Posts Tagged ‘Elections’
Tuesday, September 23rd, 2014
It’s always interesting to find out where the money for innocuous sounding political committees is really coming from. Today the Dallas Morning news revealed that rich liberal trial lawyer Steve Mostyn provides the majority of money behind the Texas Municipal Police Association PAC.
Houston trial lawyer and political mega donor Steve Mostyn, who usually helps Democratic candidates, bankrolled a police group that was mostly playing in GOP primaries last spring because he’s from Tyler and wanted to knock off tea party-backed freshman Republican Rep. Matt Schaefer, R-Tyler, a spokesman said Monday.
Snip.
Among the PAC’s targets were attorney general candidate Ken Paxton of McKinney, whom the law enforcement group’s president chided in this open letter for failing to register as an investment adviser. The omission drew Paxton, a freshman state senator, a fine from the Texas State Securities Board. Three months earlier, the police PAC endorsed Rep. Dan Branch, R-Dallas, Paxton’s chief rival for attorney general. In a May 27 runoff, Paxton crushed Branch.
The association says it has more than 20,000 members who are law enforcement officers and first responders. Late last year, its PAC moved early to back Republican Speaker Joe Straus for re-election to his House seat in San Antonio. In this year’s GOP House primaries, the PAC generally supported Straus allies. For instance, it helped Rep. Jim Keffer, R-Eastland, who won; and Rep. Bennett Ratliff, R-Coppell, who narrowly lost.
This confirms, yet again, another reason why it’s high time Straus was ousted from the Speaker’s chair.
Of the $72,000 the municipal police association PAC has raised this year, 69 percent came from the Mostyn Law Firm, according to a Dallas Morning News review of campaign-finance reports to the Texas Ethics Commission. Of the $81,500 the PAC has spent on candidates in 2014, just over $52,000 — or 64 percent — went to buy radio ads, mailers and brochures for Schaefer’s GOP challenger, Tyler businessman Skip Ogle, the newspaper found.
How did that work out?
The effort failed as Schaefer, one of the House’s most conservative members, fended off Ogle in the initial March 4 balloting, 61 percent to 39 percent.
In other words, it worked out pretty much the same way as just about all of Steve Mostyn’s political donations work out: Abject failure.
So whatever happened to Mostyn’s plans to head up to New York City?
(Hat tip: Michael Quinn Sullivan’s Twitter feed.)
Tags:2014 Attorney General's Race, 2014 Election, Bennett Ratliff, Elections, Jim Keffer, Joe Straus, Ken Paxton, Michael Quinn Sullivan, Republicans, Steve Mostyn, Texas
Posted in Elections, Republicans, Texas | No Comments »
Saturday, September 20th, 2014
The Abbot campaign sent around this two minute exchange from the debate as being Davis’ most cringe-worthy performance:
The Houston Chronicle says that Abbott is right on the facts in that exchange:
Shot: Davis said “the only thing right now coming between our children and appropriate funding of their schools is (Abbott).”
Fact: It’s a little more complicated than that. This charge came in the lead-up to her sole question of her Republican opponent, which was whether he would drop the state’s appeal of a judge’s ruling that Texas’ school finance scheme is unconstitutional. Abbott is defending the law passed by the Legislature – as is the job of the attorney general. So while Abbott may get pinned with continuing to legally vouch for the state’s $5.4 billion in cuts to Texas public schools in 2011, he retorted that it was the Legislature that stood between the children and appropriate funding. Abbott also correctly pointed out that the Legislature passed a law last session that limited the attorney general’s ability to settle cases like the one over school finance.
Even a friendly press is saying that Davis “fails to land blows on Republican rival.”
Dallas Morning News: Davis “failed to rattle a poised Greg Abbott…At one point he asked Davis if she were still glad she had voted for the president, whose deep unpopularity in the state is a headache for Democrats. Davis laughed at the question but didn’t answer it.”
Tags:2014 Election, 2014 Governor's Race, debate, Elections, Greg Abbott, Media Watch, Rio Grande Valley, Texas, video, Wendy Davis
Posted in Elections, Texas, video | No Comments »
Friday, September 12th, 2014
Reporting on the Wendy Davis campaign at this point is like reporting on the Titanic 80% of the way into the sinking (“And there goes the second smokestack under the waves!”). But someone has to write a first draft of those epic failures for the historical record, so let’s press on…
Right now polls show Greg Abbott up a comfortable 18 points over Davis, 54% to 36%.
It’s gotten so bad that the Davis campaign “leaked” one of those ridiculous, can’t remotely trust them “internal polls” that shows her a mere 8 points behind Abbott, 38% to his 46%. You know it’s bad when you can’t even pretend to be winning in your own fantasy land poll.
