A question as the Heflin challenge draws nearer

One of the advantages of occasionally dawdling before posting on something is that sometimes someone else will do the heavy lifting for you, which Greg has done on this story regarding the state of the Heflin challenge. Basically, he covered the important bits, and I agree with what he said.

One little thing:

Vo raised $114,000 during the period between Oct. 24 and Dec. 31, according to campaign finance reports filed with the Texas Ethics Commission this week.

Among the post-election donors were political action committees representing farmers, architects, doctors, hospitals, automobile dealers, the restaurant association and beer distributors.

Heflin raised $184,000 in that same period.

Contributing to Heflin after the election were Houston home builder Bob Perry, who wrote a $50,000 check, and Gov. Rick Perry, who chipped in $10,000 from his campaign fund.

According to the TEC report on Heflin, Texans for Rick Perry made that contribution on November 9. Was that to help retire debt, or perhaps to help pay for the inevitable recount, or did Perry already know by then that Heflin would be challenging the result? We know that Hubert Vo had been declared the winner in the official canvass by November 9. What was Rick Perry giving Talmadge Heflin that money for? Has anyone asked him? Does he agree with what Tina Benkhiser and Sherry Sylvester have been saying?

Some Republicans have suggested privately that Heflin should accept his loss to avoid disruption of a busy session and to prevent the appearance of a partisan grab.

The Texas Republican Party, however, is putting pressure on GOP lawmakers not to sweep the case under the rug.

An e-mail from state Republican Chairman Tina Benkiser to thousands of members encourages them to contact their representatives to ensure that the election contest goes to the House floor.

"There are people who would just like this to go away," said party spokeswoman Sherry Sylvester. "People have been very discreet, but it's clear representatives are receiving pressure to not take it seriously and not consider the evidence."

Maybe someone ought to ask the Governor where he stands on this. I'd sure like to know. Wouldn't you?

Posted by Charles Kuffner on January 22, 2005 to Election 2004 | TrackBack