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March 11, 2014 1:22 PM
You
can see the filing from Empower Texans’ attorneys by clicking here.
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Copyright March 11, 2014, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
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March 10, 2014 3:50 PM
Argues that if MQS is exempt from any ethics laws, then they should be entirely stricken
The
longtime attorney and lobbyist behind the high-profile ethics complaints
against Empower Texans and the group's president Michael Quinn Sullivan is looking to intervene in the federal lawsuit
filed on behalf of MQS against the Texas
Ethics Commission.
The
lawsuit claims the alleged unregistered lobbyist has had his due process and
free speech rights trampled by the commission. But, lobbyist Steve Bresnen describes that suit as
"shopping in federal court" after a failed attempt to get a state
court to stop the TEC from going forward with a rare formal hearing slated for
April. The formal hearing – as long as it isn’t circumvented by this lawsuit –
will focus on the claim that Sullivan is acting as an unregistered lobbyist at
the Capitol
and that his group acts as a PAC without making legally required disclosures.
"I’m
seeking intervenor status in support of our state’s ethics laws and to see that
those of us who do our best to comply don’t wind up in a world where
lawbreakers like the plaintiffs can hide their lobbying and campaign money
while the rest of us must operate in the open," Bresnen said. Bresnen is
asking Judge Sam Sparks to uphold
the laws as written or - if any relief is granted to Sullivan - strike down the
laws in their entirety.
The rest of the story, subscribers only
By Scott Braddock
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Copyright March 10, 2014, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
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March 10, 2014 3:25 PM
Beginning of a movement?
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Copyright March 10, 2014, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
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March 10, 2014 2:09 PM
Morgan Meyer has some establishment support; says his life experience sets him apart
Note: This is
part of an occasional series profiling candidates in the runoff election. We
are of course working to schedule a visit with the other candidate in this race
as well – SB
DALLAS
– Now that it’s down to a two-man race for the Texas House seat being
vacated by Attorney General candidate Dan
Branch, the man who got the most votes on election night says he won't back
off his campaign strategy of highlighting his life experience over all else.
Morgan Meyer, an attorney
and partner at Bracewell & Giuliani, said
there isn’t much ideological difference between himself and runner-up Chart Westcott. But he said they each have
a different outlook and temperament because of where they are in their lives.
Last
Tuesday, Meyer had 47% of the vote to Westcott’s 29%. A third candidate who was
seen as more of a Tea Party-minded candidate by the name of Court Alley finished with 22%. The men
left standing now have until the end of May to convince voters in this compact,
“button down” Republican district to side with them.
The rest of the story, subscribers only
By Scott Braddock
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Copyright March 10, 2014, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
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March 7, 2014 4:52 PM
Statement below
“I just had a great conversation with Glenn Hegar I told him I was withdrawing from the runoff and endorsing him as the Republican nominee,” said Hilderbran. “I am proud of the campaign that we ran, and I will always be grateful to my tireless campaign team and the hundreds of contributors and thousands of supporters that we had from all over Texas. I ran for this office to enact a plan to improve the Comptroller’s office for taxpayers and I am excited that Glenn has agreed to work together to enact much of my platform, for the benefit of all taxpayers. I urge all Republicans to support Glenn as our nominee and help ensure that he is elected the next Comptroller in November.”
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Copyright March 07, 2014, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
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March 7, 2014 4:29 PM
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Copyright March 07, 2014, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
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March 7, 2014 2:19 PM
Patrick has the wind at his back; Dewhurst promises a fight to the end
Now
that the dust has settled a bit after Sen. Dan
Patrick's upset win over Lt. Gov. David
Dewhurst in Tuesday night's GOP primary, both sides sought to take hold of the
narrative moving forward in what may be a brutal runoff between the two.