Also, the Abbott campaign filed an ethics complaint against the Davis campaign for using her campaign funds to attend a book signing in New York City. (I wonder if her New York City signing had the same strict conditions as her Austin signing.) Since Davis did have one fundraising event on the trip, I doubt the complaint will succeed legally, but it does further the Abbott campaign’s picture of Davis as a woman who has more supporters in New York and California than in Texas.
The big question at this point is: What’s the floor for how poorly Wendy Davis can do in the general election? I think she can drop below the 39.96% Tony Sanchez garnered in 2002. I don’t see her eclipsing the pitiful low-mark of Garry Mauro’s 31.18% in 1998, much less Chris Bell’s 29.79% in the 4-way Perry-Bell-Strayhorn-Friedman race in 2006. Davis has garnered a lot more fawning media attention than Sanchez ever got, and didn’t have the bruising primary fight Sanchez had against Dan Morales, much less one where her opponent ended up endorsing the Republican nominee, as Morales did. On the other hand, Davis doesn’t have $60 million of her own money to spend on her campaign the way Sanchez did.
Tags:2014 Election, 2014 Governor's Race, Chris Bell, Elections, Greg Abbott, Tony Sanchez, Wendy Davis
Posted in Elections, Texas | No Comments »
Wednesday, September 10th, 2014
Wendy Davis is signing at Austin book store Bookpeople tomorrow (September 11, 2014) at 12:30 PM. (Bookpeople, if you haven’t been there, is a nice independent bookstore that has all kinds of authors in for signings, not just liberal politicians, and Rick Perry signed there in 2008.)
The signing itself is not odd, it’s the conditions for the signing that are odd:
EVENT GUIDELINES
This event is a SIGNING only. Senator Davis will not give a public talk.
Tickets are required to join the signing line.
Tickets are available to purchase in-store and via bookpeople.com
Tickets cost as much as the price of one copy of Forgetting to Be Afraid plus tax.
Each ticket grants access to the signing line for ONE person and will be exchanged for ONE signed copy of Forgetting to Be Afraid at the signing table the day of the event.
There is a limit of one ticket/book per person.
The line for the signing will form first come, first served the day of the event.
Books will not be personalized.
Photos will not be allowed at the signing table.
No memorabilia will be signed at this event.
No talk, no photos, no personalization. It’s like it’s a privilege to be in the same room as her. And if I know Bookpeople, plenty of autographed copies will be available the next day for purchase, sans ticket.
I know for a fact that such rules were not in place for signings there by Neil Gaiman or Neal Stephenson (both of whom, I’d estimate, are considerably more famous that Wendy Davis). Indeed, the “no personalization/no photo” rules were not even in place for Hillary Clinton’s signing there.
Why does a failing gubernatorial candidate merit more high-and-mighty treatment than a former Secretary of State, First Lady and losing Presidential candidate?
If I had to guess, it would be that her handlers are scared to death she’ll make a gaffe…
Tags:2014 Election, 2014 Governor's Race, Austin, Books, Democrats, Elections, Wendy Davis
Posted in Austin, Democrats, Elections, Texas | No Comments »
Monday, September 8th, 2014
A Monday LinKSwarm to kick off your week with:
Surprise, surprise, surprise: Obamacare discourages work.
Media: ObamaCare is fading as an issue. GOP strategists: LOL.
“Obama has overseen a shocking decline in America’s standing in the world. Everyone is mad at, or disappointed in, the United States.” As far as I can tell, Obama’s foreign policy is to do nothing until Americans are killed, and then to do nothing some more…
More on the theme:
“Obama says what he has to say to make reporters stop asking about it.”
Rotherham: “The local government tolerated sexual violence on a vast scale. Why? In part, because the criminals who committed these sickening acts were Muslims from the local Pakistani community, and noticing their depravity was considered insensitive at best, racist at worst.”
Illegal alien “children” with gray hair enrolling in public schools since the Obama Administration won’t let school districts check their ages.
After more than five years of Obama, the Los Angeles Times asks “Is economic stagnation the new normal?”
Obama starts the latest poker round by showing Putin his hole cards.
Iran bans women from many university courses. Now remind me what this whole “war on women” is about again…
Interview with the woman who runs the only Arabic language magazine of sex and erotica. Good luck with that…
Thanks to The Magic Power of Socialism, Venezuela is now importing oil.
Hey, remember when Bush attended three fundraisers and a wedding during the middle of the invasion of Iraq? Me neither.
“However stupid the creation of the euro was, undoing it will not be easy.”
