50 State Attorney General Elections...50 good people. You do the math!

[Poet Lariat]

That’s obviously an overstatement of the potential for this “kernel of an idea” I saw yesterday in a post by David Van Os – DU Member and candidate for Attorney General in the State of Texas. 50 may not be possible but even one more than we have now would be a good start.

See his post at:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=180x23548

The premise of his post is that the Attorney General in Texas is armed with certain powers of office to revoke corporate charters for those corrupt corporations (the bad apples) who are abusing or jeopardizing the public trust. David has an intriguing idea that the right person in the AG's office could put a stop to a lot of what’s going on in our state.

I started thinking about the national implications (state by state) of the power of this idea -
to make a direct impact on corporate corruption across the country.

One election + one good, qualified person + one very powerful office = A better overall America.

Again, you do the math.

>snip<
Article 4, Section 22 of the Texas Constitution lays upon the Texas Attorney General the duty to monitor the activities of private corporations and to pursue judicial forfeiture of their charters upon sufficient cause. This is talking about civil action, not criminal prosecution. The burden of proof the Attorney General has to meet in civil actions is less than the burden of proof in criminal prosecutions - proof beyond a reasonable doubt is not required. Thus the Constitution does not require conviction of crimes for the Attorney General to pursue charter revocation; rather, the legal requirement is "sufficient cause."

Government belongs to the people and the Attorney General is the people's lawyer. Thus any corporation's convictions of multiple criminal offenses would clearly be sufficient cause for me as Attorney General to undertake charter revocation action. After all, the United States Supreme Court declared 120 years ago that corporations are persons under the 14th Amendment. Thus the receipt of multiple criminal convictions should entitle the people to treat corporations the same way the people treat human beings who receive multiple criminal convictions.

More importantly, when I'm Attorney General my duty to the people under the Texas Constitution will not allow me to set an arbitrary minimum threshold of misconduct, such as three criminal convictions, to trigger charter revocation action. Although the corporate government that runs the show today doesn't realize it, corporations are holders of public trust. They operate under charters issued by the State granting them the privilege of corporate existence. Even one violation of the public trust - which need not necessarily be a criminal offense - may lead me to find sufficient cause to seek charter revocation under the Constitution if the corporation's conduct represents a continuing danger to the public trust.

David Van Os

I’m sure there have been many discussions about the power of a State Attorney General’s office and the potential this could have for positive change. I think it’s more than just an “interesting concept" as my neighbor commented the other day. I think the election of true “people’s attorneys” in these positions could really make a difference in the lives of a lot of folks.

I should also mention that I am not a paid shill for the Van Os campaign or anything like it. I have yet to meet him. I'm new here and don't claim to know much about politics. I have put this together because I like what this man has to say both here and at his website. He is a fighter in a pretty tough state that needs more like him. His populist appeal and the dogged determination he espouses resonates with me and I think, will with others. This is not for the "wimpy" - but "wimpy" hasn't worked very well has it?

If you want to take this a step further, look a few posts down from his Original Thread for my “two cents worth" and excerpts of what David has posted in the past couple of weeks. What he has written, about ways to clean up Texas and ideas to win back Government for the people, again, could have national implications - not only for the Democratic candidates of '06, but for any progressive thinkers who are trying to help turn the tide (IMHO).

My hope is that people will take the time to look at this and his other writings from the Texas Forum. It's very powerful stuff from someone who I think could actually win.

Also, for anyone who listens to Al Frankin on AAR, this Friday, David Van Os along with Eddie Bernice Johnson and Molly Ivins are his guests for the show. Quite a panel. (Hard Rock Cafe, on McKinney in Dallas).

Note: Cross-linked from the Texas Forum: “I’ll revoke corporate charters”