On
a conference call with reporters Friday afternoon, Patrick’s chief strategist Allen Blakemore said his campaign’s internal
tracking numbers showed his client would come in first place on Tuesday, but “even
my pollsters didn't tell me we were going to win by 14 points.” He said that
the momentum was with his candidate and "The position for Mr. Dewhurst is
rather hopeless.”
The
Dewhurst campaign must be having internal discussions of a possible withdrawal
from the race, Blakemore said. "I would have to believe those
conversations are being held in his camp,” he said.
The rest of the story, subscribers only
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Copyright March 07, 2014, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
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March 7, 2014 1:25 PM
Former lawmaker evaluates meaning of Republican primary results
Whether
you call them Movement Conservatives, Tea Party Conservatives, or right wing
nuts, one thing is clear --they won big this week.
In
reviewing the election results, it is interesting to review the endorsement
list for the Empower Texas/ Texans for Fiscal Responsibility/ Michael Quinn Sullivan
groups. They made endorsements in seven
senate races and racked up four wins, including Van Taylor who did not even draw an opponent. In addition, one more of their endorsees, Konnie Burton, is
leading going into the run-off.
Their
biggest senate win was the defeat of John
Carona by Don Huffines,
despite Huffines being outspent by $1.4 million
according to latest records. Additionally,
Donna Campbell won an impressive
victory over two opponents, without a runoff.
These were both big victories for the MQS team. The rest of Kent Grusendorf's column can be found in today's R&D Department.
By Kent Grusendorf
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Copyright March 07, 2014, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
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March 7, 2014 12:00 PM
"Classless" invitation went out the day after the election
After
running a very disciplined and victorious campaign as an “outsider” and the Tea
Party alternative to Sen. John Carona,
R-Dallas, real estate developer Don
Huffines moved quickly this week to try to garner the support of lobbyists
here in Austin.
One
of the very first things he’s done as Senator-Elect Huffines is extend an
invitation to lobbyists to join him at the Austin Club on April 1 for a
fundraiser. In an invitation that went out Wednesday, Huffines' campaign told
the lobby in a not-so-subtle way that "It's not too late” to give money to
his campaign and they can still “come on board!" the late-train. Above
those words appears the image of a train topped with the words “All Welcome!”
One lobbyist who received the invitation said it was “just classless.”
The rest of the story, subscribers only
By Scott Braddock
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Copyright March 07, 2014, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
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March 7, 2014 9:47 AM
Perry tells conservatives "You represent the renewed hope that America can be renewed again.”
In
a rousing speech that the Washington Post said drew a “huge
response,” Gov. Perry of course
blasted Washington and talked about the successes of Republican governors,
interestingly omitting Gov. Chris
Christie, R-New Jersey.
This
is a continuation of the re-branding HK has talked about many times. He
is making a clear distinction between functioning Republicans – those would be
any Republicans not in Washington – and those non-functioning members of his
own party in DC.
You
can watch the speech on C-SPAN video here.
By Scott Braddock
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Copyright March 07, 2014, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
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March 6, 2014 6:48 PM
All provisional ballots are due in by March 13, RPT set to canvass on March 16
Note: This story has been updated to reflect when the RPT is set to address this – SB
The campaigns of both Sen. Glenn Hegar and Rep. Harvey Hilderbran will have to wait a bit longer than they at first expected to find out if they will face each other in a runoff for Comptroller. It had been thought that provisional ballots would be potentially all accounted for by tomorrow, but the numbers are so close that Hegar’s campaign is going to wait for the Republican Party of Texas to canvass the election on March 16 before agreeing to the necessity, or not, of a runoff.
Hegar, as you know, is sitting at 49.99% of the vote after Tuesday’s results – just shy of what he needs to win outright.
The rest of the story, subscribers only
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Copyright March 06, 2014, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
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March 6, 2014 5:57 PM
End-of-life bill carried by Deuell a central issue; Deuell vows “I will defend this seat.”
One
of the somewhat surprising runoffs triggered by Tuesday’s vote is the fight in
which Sen. Bob Deuell, R-Greenville,
finds himself until the end of May. The longtime incumbent told QR on Thursday “I will not let that
guy have this seat.” The guy he’s talking about is businessman Bob Hall, who calls himself “The right
Bob for the Texas State Senate District 2.”
Deuell,
who was first elected in 2002, said that he and his supporters were not totally
taken aback by the fact that he’s going into overtime. He nearly avoided it by
getting 49% Tuesday night. Hall came in at 38% with some help from groups like Empower
Texans, which Deuell said did at least three of their standard mail
pieces against him.
Naturally,
both Deuell and Hall make the argument that they can attract the people who
supported the third candidate in the race, Mark
Thompson. Thompson claimed nearly 13% of the vote by railing against the
proliferation of toll roads and touting his support of an open carry law for handgun
owners.
The rest of the story, subscribers only
By Scott Braddock
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Copyright March 06, 2014, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
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March 6, 2014 5:56 PM
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Copyright March 06, 2014, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
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March 5, 2014 5:18 PM
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Copyright March 05, 2014, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
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March 5, 2014 4:16 PM
Hegar might yet cross the finish line with no runoff necessary
Well,
it's still not quite the Comptroller's race many were counting on and certainly
no one expected to see Sen. Glenn Hegar rack up 49.99% of the vote on election night. Hegar’s supporters, including big money donors, of course would much
rather see him get to 50% and not have to continue into a runoff with Rep. Harvey Hilderbran
and at this moment it’s difficult to say how it’ll shake out.
Hilderbran received just
over 28 percent as of last night, but there are provisional ballots from all
over the state yet to be considered. Many of those in Travis County, where icy
conditions led to a difficult Election Day. Voting didn’t start until 11am and
though it was extended until 9pm, ballots cast after 7pm were done on a
provisional basis. Some of the outstanding votes are in South Texas as well.
The rest of the story, subscribers only
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Copyright March 05, 2014, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
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March 5, 2014 3:06 PM
Parsing out the Davis numbers
The
Democratic Primary of 2014 was an inauspicious beginning to what is going to be
a white-hot November election. The former has little to do with the latter.
I’m
not going to do the election post mortems here, but will instead attack a
couple of memes that have developed around Wendy
Davis’s performance. (Full disclosure: I’m Texas AFL-CIO
communications director and a Democrat, with the bruises on my forehead from
banging my head against the wall to prove it. The Texas AFL-CIO COPE
endorsed Davis for governor.)
Some
analysts have suggested that Davis’s performance was weak because Reynaldo “Ray” Madrigal got 20.94
percent of the vote. Also, they suggest an “excitement deficit” for Democrats,
as Davis got only 432,000 votes, compared to 517,487 for gubernatorial
candidate Bill White in the 2010
Democratic primary.
Turnout
was light, in part because of bad weather, a lost day of early voting on Presidents
Day and voter procrastination. But in larger part, turnout was light because
the statewide Democratic matchups were so low on the marquee that they had to be
squeezed in with tweezers. Republicans were on TV, it seemed,
more than erectile dysfunction ads. Even Democrats’ attention was distracted in
the fashion of spectators witnessing a car wreck.
The rest of Ed Sills column can be found in today's R&D Department.
By Ed Sills
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Copyright March 05, 2014, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
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March 5, 2014 12:42 AM
After about $7 million spent by both sides, the incumbent is losing by about 900 votes with 243 of 270 precincts reporting. A recount is possible.
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Copyright March 05, 2014, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
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March 4, 2014 11:10 PM
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Copyright March 04, 2014, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
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March 4, 2014 10:50 PM
Opponents of the 12 year incumbent spent over $300K to oust him.