UC Berkley wants to make sure “we can only exercise our right to free speech insofar as we feel safe and respected in doing so.” “And by ‘contentious’ speech, we mean ‘non-liberal’ speech. Or, as we like to refer to them, ‘hate crimes.'”
Military rifles, armor, and ammo sent to numerous Texas school districts. If anyone knows why Texarkana ISD needs a SWAT team, I’m all ears…
In a shocking and unexpected development, I actually agree with Keith Olbermann about something. Namely the idea that it was amazingly stupid for the Huffington Post to hire Donte “9/11 Truther” Stallworth to be a “National Security Fellow.”
This weekend there were numerous protests to wage fast food wages. What’s behind them? $3 million in union money.
Huffingotn Post fooled by scam story. Clip this headline out and save it and I’m sure you’ll be able to make use of it in the years to come…
Mandy Nagy, AKA “Liberty Chick,” is recovering from surgery following a stroke.
A little fun via the #ExplainAFilmPlotBadly tag:
Tags:Border Controls, Elections, Foreign Policy, Iran, Islam, Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, Jihad, Jonah Goldberg, Keith Olbermann, Media Watch, ObamaCare, rape, Rotherham, Russia, Ukraine, unions, Venezuela, video
Posted in Border Control, Crime, Democrats, Elections, Foreign Policy, Jihad, Uncategorized, unions, video | No Comments »
Wednesday, September 3rd, 2014
Given the John H. Bucy III’s campaigns strenuous denials that the $160,000 IRS tax lien was filed against their candidate, I thought I would further research the issue. It may be a case of a son being mistaken for his father, but I can’t say for sure without Bucy or his campaign answering some questions.
Let’s look at the deed history of 8609 Camelia Ln, Austin, Texas, 78759 via the Travis County Central Appraisal District web interface:
# Deed Date Type Description Grantor Grantee Deed Number
1 5/30/2014 WD WARRANTY DEED BUCY JOHN H II JARRETT-SIMMONS IRREVOCABLE TRUST 2014093500TR
2 5/30/2014 WD WARRANTY DEED REES BURKE BUCY JOHN H II 2014093499TR
3 8/29/2008 WD WARRANTY DEED WEST GEORGE MARC REES BURKE 2008165059TR
Some clarifications, given my modest research into the issue:
- Burke Rees was (is?) a real estate agent (also here, with a different company), but he shows up as the owner of the property.
- I confirmed over the telephone with Ress he did indeed lease the property to a John Bucy, but he didn’t know whether it was John Bucy II or John Bucy III.
- The house is sold to John H. Bucy II (not III) in 2014.
- John H. Bucy II is evidently a lawyer who “specializes in business law including formations, acquisitions, securities, employment and other contract issues.” Also: “Besides business practice, attorney John H. Bucy, II also represents clients in real estate matters, including the purchase and sale of undeveloped and commercial properties, finances related to real estate projects, and the negotiation of commercial leases.” His law office address is 6633 Hwy 290 East, Suite 208, Austin, Texas, 78723.
- There is only one employee listed by name at that record: “John H Bucy III” who is described as a “Principal.”
- I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that John H. Bucy II is, in fact, the father of John H. Bucy III.
- Note that the same day the house is sold to John H. Bucy II, the deed is then granted to “The Jarrett-Simmons Irrevocable Trust.”
- There’s not a lot of information on the Jarrett-Simmons Irrevocable Trust, except that: A.) It seems to be associated somehow with Paddington Property, LLC, B.) Their address is listed as “6633 E Highway 290, Austin, Texas, 78723,” and C.) The principal is one Bryan Jarrett.
- 6633 Hwy 290 East, Suite 104, Austin, Texas, 78723 is listed as the address for the Texas Charter School Academic and Athletic League, which lists “John Bucy” as founder and president; presumably that’s John H. Bucy III, as per his campaign website.
- John H. Bucy III’s official campaign filing address is the same address: 6633 Hwy 290 East, Suite 104, Austin, Texas, 78723.
- A John Bucy is listed as the owner of “6633 E HIGHWAY 290 STE 104 AUSTIN , TX 78723-1157.” An appraised value of “$4,744” suggests that he does not own the entire building, which seems to be a business condo.
- Bryan Jarrett seems to be involved with a number of enterprises run from that same 6633 Hwy 290 East address: Brant Management, Caretech International Inc., Complete Care Centers, Inc., Incolumus Inc., Texas Matrix Group, Mission Nursing Home Inc., Windcrest Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, Inc., and Plaza 290 Office Condominium Association (hmmm).
- In all these enterprises, he seems subordinate to an Anthony J. Langford.
