Sunday Funnies

Homophobe Wilson's ballot bid rejected *updates*

As regards this post. He listed his business address as his residence address, a violation of the mandatory provision of the Texas Election code. The letter to Wilson from HCDP chair Gerry Birnberg outlining the violation and the ineligibility is here. More responses as they are posted.

Updates:

Texas Election Code requires that a candidate's application for a place on the ballot include his or her residence address. Birnberg said that when he met with Wilson on Thursday, the candidate mentioned that he actually lives in a home on Lake Lane. Property tax records list the owner as Connie J. Wilson.

Wilson said he is separated from his wife and lives in an apartment at his business address. Wilson's voter registration lists his address on W. 34th.

Wilson said he will ask Birnberg to reverse his decision, and if Birnberg does not, he will contest it in court.

Birnberg insisted that election law gives him no discretion to make a judgment call. The language of the statute states that if the application does not meet requirements, the party must reject it. Had Wilson filed with a day or two to spare, Birnberg said, the party may have caught the error with time for Wilson to correct it before the deadline.

“It's his decision to file at the last minute that's the (cause) of the problem,” Birnberg said.

===============

But at least he gets his filing fee back. Don't spend it all in one race.

===============

Assuming Wilson does not file a suit to contest this, it means County Commissioner Jerry Eversole gets a much-undeserved free pass in this year’s election. It also means the Democratic slate isn’t polluted by Wilson’s rancid presence, which is the greater good. May this be the last time I ever have to type the name “Dave Wilson” into a blog post.

Reagan brought back from dead to revive GOP

Zombie Reagan Raised From Grave To Lead GOP

More on Dave Wilson and other GOP ballot chicanery

Chris Moran at the Chron:

Conservative anti-gay activist Dave Wilson will be on the March 2 primary ballot for Harris County Precinct 4 commissioner as a Democrat.

Wilson — who once hosted a fund-raiser for Republican incumbent Jerry Eversole — believes Eversole will resign his seat as a result of a corruption investigation by the FBI, and he wants voters, not the county Republican Party or county judge, to pick his successor.

County election records indicate that Wilson, 63, has voted in eight GOP primary and runoff elections since 1995, but never in a Democratic election.

Dude actually sent a ringer to sign in and file for him. Since most candidates -- such as myself -- fill out the form and have it notarized at party headquarters, Wilson would have had to prepare and notarize his form elsewhere and have his impersonator provide it.

Harris County Democratic Party Gerry Birnberg accused Wilson and the Republican Party of fraud. Not only is Wilson not a Democrat, Birnberg said, but the candidate sent a representative who signed in as Wilson and allowed himself to be introduced as Wilson to a roomful of applauding Democrats.

Birnberg said he did not realize when Wilson's representative filed his candidacy papers that it was the same Wilson who sent out 35,000 fliers in November opposing Annise Parker for mayor, in part, because of her sexual orientation.

“We would have recruited a placeholder so we could keep this charlatan out of the race,” Birnberg said.

He said local Republicans should be ashamed to “stoop to such fraudulent chicanery.”

Harris County Republican Party Chairman Jared Woodfill said, “We had absolutely nothing to do with it.”

But that's not what Wilson says, Jared, so one of you is lying.

Wilson said he did not decide until minutes before Monday's 6 p.m. filing deadline which primary to enter. He reported to the Republican headquarters, where he found Koenning and former City Council member Toni Lawrence, both of whom said last year they would run for the seat if Eversole retired.

If Lawrence or Koenning had filed in the Republican primary, Wilson said, he would have joined the race to prevent a scenario in which Eversole resigned to move aside for Koenning or Lawrence.

Meanwhile, Wilson dispatched his treasurer to Democratic Party headquarters. Just minutes before the deadline, after determining that no one else was filing as a Republican, Wilson instructed his treasurer to enter him in the Democratic primary.

So this isn't the only louse on the ballot -- and I don't refer just to the legal, Republican ones either.