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Copyright March 04, 2014, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
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March 4, 2014 10:43 PM
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Copyright March 04, 2014, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
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March 4, 2014 10:33 PM
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Copyright March 04, 2014, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
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March 4, 2014 10:25 PM
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Copyright March 04, 2014, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
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March 4, 2014 10:08 PM
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Copyright March 04, 2014, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
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March 4, 2014 9:52 PM
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Copyright March 04, 2014, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
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March 4, 2014 9:47 PM
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Copyright March 04, 2014, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
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March 4, 2014 9:23 PM
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Copyright March 04, 2014, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
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March 4, 2014 8:39 PM
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Copyright March 04, 2014, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
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March 4, 2014 8:35 PM
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Copyright March 04, 2014, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
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March 4, 2014 8:27 PM
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Copyright March 04, 2014, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
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March 4, 2014 8:17 PM
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Copyright March 04, 2014, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
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March 4, 2014 8:13 PM
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Copyright March 04, 2014, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
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March 4, 2014 8:11 PM
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Copyright March 04, 2014, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
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March 4, 2014 8:08 PM
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Copyright March 04, 2014, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
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March 4, 2014 8:06 PM
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Copyright March 04, 2014, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
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March 4, 2014 8:05 PM
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Copyright March 04, 2014, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
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March 4, 2014 8:04 PM
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Copyright March 04, 2014, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
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March 4, 2014 8:03 PM
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Copyright March 04, 2014, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
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March 4, 2014 7:58 PM
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Copyright March 04, 2014, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
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March 4, 2014 7:53 PM
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Copyright March 04, 2014, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
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March 4, 2014 7:49 PM
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Copyright March 04, 2014, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
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March 4, 2014 7:48 PM
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Copyright March 04, 2014, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
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March 4, 2014 2:19 PM
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Copyright March 04, 2014, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
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March 4, 2014 11:59 AM
Voting didn't start until 11am in Austin because of icy roads
Elections
administrators in Travis County will go before a State District Court judge
today to ask that voting hours be extended. That's after the polls were delayed
this morning until 11am because of icy conditions on the roads in the area.
A
spokeswoman for the Travis County Elections Division told Quorum Report that they
will go before a judge – though, they’re not sure what time that will happen –
and seek an extension of voting hours.
We
were told that an announcement will be made as soon as possible. The moment we get an update on this at Buzz Central, we’ll pass the information
along to our readers. If you’re not already signed up for our free email updates, this
would be a good time to do so.
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Copyright March 04, 2014, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
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March 4, 2014 11:42 AM
The two hope to set the record straight; Rupert Murdoch-owned publication doesn’t seem interested in that
Note: Rep. Jim Keffer, R-Eastland and former Rep. Vicki Truitt, R-Keller, were disturbed when they saw the Wall Street Journal published an
editorial entitled “Texas
Speech Fight” that took the Empower Texans federal lawsuit at face
value with no further vetting. The editorial board also repeated the false
assertion that the Texas Ethics
Commission’s
actions and the IRS “scandal” are analogous. They are not. Keffer and Truitt have
had trouble getting their thoughts published in the Journal, so we are proud to
offer their full response to our readers. – SB
WHOA! As we say in Texas: Hold your horses! We are
compelled to set the record straight regarding an editorial entitled, Texas Speech Fight, as published in the WSJ on Saturday-Sunday, March 1-2, 2014.
State
Representative Jim Keffer and I must clarify for readers the intent of the
ethics complaints we filed against Michael
Quinn Sullivan and Empower Texans, in April 2012.
In
reading the piece, the first item that strikes me is that readers should know
that the Empower Texans’ scorecard is anything but objective. Its scorecard gives more weight to favorite
legislators, i.e., those who follow its vote recommendations, and poor scoring
to those who don’t march lockstep with its directives. Examples can be cited when extra credit is
given for one legislator for carrying a bill Empower Texans likes, but another
legislator, not liked by Empower Texans, does not receive extra credit for
carrying a bill favored by the organization.
The rest of the story, subscribers only
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Copyright March 04, 2014, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
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