“In 2008, the Texas Democratic Party was forced to take legal action in Federal Court to protect Harris County voters from the inappropriate, partisan actions of former Voter Registrar Paul Bettencourt, whose office rejected tens of thousands of legitimate voter registration applications.

“When Leo Vasquez took office following Bettencourt’s sudden resignation after the 2008 election, he defended his predecessor’s actions. However, when the Texas Democratic Party presented the Court evidence of the serious misdeeds in the Harris County voter registration office, Vasquez ultimately agreed to a settlement, providing hope that those inappropriate practices had come to an end.

“Unfortunately, we believe Leo Vasquez violated the terms of our agreement last week, based on statements and information he distributed at a press conference that resembled a political pep rally. At that event, Vasquez made reckless accusations against a non-partisan organization based on a “review” of voter registration applications conducted by a group called “True the Vote.” In order to conduct such a review, Vasquez apparently provided the group access to the same applications he refused to provide the Texas Democratic Party last year, when he argued in Federal Court that such documents contained confidential information such as date of birth.

“All Harris County residents should be deeply disturbed by how easily this office disregards election law and federal court orders and by how casually they distribute voters’ confidential information. Just last year, well-documented reports revealed that deputy voter registrar Ed Johnson was selling driver’s license information to Republican candidates as part of an illicit side-business with Republican state representative Dwayne Bohac [1] [2].

“Given Mr. Vasquez’ actions last week, we have been forced to take legal action to make sure his office does not repeat the same kind of practices that denied almost 70,000 Harris County citizens the right to register and vote in 2008.”

##

[1] Associate registrar moonlights by selling voter data
Houston Chronicle 6/10/2009
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/6469960.html

[2] Where’d that driver’s license data come from?
Off the Kuff 7/31/2009
http://offthekuff.com/wp/?p=20445

On Tuesday, August 24, the Austin American-Statesman reported that sexual abuse and cover-up continue to plague the Texas Youth Commission:

Nearly four years after the Texas Youth Commission was overhauled after a sex abuse and cover-up scandal, four leading advocacy groups for incarcerated youths said Tuesday that little has changed. Widespread unsafe conditions and various forms of abuse and mistreatment continue to plague the agency, they say.

The advocacy groups’ letter can be read here (PDF). Following the advocacy group’s letter, it was discovered that the Texas Youth Commission ombudsman had resigned two weeks prior. On Friday, August 27, Rick Perry’s seven-member board of the TYC lashed out at the advocacy groups, deflecting criticisms as being unfounded and untrue while the ombudsman who resigned claimed, “No youth has said they feel threatened or that they feel abused or unsafe.”

The news last week reads a lot like reports of sexual abuse and cover-up from 2005-2007, when it was discovered that drastic acts of sexual abuse of children at the West Texas State School were swept under the rug and ignored by TYC officials, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, and Texas Governor Rick Perry. In fact, Governor Rick Perry claimed he knew nothing about the abuse until he read about it in the paper — only for it to be later discovered that his office was informed of a stalled investigation into the abuse as early as February 2005, two years before news reports first came out.

In the coming weeks, the most recent scandal at the Texas Youth Commission will be discussed at length. In order to put these allegations at TYC in context, it is necessary to look back at what happened the last time the public learned of misconduct at TYC. The recap below is an attempt to re-tell the TYC scandal from 2007, using facts and quotes gathered from news stories. The following sources are used repeatedly, and are an excellent starting point for anyone who wants to dive deeper into the scandal:

For more read the Burnt Orange Report article.

A day after a fire destroyed virtually all of Harris County’s electronic voting gear, officials were still determining the cause of the warehouse blaze and furiously exploring ways to accommodate voters come early November.

Houston’s fire marshal’s office hasn’t made a ruling on whether Friday’s early-morning fire was accidental or deliberately set, said Harris County Clerk Beverly Kaufman, who hopes to hear something on the cause early this week.

“It would break my heart to think someone would do something like this to the election process,” she said, adding that she was unaware of anyone who might have had a motive to burn down the building.

Houston Fire Department officials did not return phone calls on Saturday.

The building in the 600 block of Canino on the city’s north side did have a sprinkler system, but Kaufman said she was unsure if it was properly functioning or if there might have been any failures.

The three-alarm blaze broke out in the 28,000-square-foot warehouse just after 4 a.m., destroying some 10,000 pieces of election gear housed there.

The total loss was valued at about $40 million — $30 million in voting equipment and $10 million for the building, said Kaufman.

The machines were set to supply nearly 800 polling sites for early voting, which begins Oct. 18.

For more read the Houston Chronicle article.

