Thursday, September 06, 2012

Lloyd Oliver stays on the ballot

As I thought.

Lloyd Oliver may be a pariah to his party, but he remained on the November ballot as the Democratic nominee for Harris County district attorney Wednesday after a state district judge rejected the Democratic Party's attempt to oust him from the ticket.

Someone please hand Lane and Gerry a few towels to wipe off the carton of eggs that's all over their faces.

The Democratic Party announced it was taking Oliver's name off the ballot last week.

Wednesday's ruling comes one day before Harris County Clerk Stan Stanart must get ballots printed in time for overseas and absentee voting.

"I don't think that what happened amounted to a rule violation under party rules," Burke said after a two-hour hearing on Wednesday morning.

Oliver admitted saying that he would have voted for Lykos had he not been running against her. He told the court Wednesday that he made the statement the day after the primary, so she technically no longer was a candidate. He also argued that the party rule applied only to chairmen and other Democratic officials.

"I have a First Amendment right to compliment public officials," he told the court.

The judge agreed.

"I don't think that amounts to an endorsement of the Republican candidate, since she had been defeated by then, and it was coupled with a swipe at the prevailing candidate, Mike Anderson," Burke said.

Two last things from the article.

Neither Lewis nor Birnberg returned calls for comment Wednesday. 

I believe they're both in Charlotte leading cheers at the moment.

Attorneys for the Democratic Party said they have not decided whether to appeal. 

It would be best if they didn't, seeing as how the lovefest in North Carolina is going. Obama is likely to provide coattails as lengthy as 2008... if the locals don't screw it up in the next 50 days or so.

Seriously, fellas: don't keep stepping on your dicks. Oliver might even get enough sympathy momentum from Republicans who supported Lykos to win the DA race. What are you going to do then with your track record of obstruction of democracy?

Let it go. Not another word about him. See if he can win on his own, and then perhaps Harris County will have a district attorney beholden to no party. Even as stupid as Lloyd Oliver is, that might be a good thing.

Update: Texas Lawyer's Tex Parte has more, and Ted Oberg at KTRK had the best reporting, including this video of a couple of difficult questions for the plaintiff's counsel, former 55th District Court Judge Dion Ramos.



Ramos, swept out of office in the Red Tea Tide of 2010, looks and sounds awfully sorry he got this case.

No comments: