Looking for List of TRMPAC house members who were in close races

[Melissa G]

Which Dems were unexpectedly defeated from those donations?
Any brilliant texas DUers who can save me some research time?
Thanks in advance,
Melissa

[Melissa G]

1. kickin' for help please..

[sonias]

2. Melissa are you talking about the 2002 election?

I know Anne Kitchen was one of them, she was my Rep. This was the Kitchen/Baxter race where Baxter (the bastard) won his first race. He got $35,000 in laundered money from the TRMPAC/RNC/DeLay machine. The TAB scandal involved 17 candidates.

Here's how the money got distributed, and you could probably go back and see who their Democratic opponents were. We know Green and Stick lost their races to Rose and Strama.

From CleanUpTexasPolitics.com here is the recap of who got the money:
On September 20, 2002, TRM sent $190,000 in corporate money to RNSEC in Washington, D.C. Two weeks later, on October 4, RNSEC sent 7 checks totaling $190,000 to 7 state house candidates supported by TRM. These candidates were:
Todd Baxter ($35,000)
Larry Taylor ($20,000)
Dwayne Bohac ($20,000)
Glenda Dawson ($40,000)
Rick Green ($20,000) LOSER
Jack Stick ($35,000) LOSER
Dan Flynn ($20,000)

Sonia

http://www.austinchronicle.com/issues/dispatch/2004-03-19/pols_feature.html
The Lawsuits ...
Four defeated Democratic House candidates (including Austin's Ann Kitchen and James Sylvester) targeted by TAB's "educational campaign" sued the group last year for Election Code violations. Those suits are pending in district court.

The TAB sued Travis Co. District Attorney Ronnie Earle early last year, seeking to quash grand jury subpoenas concerning the corporate money; it also pre-emptively sued 17 other defeated candidates, seeking to prevent them from suing TAB. The group lost numerous court actions and appeals, all the way to the Texas Supreme Court.

Kitchen and three other defeated Democrats have also sued TRMPAC for Election Code violations, alleging illegal use of and failure to disclose corporate money. The first court hearing in those cases occurred last week.

Sonia

[NoPasaran]

3. Correction: Jack Stick won his election in 2002

Otherwise Mark Strama couldn't have unseated his sorry ass in '04.

Notwithstanding the vote count, Jack Stick was, is, and always will be a LOSER.

[Melissa G]

5. Agreed NoPasaran! Thanks for setting the record straight! n/t

[Melissa G]

4. Thanks Sonia! You are a Jewel!!! Do you know where I can find the

list of seventeen they preemptively sued?
Thank you!
Melissa:hug:

[sonias]

6. Nope I tried looking for that as well

All the articles say the same words "22 candidates were targeted and the GOP won 17" but none of the places I looked provided a list of the candidates. I looked in the Austin Chronicle and the Statesman and did a google search and I keep getting those same words but no listing of the candidates. We know Anne Kitchen and Jim Sylvester are two of them.

It may require a visit to the County Courthouse, unless other DU board members know how to look up those lawsuits.

What we do know is that Buck Wood and Chris Feldman represented the Democrats at various stages against both the corporations and Bill Ceverha.

This is a good summary link at the Statesman but it does not have a list of the 17 or 22. Again they mention the numbers in various articles but no list
http://www.statesman.com/metrostate/content/metro/elxpacs/index.html

Here is a link to one Statesman article

http://www.statesman.com/metrostate/content/metro/stories/05/26trmpac.html
In Texas, a day of reckoning
Court ruling against GOP group fuels Democrats' claim against DeLay.
He said Ceverha should pay $196,660 in damages to five defeated Democratic candidates who sued him, including former state Rep. Ann Kitchen of Austin. Ceverha also must pay attorney's fees, though he will appeal the decision.

Another good place to search is the Texas Observer site. I didn't get a list when I tried but you should try too. There are some very good articles on their site.
http://www.texasobserver.org/

The Austin Chronicle site has a worthless search engine, but I do know at that at one time they listed the breakdown of how the $196,660 was to be distributed. Not that any of these Democrats have seen any of that money Ceverha declared bankruptcy.

Good luck.

Sonia

[sonias]

7. Here is a list of the 5 Dems in the lawsuit against Ceverha

From a Texas Observer article:

http://www.texasobserver.org/showArticle.asp?ArticleID=2017
Democratic candidates Paul Clayton, Mike Head, David Lengefeld, Ann Kitchen, and Danny Duncan.

Sonia

[Melissa G]

8. Thanks Sonia, Sounds like it may be time for me to make a few

calls to some reporters. Thanks for all the Leads!:yourock::pals:

[boot@9]

12. didn't tom craddick personally

deliver some of those checks and the rest were mailed from his office? Can anyone verify this? i seem to recall reading this somewhere but have not seen anything about this lately.

[sonias]

13. Craddick was the dirty money delivery man

It was one of the reasons Craddick should have been indicted as well. We also have a law on the Texas books that prohibits a person running for the Speaker of the House to "buy" votes for that position. Even though it was not his personal money, it was clear that Craddick was signaling that he was responsible for getting these candidates this money, so they should be beholden to him.

Here's the Texas Observer link

http://www.texasobserver.org/showArticle.asp?ArticleFileName=040227_f1.htm
Scandal in the Speaker's Office
Craddick didn’t just receive TRMPAC money; he handed it out too. On October 18, 2002, as the machine was scrambling to shift money into key races, TRMPAC executive director John Colyandro e-mailed TRMPAC accountant Russell Anderson with specific instructions for cash disbursements for Craddick to hand out. The e-mail’s subject line was “Hard $ checks.” Colyandro wrote, “You should receive a check from Jim Leininger today. I have another $100,000 that I will give you this morning. You need to cut checks for the following totals and have them Fed Ex’ed for Monday delivery to Tom Craddick at the following address.”

Sonia

[Yankee64]

9. Looking for List of TRMPAC house members who were in close races"

James Wright, US District 8 Texas
"What I have for and answer to the crooks in office"
http://www.saveamericasfuture.com

[Yankee64]

10. Kevin Brady, US House Race Nov. 4th. 2004

Brady was sued for breaking his oath of office by James Wright in District Court in Montgomery county, Texas. The Case Wright vs Brady and the Republican Party. Brady refused to come to court. The result under our laws was a default judgment. Brady refuses to pay the jugment. "500 million dollars". Proir to the election he made the statement "I am not going to pay that judgment, before 100 persons at Montgomery County College in Conroe, Texas. Since he also received $10,000.00 from Delays PAC. Put 3 million dollars in the Republican Retention Fund. Should we think he is a crook too? Now it's up to you to tell the world there is no justice in our courts.

[Bill Bored]

11. I'm sorry Melissa G

but you're asking us to comment on an ongoing investigation!:rofl:

[sonias]

14. The Texas Observer put up links to their articles on front page

All of the good articles related to the corporate finance scandals are now linked to the home page.
http://www.texasobserver.org/

On this article there is a graphic of the supported GOP candidates and how much money they got from all of the PACs. It's hard to read but clear enough you can see the names.
http://www.texasobserver.org/showArticle.asp?ArticleFileName=030829_f1.htm
The Rise of the Machine
Here is Todd Baxter's numbers for example from 2002 reports:
TAB $500
TRMPAC $22,434
ARMPAC $2,000
RNSEC/PAC $35,000
TLRPAC $30,722
Bob Perry $7,500
Subtotal $98,156
Total Raised $637,511
Subtotal as % of Total Raised 15% (From PACs)

Another interesting thing on that chart, our local repuke rearing his head again to run in Baxter's district, Ben Bentzin got $62,500 from Bob Perry (home developer slime ball). Bentzin ran unsuccessfully against Senator Gonzalo Barrientos in 02. Not surprised he's a Bob Perry robot.

Sonia

[Melissa G]

15. YOU ROCK the VERY MOST Sonia!!!!!! Thanks!!!

[acmejack]

16. Baxter was in a very close race

I think it was decided by 41 votes or somehting like that.

[sonias]

17. Hi acmejack

Melissa knows about the '04 race with Kelly White. The final vote tally was 147 more for Todd. Kelly did ask for an audit but she couldn't afford a full audit that apparently would have looked at all the paper records, log books, provisional ballots, mail in ballots etc I believe.

It was pretty sad. If bu$h hadn't been on the ballot Kelly would have won. And frankly with our e-voting system, I have no confidence in the outcome. She may actually have won and there's just no way to prove it with what access to the machine counts that we have.

Sonia