Greens appeal to Texas Supremes

 All lawyered up with no place (yet) to go, the Greens plead for help from the highest (corporate) court in the state. Bold emphasis is not mine but Gary Scharrer's ...

The Green Party is asking the Texas Supreme Court to nullify a district court ruling prohibiting the party from certifying candidates for the November election ballot because of an "unauthorized illegal contribution."

A Republican front group - with help from Texas Republicans - raised the money to help the Green Party get enough signatures to make the ballot. But the money came from a corporation and anonymous donors, which violates Texas election code, claim Texas Democrats, who say Gov. Rick Perry's GOP friends want a Green Party gubernatorial candidate on the ballot to siphon votes from Democrat Bill White.

The court must rule by Friday, which is the deadline for parties to certify their candidates.

"This case matters because voters should have an alternative to entrenched career politicians. Despite the signatures of over 90,000 Texans, entrenched career politicians and their lawyers want to deny voters the right to choose in November," said David Rogers, one of the Green Party lawyers.

A trial has been scheduled for January.

"However the Texas Supreme Court rules, we're going to continue with this lawsuit, and we're going to get to the bottom of what happened," said Chad Dunn, a lawyer for the Texas Democratic Party.

This appeal could work out well for the Greens, since the SCOTX is 100% GOP, they favor defendants 86% of the time, and the Citizens United case decided in the SCOTUS last month in favor of corporate campaign contributions could be cited as precedent. We shall see ...

Update: From Jason Embry, public comments from two attorneys associated with each side ...

Election lawyer Buck Wood, who often helps Democratic candidates, said Monday that the Green Party leaders who certify the ballot could be susceptible to criminal charges if the Supreme Court agrees with (state district judge John) Dietz that the money that got the Greens onto the ballot was an illegal corporate contribution. Or, more to the point, if they do not disagree with Dietz.

They would become vulnerable if they followed through with their plan to certify the candidates on the ballot, Wood said. The key is that they now know that it was a corporate contribution that came in from Take Initiative America, which paid for the petition drive that appeared to make the Greens eligible for the ballot.

“They’ve been told it’s illegal. They’ve got knowledge now,” Wood said. “If I were their lawyer, I’d say, ‘You go ahead and certify those names and hopefully the Travis County district attorney’s office won’t take an interest in you.’”

David Rogers, a lawyer for the Green Party, said, “With all due respect to Mr. Wood, who is a very fine election law attorney, I believe he is misreading the law in an attempt to gain an electoral advantage for the Democratic Party. He is a consultant for the Democrats in this matter, and all his comments regarding the law in this case need to be considered with that in mind. Texas allows corporate contributions for ‘normal operating expenses’ of a political party. If getting on the ballot isn’t a ‘normal’ expense of a political party, what is?”

My convention experience

I'll grade it a B minus. Here are some thoughts I jotted as the weekend went on ...

-- We arrived Friday at the Omni Bayfront at lunchtime in 3 hours and change. Google Maps had left me with the distinct impression that it was a four-hour drive from Houston. Garmin had us getting there an hour early; which I did not believe until we were nearly there. That was a nice surprise.

-- We ate lunch at a table next to David Leibowitz, whom I was meeting for the first time. Afterwards I shuttled over to the convention hall and got my two credentials but missed the one caucus I thought I could make, "Democrats Against the Death Penalty". I heard that it was as good as I thought it would be. Update: The Texas Moratorium Network has an excellent post about the caucus, including video of death row survivor Juan Melendez and a photo slideshow of convention activities.

I had short and sweet visits with Garnet Coleman at the lobby elevators and Richard Raymond at the convention hall, Dinah Weems (wife of Jeff) at his booth, BAR and Katie Floyd as I picked up my creds, and Borris Miles at my senate district caucus.

-- Speaking of that, the SD-17 caucus was contentious; it was a face-off between Harris county and the others (Brazoria, Fort Bend, Galveston, Jefferson). The others mostly got their people elected while the Harris county contingent got mostly shut out. There needs to be some intra-party fence mending by my two SDEC committee members Alan Blakley and Carol Wright. We ran right up to and slightly past the 5:00 deadline so I barely had time to change my shirt and catch the shuttle back to the American Bank Center for the opening session at 6 pm.

This is my only serious down-rating for the weekend (though you may remember that I also complained about the media accommodations) : the shuttle buses running between the convention hotels and the convention center weren't a good situation. I boarded the bus at 5:45 but didn't arrive at the ABC until 6:20. It's about six blocks between the Omni Bayfront and the ABC, but the bus runs in the opposite direction and makes two stops. I walked the rest of the time, yes in the blazing humid heat. It was worth the sweating.

This was also, as you might imagine, a tremendous burden on the not-quite-so-ambulatory delegates; the long queues, the slow boarding, and the climate conditions made it tough on everyone but especially those with canes and walkers, in wheelchairs and scooters, and on oxygen. It pointed out to me that Corpus wasn't well-equipped to handle a convention of our size, even as downsized as we were this year.

-- The highlight of the evening session was, of course, Bill White using Rick Perry as a pinata. The convention ran so smoothly that he got onstage 45 minutes early, and we were done before 7:30. So we went to dinner at Blackbeard's (the one on the beach) at 8:30 with Tom and Sylvia Gederberg -- the shrimp and oysters were scrumptious -- and then the Blogger's Caucus around 10:30 until almost 1 am.

-- I slept a little late and dawdled around getting back for the Saturday session which started at 11 am, and when I finally got there at 12:30 pm after the magnificent lunch buffet at the Omni, I had missed Linda Chavez-Thompson's speech and the chair's election. The vote totals were announced a few minutes after I sat down in the SD-17 section, with Boyd Richie of course elected to another term. Then the remaining statewides had their turn on stage: Barbara Radnofsky, Jeff Weems, and Hector Uribe. Senfronia Thompson spoke for Hank Gilbert, who was lost his mother the day before the convention opened and wasn't able to attend. There were the various Democratic legislative delegations appearing as a group onstage: the statehouse reps, the state senators, and the Congressional delegation. Back to business after that and the previously reported Texas Two-Step unpleasantries. Then the judicials spoke: Jim Sharp, Bill Moody, Blake Bailey, and Keith Hampton. Having ground enough sausage for one day, I blew out around 4 pm as the resolution, platform, and other committees were beginning to report.

-- Saturday dinner was at Landry's by the bay -- a magnificent meal as always from one of Tilman's places -- and after ordering dessert we joined Stan and Julie Merriman, Amy Manuel, JR Behrman, the Gederbergs and David and Rachel Van Os, who had come in about an hour behind us. The conversation was lively.

-- Sunday we slept a little late and had breakfast at 10:30, visiting with Bob Slagle (he's fit as a fiddle, by the way, unlike two years ago) and Gene Green and Behrman again. Then it was off to the USS Lexington for a couple of hours touring the magnificent old aircraft carrier, then home via Port Aransas and Port Lavaca.

A great meeting of Democratic minds, united for a common purpose, in a relaxing coastal setting. Hard to beat this past weekend.