Big Jolly Politics

politics in Harris County and Texas

Harris County Republicans are so diverse they attack diversity

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I’ve been curious all primary season long about the attacks on Judge Theresa Chang. Other than “she’s a terrible judge” from a couple of attorneys that don’t like her, no one has been able to explain why the pay-for-play slates have been opposed to her. The little fella put this in his Link Letter:

link letter gay weddings jay karahan jeff williams

but said nothing about why he chose to “endorse” Erin Swanson over Theresa Chang.

Well, finally, we have a clue:

theresa chang

Now, I don’t know if Judge Chang performs gay weddings in secret or not. Nor do I care. It is legal after all and it isn’t like any judge that does officiate a wedding between two people of the same sex is forcing a heterosexual to marry a homosexual. Good grief I hate the marriage of religion and politics.

Where was this article placed, you ask? In something called the Houston Church News, a project of Phillip Paul Bryant. I don’t know how many people received it but it was mailed to “Resident” of at least one home. Mr. Bryant worked with Republicans to overturn Mayor Parker’s men in women’s restrooms edict. The resident that received the “newspaper” photographed it for me and I compiled it into a pdf – click here if you would like to see the entire mailer.

Three Republicans helped Mr. Bryant circulate this trash:

Yeah, that’ll drive voters to the polls.

You will note an ad in the “newspaper” for Kevin Fulton for State Rep. I made a mistake earlier and attributed a donation to Mr. Fulton of $1,500 from Phillip Paul Bryant as an expenditure. Mr. Fulton says that he did not pay for an ad in the “newspaper”, even though the ad contains “pd for by Kevin Fulton for State Representative”. I apologize to Mr. Fulton and take him at his word that he did not pay to circulate this “newspaper”. He also told me that he is returning Mr. Bryant’s contribution. That is a stand up move by a good man.

And just to further the notion of diversity, Mr. Bryant mentioned on Facebook that 6 candidates “preferred to have the QLGBT support over a bunch of Black Christians”:

phillip paul bryant

So how did one campaign operative that is employed by Republicans to help get out the vote respond?

burt levine

In addition to being paid by Judge Sheri Y. Dean and Sen. Joan Huffman, Burt is besties with Rep. Ron Reynolds, who should be going to the big house any day now.

Does anyone really think that voters are going to run to the polls to support Republicans that resort to these tactics?

The best thing about that “newspaper”? It was reading that Erin Swanson was an “experienced trial attorney”. Folks, if that doesn’t make you laugh, nothing will.

Harris County 2016 Republican primary starts!

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The Harris County Republican primary doesn’t officially start until I receive a negative mailer about a candidate. Well, it has officially started! I received this in the mail Friday:

chang-mailer-front

chang-mailer-back

You can click those pictures to enlarge and read them.

Several things to point out:

  • Judge Theresa Chang’s first name is misspelled.
  • Poor grammar.
  • No disclosure statement – “Political advertising paid for by…”

So my guess is that the person or persons behind this mailer do not have a candidate that can run on their own merits, thus the need to try and tear down Judge Chang.

Any idea who mailed this? Or any idea who is interested in running against Judge Chang?

For what it’s worth, I supported her opponent, Donna Detamore, in the 2014 primary and thought that Donna had won when I went to bed that night, even sending her a congratulatory note. After the surprise results the next morning, I (and a few others) asked County Clerk Stan Stanart to walk us through the process of counting votes to make sure that no cheating had occurred. Having been satisfied that nothing untoward happened, I voted for Judge Chang in the General Election.

I haven’t heard anything to support the notion that Judge Chang is anything but a fair, efficient judge. Have you?

UPDATE:

Sheesh, my eyes are bad. Judge Chang isn’t up until 2018 – and it says so on the mailer! Who in the heck would start attacking this early?

I guess the 2016 Harris County Republican Primary hasn’t started after all!