- I note for the record that John H. Bucy III’s north Austin home he shares with his wife Molly is registered in the name of a Josh T. Brown of Santa Cruz, California.
- The house at 8609 Camelia Ln appears to be for sale (I say “appears” because you can never tell with real estate listings). The listed seller? Ellmaker Realty.
What all this amounts to:
John Bucy III appears to be the son of John Bucy II
John Bucy II did own the house where the lien said John Bucy III resided.
Both Bucys appear to work out of the same building, which just happens to be the same building the trust which bought the house in question also operates out of.
I can think of a dozen different scenarios which fit the facts in this case, so I don’t want to speculate on which might be the case here.
Yesterday I wrote the John Bucy III campaign, asking for clarification. I still haven’t heard back from them.
But the big question remains: Why was the IRS lean against John H. Bucy III against the house lived in, and later owned, by John H. Bucy II?
Finally, there is this set of court records for John H. Bucy II. I don’t know enough to decode the various charges listed. I merely include it for others to research.
Update: The Bucy campaign claims that the lien is indeed against John Bucy II, not John Bucy III.
Tags:2014 Election, Austin, Democrats, Elections, IRS, John Bucy, Tony Dale, Travis County, Williamson County
Posted in Austin, Democrats, Elections | No Comments »
Tuesday, September 2nd, 2014
What is it with Democrats and their recurring problems with paying their taxes? Certainly they seem more than capable of passing and raising taxes. But paying them on time? Not so much.
Today’s example of a Democrat not paying his taxes comes from House District 136 candidate John H. Bucy, which a press release from his Republican opponent, incumbent Tony Dale‘s campaign (not yet up on his websites) identifies as owing $160,000 in back taxes to the IRS:
John H. Bucy, III, the Democratic nominee for Texas House, District 136 in Williamson County, apparently failed to pay his taxes for at least 4 years and owes over $160,000 to the IRS. According to the IRS tax lien filed with the Travis County Clerk, Mr. Bucy owes personal income taxes dating as far back as 2008 and as recently as 2011. And there could be more.
The Dale campaign also notes that “In addition to the IRS tax lien, Mr. Bucy has problems with the state of Texas as well. Every single business Bucy has registered with state of Texas has forfeited its existence for failure to pay the required taxes and fees, seven total businesses.” To me, this is not only several orders of magnitude less important than the taxes owed the IRS, it’s not necessarily an issue at all, as it could mean Bucy’s business entities are no longer active and he simply let the registration expire.
I emailed the Bucy campaign for comment about an hour ago, but so far have not heard back from them.
Note: Dale is my own state representative, and I endorsed him in 2012.
Update: The Bucy campaign contends that Dale got the wrong John Bucy:
Mr. Lawrence [sic],
The accusations are false, and John has never had a lien filed against him.
We are aware of the document that the Dale campaign claims to possess, and the “John Bucy” referenced in Tony Dale’s press release is NOT John Bucy the candidate. — Not only is John Bucy (the candidate) not the person to whom the lien attaches, he has also never even lived at the address to which the John Bucy in the lien attaches to.
We spoke to the Dale campaign last week and made them aware of this. — The Dale campaign still chose to move forward. — They clearly do not care to be honest with the voters.
To the other point of John’s companies, John has only been affiliated with 3 companies, and we do not know where the count of 7 comes from.
One of the companies is his current company, which is in good standing, and the other two companies have been closed down properly.
None of this information should be published, as it is false, and we are presently exploring all options to stop these false accusations.
-Brent Grady.
Campaign Manager, Bucy for Texas
Update 1: My update on the still murky issue is here.
Update 2: Bucy campaign claims that the lien was against his father, John Bucy II, which fits the facts in the first update above.
Tags:2014 Election, Austin, Democrats, Elections, John Bucy, Texas, Tony Dale, Travis County, Williamson County
Posted in Austin, Democrats, Elections, Texas | 1 Comment »
Thursday, August 28th, 2014
It’s not been a good month for people trying to pretend the Wendy Davis campaign is actually capable of winning the Governor’s mansion.
First, during a time when Davis desperately needs media attention to have any hope of closing the gap with Republican opponent Attorney General Greg Abbott, the Rick Perry indictment is sucking up all the media oxygen. “It’s very good for Greg Abbott because he’s up by 12-13-14 points on Wendy Davis and he has two to three times as much money as she does to close out this race in the final weeks.”
Next comes word that Wendy Davis is actually polling 10 points behind where Bill White was at this time four years ago. And Bill White, despite running a markedly more competent and professional campaign than Davis has thus far, got slaughtered.