Birnberg said he also asked two state agencies whether he could prevent lawyer Lloyd Oliver from running as a Democratic candidate for judge. Oliver is under indictment for illegal solicitation of clients by a lawyer. He is running for judge of Harris County Criminal Court No. 3, the bench vacated by Republican Judge Don Jackson, who was convicted last month of a misdemeanor charge of official oppression. Lawyer Judith Snively also has filed for the Democratic nomination.

Having been informed by the secretary of state's office and the Commission on Judicial Conduct that the indictment did not disqualify Oliver's candidacy, Birnberg said he will seek a resolution from the county party's executive committee authorizing him to inform voters of Oliver's “criminal circumstances.”

That meeting is Thursday evening, and I'll be in attendance.

Underpants of mass destruction

The seemingly organic self-generating terror of, by, and for the Republican Party only pauses momentarily when they need to wail about "Obamunism".

Have you ever seen a bigger bunch of pants-crapping cowards in your life?

Candidate filing odds and ends

-- Star Locke, who ran in the Repulican primary against Rick Perry four years ago, is running in the Democratic primary this year. For governor. As Texas Cloverleaf notes ...

I would direct you to his website, but my antivirus software says it has a trojan. So, bad move. But you may remember Star as one of the also rans against Rick Perry in the 2006 GOP primary. Among Star's fun ideas is taxing abortion clinics and soda. If he can't stick you for killing a fetus, well he will get ya for drinking that Coke!

-- Dave Wilson, the nasty homophobe last heard from during the Houston mayoral campaign, has turned coat and filed to run against ethics-tarred Jerry Eversole for Harris County commissioner. Update: Muse's note declaring it was not this Dave Wilson is no longer posted, and many other sources confirm that it is that Dave Wilson.

-- 1st Court of Appeals Justice Jim Sharp and Bill Moody, the Democrats' top vote-getter in 2006, both filed for separate places on the Texas Supreme Court.  They're two of the good guys.

-- Wayne Slater says that the Metroplex is ground zero for Democratic efforts to reclaim the Texas House:

The Democrats recruited Jamie Dorris against Rep. Joe Driver, R-Garland; and Dallas businessman John Wellik, an executive at United Surgical Partners Inc., against Rep. Will Hartnett, R-Dallas.

Dallas County GOP Chairman Jonathan Neerman countered by pitting retired Marine Capt. Kenneth Sheets against Rep. Allen Vaught, D-Dallas; and businessman Rodney Anderson against Rep. Kirk England, D-Grand Prairie.

In November, there will be eight contested House races in Dallas County. Other targeted incumbents include Democrats Carol Kent and Robert Miklos, and Republicans Linda Harper-Brown and Dan Branch. Throw in the contested Democratic gains in Tarrant County (seats now held by Chris Turner and Paula Pierson), and the DFW area becomes home to by far the most high-profile House races of any region.

Aman Batheja at Poli-Tex is less impressed with the number of Democratic challengers on the Tarrant County ballot.

-- Kuffner, as always, has more and better.

Ellen Cohen's opponent

... talks like a TeaBagger:

“The last year has shown us that the incumbent representative’s party is on a spending spree unprecedented in American history.” (West University attorney Sarah) Davis said. “Her party is trying to gain control of the Texas House. We must not let that happen.”

I'm sure Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann are her idols.There's a lot more out of focus than just her photograph (at the link).

Update (because I wanted to add this): No mention of "the incumbent representative"'s record or what Davis would do if elected, no mention of the HD 134 electorate or how she might offer something different, just a generalized Beck-styled rant at Washington (read: Obama) and a "stop the liberal infidels" call to arms. Bill White notes:

“I don't think this race is going to be about one party or who said what to whom in Washington. It's going to be about where we want to go with public education, cutting the dropout rate, reducing barriers to higher education, plans for long-term mobility funding for our state, insurance rates that have skyrocketed along with our utility bills.”