womb.” During his day, Jeremiah the prophet had spoken out against a people who were building altars to Baal in order to sacrifice their children. (Jeremiah 19:4-5) This biblical pro-life truth is adopted in our 2016 Republican Party of Texas Platform where it states,”Right to Life – All innocent human life must be respected and safeguarded from fertilization to natural death; therefore, the unborn…have a fundamental individual right to life, which cannot be infringed.” (2016 RPT Platform p. 11) The RPT Platform further states, “Abolish Abortion – We call upon the Texas Legislature to enact legislation stopping the murder of unborn children…” (2016 RPT Platform p. 11) In fact, the abortion industry’s leading provider/advocate, Planned Parenthood, has fought Republicans on the life issue from time immemorial. Our RPT Platform also addresses this organization specifically, stating, “Planned Parenthood – We support completely eliminating public funding for Planned Parenthood.”

Republicans, save one (Rep. Sarah Davis), have supported the sonogram bill, defunding of Planned Parenthood, parental consent and other limits on abortion. While most of us have spent our time and resources fighting for the life of the unborn and opposing Planned Parenthood, State Rep. Sarah Davis, Republican District 134, Harris County, has chosen to embrace the abortion industry and its figurative head, Planned Parenthood. During this election cycle, Ms. Davis has taken her pro-abortion agenda one step further, bragging about her Planned Parenthood endorsement. The most recent mail piece sent to over 30,000 voters in House District 134, states the following:

sarah davis

sarah davis

“In 2013, Sarah Davis stood alone again: she was the only Republican in the entire Legislature to vote against abortion restrictions…” The flyer quotes Ms. Davis’ pro-abortion statements from the floor of the Texas’ House of Representatives, stating, “We are here, and the nation is watching what we are doing today on the floor…now is not the time to play political football with women.” In the mail piece Ms. Davis describes these statements as, “Our Voice, Our Values.” Clearly, she has disdain and disrespect for the grassroots activist who created our Pro-life Party Platform. Her pro-abortion values are not our values!

Not surprisingly, Ms. Davis is a key part of Speaker Straus’ leadership team, serving on the powerful Calendars Committee. I want to encourage you to call (512) 463-0389, email, tweet, and post on Ms. Davis’ Facebook page to disavow her Planned Parenthood endorsement. Let her know that we are the party of life and we will not stand by idly and allow Planned Parenthood to push its radical agenda on Harris County or the state of Texas. Thank you for your taking action. It is time for our grassroots army to engage. Enough is Enough!

Thank you,

Jared Woodfill
President, Conservative Republicans of Texas

Web – Email – Facebook

I guess the overall message is to think twice before casting that straight Republican ballot.

Devon’s Last Gasp

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On Thursday, Commissioner Steve Radack came to the Downtown Pachyderm to deliver the “vote straight Republican” message. Steve announced that all Republican slates are supporting straight ticket voting. Commissioner Radack went on a rant about bloggers who were supportive of Democratic candidates. Steve brought his trusty sidekick Jack O’Connor, the least articulate man in America, with him to the meeting.

Steve’s appearance was timed exactly one hour before Rusty Hardin’s press conference concerning Jenny, one of the jailed sexual assault survivors. At his press conference, Hardin claimed to represent Nick Socias, the prosecutor who jailed Jenny. The problem with that statement is that Hardin is not the attorney of record.

The purpose of Rusty’s press conference is clear – a Hail Mary for his friends in the Anderson administration. Unfortunately for Socias, he does not see that he is being sacrificed. His supervisors, likely the same people who authorized the writ of attachment, are the true offenders.socioshardin

The only question is how high up the totem poll did the decision go? My bet is Craig Goodhart. You may remember his name from the prosecutorial misconduct allegations in the Linda Carty case. Or the David Temple case. Interestingly, Devon Anderson denied any collusion between Hardin and her campaign on the issue. It just so happened that Anderson released a videotaped statement strikingly similar to Hardin’s press conference the night before Hardin’s presser using the exact same emails.

Hardin was not the only high profile attorney chiming in on the election. Randy Schaffer also released a letter asking for Anderson’s resignation. It should be noted that Randy Schaffer practices law with his son Josh Schaffer, the Planned Parenthood lawyer, I call it the Et tu, Brute? letter. Think about that, the Planned Parenthood lawyers are asking Devon to resign.

hotzewoodfillLet’s get back to Commissioner Radack. His little buddy Jack O’Connor asked a prepared question about why so-called Republican bloggers (i.e., Big Jolly) are supporting Kim Ogg for District Attorney. O’Connor bolstered his argument by pointing out the fact that Charles Kuffner, a local Democrat and blogger, never attacks his own.

Radack was very careful with his words. He made no excuses for Devon’s bad behavior, which includes jailing rape victims; charging pro-life activists for investigating Planned Parenthood; allowing a grand jury to no bill Doug Karpen, a notorious abortionist whose own employees came forward to say he was murdering children after they were born; covering up misconduct by an HPD homicide investigator; and failing to notify defendants of evidentiary problems. Steve Radack did not defend Anderson’s record. Nor did Steve ever point out that Texas Right to Life sent out a mailer encouraging the pro-life community not to vote for Devon Anderson or Sarah Davis. Steve’s message was simple: vote “straight” R. I am sure that Commissioner Radack’s message was not coordinated by Devon Anderson either. I wonder what Allen Blakemore has been up to the last few days.

Meanwhile, when I got home, I had several slate mailers encouraging me to vote a “straight” R ticket. The Hoopers were first in line to vote on Monday morning; so any good campaign should delete us from their mailing list. Alas, the mail has continued. The one piece that got my attention was from Steve Hotze and Jared Woodfill. They may want to be more careful in the candidate review process if they want a “straight” R ticket.