Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Meet the Democratic Statewides: Radnofsky, Gilbert, Sharp

As the 2010 Texas Democratic Party's statewide convention (.pdf) comes forward on the schedule this weekend, let's feature the videos of the statewide slate, starting with the three I know best (they were all on the 2006 ticket), Barbara Ann RadnofskyHank Gilbert, and Jim Sharp.



Barbara has kept the heat on the inept, incompetent incumbent: attorney general Greg Abbott, who needs no introduction to regular readers here. This week she has challenged him to pursue litigation against Wall Street's tycoons, who perpetuated the fraud our economy still reels from. From her Kos diary:

Wall Street firms have harmed Texas and all of America. I've proposed a State Attorney General lawsuit and to work at no fee to help solve the problem.

Our people are unemployed. Our home values have plummeted. And, our state governments are making savage cuts to our schools, our kids' healthcare and more.

These facts give states, including Texas, the right to sue Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and other firms for wrongdoing.

It's time for state Attorneys General to file these law suits.

I provided Texas Attorney General Abbott the $18 billion lawsuit which should be filed on an urgent basis, ahead of the approaching deadline. The right to sue for negligence will likely expire in September 2010 (due to a 2 year legal "Limitation" period in Texas) so time is of the essence. I offered Attorney General Abbott the Complaint for the lawsuit and offered my legal services at no fee to work on the case. The Legal Complaint and Legal Memo are available at SueWallStreet.com explaining states suffering the harm have the right to go after the wrongdoers.



Hank takes on worthless hack Todd Staples, who is seemingly frantic about another challenge to his position as commissioner of agriculture. Gilbert lately exposed the incumbent for shady dealings regarding broadband internet access for rural Texans. Here's the press release from Connected Nation and Staples.

Connected Nation is well-connected, all right: to Comcast, Verizon, and AT&T. The company is first in line to collect federal stimulus dollars -- $4 billion -- earmarked for the massive project of determining where broadband access will go in the hinterlands of America. Staples, on behalf of of the state of Texas, has outsourced a $3 million dollar contract to CN despite serious questions about the company's work in other states, questions about the bidding process (Staples got $60,000 from the Texas Farm Bureau, whose former president is listed as a 'national advisor' of CN), and even questions about CN's business model. Read more about that here, and also at the Wall Street Journal. And when Staples's office started getting media attention about his relationship with CN, the Texas Department of Agriculture directed reporters to the Staples re-election campaign, which then regurgitated their previous negative attacks on Gilbert.

Jim Sharp is the Democratic candidate for the Texas Supreme Court Place 3, running against Republican nominee and freshly-appointed Debra Lehrmann, yet another Rick Perry lackey. Sharp was elected Justice of the Texas First Court of Appeals in 2008, and as such is one of the few Democrats serving a multi-county portion of the state in any capacity. Read more about Sharp at Texas Lawyer, Off the Kuff, and Half Empty.

Tomorrow this space will feature Linda Chavez-Thompson, Bill Moody, and Jeff Weems.

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