Texas Democratic Party: Moving Texas Forward

Elected officials are supposed to be public servants – but KBH’s employees are often required to serve her personal needs instead of working for us, the taxpayers. KBH may attempt to cast herself as a moderate Republican and everyday Texan, but that script is undermined by reports about abhorrent treatment of her staff that have come up repeatedly throughout KBH’s many years as a career politician. If everyday Texans behaved at work the way KBH does, they’d be out of work.

• Matt Latimer, a former George W. Bush speechwriter, witnessed KBH’s attitude firsthand, seeing the Senator give an aide – who was specifically charged with toting KBH’s purse around – orders to transfer cosmetics from the purse to an office refrigerator (Source: Dallas Morning News). Hardworking Texans should be able to expect our tax dollars are paying for important work in Washington – not funding an entourage of “taxpayer-subsidized butlers.”

When KBH was State Treasurer in 1993, she was indicted on charges of official misconduct and testimony given by her office staff revealed that KBH apparently thought it was just fine to bill the taxpayers for using state staff for self-serving personal matters.

• KBH’s secretary told a grand jury she spent 90% of her time tending to KBH’s personal, non-state matters – presenting, as proof, phone numbers to KBH’s “yard man, campaign stationery printers, hairdressers, alteration lady and bankers, among others.” (Source: Dallas Observer via Houston Press)

• Of KBH’s treatment of staff, the Dallas Observer reported that “Hutchison hit, pinched and shoved employees with enough regularity to make such outbursts a kind of leitmotif of her management style.” (Source: Dallas Observer)

• Physically violent outbursts were recounted in testimony by several KBH staffers.  The actions that set her off ranged from aides failing to convince an Austin hotel to offer KBH a free private room for a luncheon to taking too long to find a wealthy contributor’s phone number to not removing a particular item from the Senator’s attaché bag.

The real KBH is not a moderate Republican dedicated to public service, but another extreme Republican career politician with a track record of abusing her staff and tasking them with personal matters at taxpayer expense.

Next: #8: The Real KBH… Leading Cheers for the Status Quo is Bad for Texans’ Health

Previous: #10: The Real KBH…Voted with Bush 90% of the Time

To read more about the real KBH, visit the TDP’s “Who is the Real KBH?” campaign by clicking here.