Esta tarde, la Corte de Apelaciones del Condado de Dallas decidió contra el Partido Demócrata de Texas en nuestra petición para remover a Brian Birdwell de la boletilla dado su ilegibilidad. La vocera del Partido Demócrata de Texas emitió la siguiente declaración.

“El Partido Demócrata de Texas cree en seguir la ley y mantiene que Brian Birdwell no tiene la elegibilidad para servir en Texas. La Corte, en vez de ocuparse con la cantidad de evidencia que comprueba el punto, llego a una decisión politica usando puntos técnicos para evadir el tener que declarar a un Republicano ilegible.  proteger. Ni la Corte ni el Partido Republicano de Texas comentaron sobre la elegibilidad de Birdwell, que sigue en duda.

“La decisión de hoy no está basada en los meritos del caso, ni en la ley, es una decisión politica que confirma que en Texas la politica cínica de los Republicanos controla todas las ramas del gobierno que ya han sido corrompidas por el control total de los Republicanos.

This afternoon, the Dallas County Court of Appeals ruled against the Texas Democratic Party in our petition to remove Brian Birdwell from the ballot due to ineligibility.  Texas Democratic Party spokeswoman Kirsten Gray issued the following statement:

“The Texas Democratic Party believes in following the law and maintains that Brian Birdwell is ineligible to serve. Rather than dealing with the overwhelming evidence making that point clear, the Court made an overtly political decision using technicalities and loopholes to avoid ruling that a Republican officeholder is ineligible.  Neither the Court nor the Republican Party of Texas argued in support of Birdwell’s eligibility, which remains in question.

“Today’s decision is about politics and not the law, and confirms that in Texas, cynical Republican politics controls every branch of government that has been corrupted by complete Republican control.”

The 51-year-old Weems, a partner in a Houston law firm, is the Democratic candidate for a spot on the three-member Commission which oversees the state’s oil and gas industry.

Although he was born in Lafayette, La. and currently resides in Houston, Weems proudly pointed to his long family history in Anderson County.

His dad, Roger, was “born in a farm house in Tennessee Colony,” while his grandfather, Olon, also lived in Tennessee Colony and worked in the oil fields locally for many years.

As a boy, Weems said he spent roughly two-thirds of his summers in Anderson County and the remaining time with his other set of grandparents in Rockport on the Gulf Coast.

The candidate joked that Tennessee Colony is “heavily populated” with Weemes or “near Weemes,” referring to relatives of his family.

His Anderson County memories are largely of “baling hay and going to rodeos with my grandfather,” he stated.

“It’s been fun coming here,” Weems said before Monday’s annual banquet of the Anderson County Democratic Women. “I’ve been meeting a lot of cousins.”

Weems said his son, Matthew, is a petroleum engineer, making him the fourth generation in his family to work in the industry.

For more read the Palestine Herald Press article.

The meeting was one stop on the campaign trail for White, the former mayor of Houston, who has visited 56 counties since July 1.

Despite the meeting, Eloyce Green, the president of the Smith County retired teachers group, said that the group is a non-partisan group that will not endorse any candidate for political office.

For more read the Tyler Paper article.

The boldest, biggest red flag: “Driver insists he thought the double-billing was perfectly appropriate – until talking about it with the AP.”

Driver’s never one to shy away from blasting government spending and he waves his fiscal conservative credentials proudly. Guess that goes for government spending on anything other than his travel expenses:

The veteran Republican legislator, faced with findings from an investigation by The Associated Press, acknowledged in an interview that for years he has been submitting the same receipts – for luxury hotels, airline tickets, meals, fees and incidentals – to both his campaign and to the Texas House. He has also been collecting thousands of dollars in state mileage reimbursements for travel in vehicles for which his campaign has shelled out more than $100,000 since 2000.

For more read the Dallas Morning News article.

As he sought his first full term in office, Perry saw value in discussing ideas and sharing his vision with voters. So he pressed Democrat Tony Sanchez to share the stage with him.

Unfortunately, Rick Perry, the 2010 candidate for governor, has an entirely different view. Zero debates would seem to suit the state’s longest-serving governor just fine.

Perry so far has refused to schedule a face-to-face encounter with Democrat Bill White, preferring instead to make unrelated demands before deigning to discuss a debate. While this initially appeared to be standard political posturing, the Republican governor seems increasingly at ease with the idea of the first debate-free campaign season in 20 years.

If Perry refuses to square off with White, voters will come out on the losing end. Debates offer important information, as viewers have a chance to make side-by-side comparisons and hear candidates’ answers to tough questions.

For more read the Dallas Morning News article.