Then it was revealed that Davis was trying to hide her 2013 tax returns, giving partial copies to the media “with the stipulation that the document couldn’t be shared with anyone or published in full.” A look at those returns shows why. Her 2013 tax return itself shows that out of $249,754 in gross income, Wendy Davis actually paid Uncle Sam a grand total of $788 in withholding in 2013. That left her just a wee, tiny bit short of the amount she she estimated had to pay. Namely, $60,000 short. But even that amount (which is what she sent in with her extension form) turned out to be less than the $70,252 she actually owed, which is why she paid $1,246 in tax penalties.
Evidently, when you pull Davis’ string, she says “Math is hard!” in addition to “Abortion is awesome!”
Finally, Davis’ laughable attack ad attempt to link Abbott to problems at the troubled Cancer Prevention Research Institute of Texas gets slammed by MSM fact checkers. In fact, Jerald Combs, the only person indicted in the now-closed CPRIT investigation, has not donated anything to Abbott.
In a state as deep red as Texas, Democrats were always going to need a string, spotless candidate running a flawless campaign to have any hope of beating Abbott. Davis isn’t, and she hasn’t.
Tags:2014 Election, 2014 Governor's Race, Elections, Greg Abbott, Media Watch, tax returns, Texas, Wendy Davis
Posted in Democrats, Elections, Media Watch, Texas | No Comments »
Friday, July 25th, 2014
Time for another random roundup of news and links:
“Jimmy Carter looks like frickin’ Bismark next to the feckless dorm-room intellectual currently haunting the golf courses of the greater DC area.”
Even Thomas “What’s The Matter With Kansas” Frank calls Obama “ineffective and gutless.” (Warning: Salon Liberal Whining Ahead.)
Liberal law professor Lawrence Tribe thinks that ObamaCare is probably doomed due to the Halbig decision. “I cannot see how this Court could do anything other than decide the same way as the DC Circuit did. The statue is clear on its face.”
Even “ObamaCare Architect” MIT economics professor Jonathan Gruber said the same thing back in 2012: “What’s important to remember politically about this is if you’re a state and you don’t set up an exchange, that means your citizens don’t get their tax credits.”
Mark Steyn on the Halbig ruling:
As to Mr Earnest’s point on “what Congress intended”, who can say? No Congressman who voted for the bill read it. Presumably, some legislator’s staffer wrote that actual line about “established by the State”. If we could locate him among the vast entourages of the Emirs of Incumbistan, we could ask him what his “intention” was. Until then, calibrating the competing degrees of deference to a corrupt bureaucracy, a contemptuous executive, a politicized judiciary and a feckless hack legislature brings to mind Samuel Johnson’s line about arguing the precedence of a louse and a flea, with a tick and a cockroach thrown in.
Missing from my Gaza roundup: “Shalom, motherf****r.” “I will not apologize for surviving.” (Hat tip: Josh Perry.)
Bill Whittle makes the case for Israel:
Obama won’t help arm Ukraine because he had a key role in disarming them.
Democrats plans for November: All race card, all the time.
50 years of Democratic rule and now Detroit is cutting off people’s water. “Just goes to show that nothing is so expensive as when it is ‘free.'”
“That’s not funny.”
Republicans should stand firm and let the Export/Import Bank corporate welfare boondoggle expire. (Hat tip: Instapundit.)
Che Guevara, racist:
Maureen Dowd is never so readable as when she’s slamming the Clintons.
“Canadian Candidate Drops Out After Masturbation Video Surfaces.”
Sarah Palin endorses Joe Carr against Lamar Alexander in Tennessee senate primary. I don’t think anyone who watched Alexander’s “Lamar!” flannel flameout in the 1996 Presidential race has ever really trusted him since…
A New York City cupcake truck seems a little unclear on who their clientele might be. (They’ve since deleted both this tweet and the one where they implored people not to “snitch” to cops when they see crimes committed…)
Evidently nobody is actually reading Thomas Piketty’s book.
In praise of Power Girl’s boob window.
Tags:2014 Election, Bill Whittle, Canada, Communism, Democrats, Detroit, Elections, Export-Import Bank, Foreign Policy, Gaza, Israel, Jihad, Joe Carr, Jonathan Gruber, Lamar Alexander, Lawrence Tribe, liberal racism, Mark Steyn, Maureen Dowd, Obama Scandals, ObamaCare, Power Girl, Sarah Palin, Tennessee, Thomas Frank, Thomas Piketty, Ukraine, victimhood, video
Posted in Communism, Democrats, Economics, Elections, Foreign Policy, Jihad, Military, Obama Scandals, ObamaCare, video | No Comments »
