Off the Kuff Rotating Header Image

November, 2005:

Colyandro dismissed from ex-candidates’ lawsuit

There’s so many lawsuits and investigations relating to TRMPAC’s activities from 2002 that it’s sometimes hard to keep track. John Colyandro, the indicted former executive director of TRMPAC, now has one less lawsuit to worry about.

On Tuesday, a federal judge dismissed him from a lawsuit filed by two losing candidates alleging that Colyandro and the Law Enforcement Alliance of America violated the Texas Election Code by using corporate funds to influence contests for Texas attorney general and an East Texas legislative race.

U.S. District Judge Lee Yeakel said the losing Democrats, Kirk Watson and Mike Head, “failed to allege any facts that Colyandro intentionally or even knowingly violated the applicable sections of the Texas Election Code.”

Buck Wood, who represents Watson and Head, had argued that Colyandro, executive director of U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay’s Texans for a Republican Majority political action committee, coordinated with the law enforcement group to use $1.5 million in corporate contributions to run ads favoring Republican candidates. Texas law bans corporate donations to political candidates.

Wood said the suit will proceed against the Virginia-based law enforcement group which ran ads criticizing Watson for being a personal injury lawyer and praising Republican Greg Abbott as a respected Supreme Court justice. Abbott won.

The AP wire story has more information. Watson and Head filed this suit last September. Obviously, it has not get gone to trial, but it does help illustrate the concept of the wheels of justice grinding slowly.

In other TRMPAC news, Texans for Public Justice has joined in with State Rep. Pete Gallego in calling for former TRMPAC treasurer Bill Ceverha to step down from the board of the Employee Retirement System of Texas.

“Those overseeing the pensions of Texas public servants should have the highest personal and financial integrity,” said Texans for Public Justice Director Craig McDonald. “Bill Ceverha does not meet these standards after his recent declarations of moral and financial bankruptcy. Mr. Ceverha’s participation in the 2002 Texas election scandal ought to disqualify him from public service—especially from a position that owes a fiduciary duty to retired state employees.”

Ceverha yesterday complained that Gallego’s statement was a political attack meant to embarrass him. I doubt he’s feeling the love any more today.

Display problem seems to be fixed

Figured out what the sidebar-display problem was about: my use of a fixed-width font in this post. I could swear that it displayed correctly on Wednesday when I posted it, but I just realized today that it was the cause of the main body being too wide – it needed the space. I’ve shortened the offending text, and things seem to look better now. Refresh your broswer and see if that’s true for you, too.

The funny thing is that this post was about to scroll off the bottom of the page. I’d have come back in tomorrow, hit Refresh, and everything would have been magically restored, had I not come to my senses and figured this out. No wonder tech support people chug Maalox every day.

As for the weird appearance of the Euro symbol where bullet points should have been, Michael left a suggestion for a template tweak that will hopefully work. I’ll know for sure the next time I do a copy and paste from an external source into a post. Thanks, Michael!

If there are any lingering problems, let me know. I appreciate the feedback.

The class of 2006

The MLB Hall of Fame ballot for 2006 has been announced, and it’s remarkable in two ways: One, there’s no slamdunk newcomer on the list, and two, it’s curtains for Pete Rose until and unless the Veterans Committee takes up his cause.

Pete Rose’s eligibility for the baseball writers’ Hall of Fame ballot expired Monday when the 2006 candidates were announced, a group that includes Cy Young Award winners Orel Hershiser and Dwight Gooden.

Albert Belle, Will Clark and Chicago White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen were among 14 first-time candidates on the 29-man ballot. Bruce Sutter is the holdover who came closest to election, falling 43 votes shy last year.

[…]

First-year candidates include pitchers Rick Aguilera, Alex Fernandez, Doug Jones and John Wetteland and infielders Gary DiSarcina, Gary Gaetti, Gregg Jefferies, Hal Morris and Walt Weiss.

Doc Gooden is of course a prime candidate for the Hall of What Might Have Been, where he can join his fellow former Met

  • Categories

  • Archives

  • My linkage

  • Polling Texas 2020

    UT/Trib, Apr 25: Trump 49, Biden 44

    DT/PPP, Apr 29: Biden 47, Trump 46

    UT-Tyler/DMN, May 3: Trump 43, Biden 43

    Emerson, May 13: Trump 47, Biden 41

    Quinnipiac, June 3: Trump 44, Biden 43

    PPP, June 5: Trump 48, Biden 48

    PPP/PT, June 23: Trump 48, Biden 46

    Fox, June 25: Biden 45, Trump 44

    UT/Trib, July 2: Trump 48, Biden 44

    PPP/Emily’s List, July 2: Biden 48, Trump 46

    UT-Tyler/DMN, July 12: Biden 48, Trump 43

    CBSNews, July 12: Trump 46, Biden 45

    Quinnipiac, July 22: Biden 45, Trump 44

    Morning Consult, July 28: Biden 47, Trump 45

    Morning Consult, August 3: Biden 47, Trump 46

  • Polling Texas 2018

    WPA, Jan 5: Cruz 52, O'Rourke 34
    PPP, Jan 27: Cruz 45, O'Rourke 37
    Quinnipiac, April 19: Cruz 47, O'Rourke 44
    Quinnipiac, May 31: Cruz 50, O'Rourke 39
    PPP, June 8: Cruz 48, O'Rourke 42
    GQR, June 16: Cruz 49, O'Rourke 43
    CBS/YouGov, June 24: Cruz 44, O'Rourke 36
    UT/Trib, June 25: Cruz 41, O'Rourke 36
    Gravis, July 10: Cruz 51, O'Rourke 42
    Lyceum, July 31: Cruz 41, O'Rourke 39
    Quinnipiac, July 31: Cruz 49, O'Rourke 43
    PPP, August 2: Cruz 46, O'Rourke 42
    NBC News, August 23: Cruz 49, O'Rourke 45
    ECPS, August 27: Cruz 38, O'Rourke 37
    Crosswinds, September 12: Cruz 47, O'Rourke 44
    Quinnipiac, September 18 (LV): Cruz 54, O'Rourke 45
    Ipsos, September 19 (LV): O'Rourke 47, Cruz 45
  • Polling Texas 2016

    Beatty, Jun 22: Trump 37, Clinton 30
    UT/TTP, Jun 27: Trump 41, Clinton 33
    KTVT/Dixie, Aug 11: Trump 46, Clinton 35
    PPP, Aug 16: Trump 44, Clinton 38
    WaPo-SurveyMonkey, Sep 6: Clinton 46, Trump 45
    ECPS, Sep 14: Trump 42, Clinton 36
    Texas Lyceum, Sep 15: Trump 39, Clinton 32
    YouGov, Oct 3: Trump 50,1, Clinton 41.5
    KTVT/Dixie, Oct 5: Trump 45, Clinton 38
    WFAA/SurveyUSA, Oct 14: Trump 47, Clinton 43
    UH Hobby Center, Oct 17: Trump 41, Clinton 38
    WaPo/SurveyMonkey, Oct 17: Trump 48, Clinton 46
    CBS/YouGov, Oct 23: Trump 46, Clinton 43
    Crosswind/Statesman, Oct 27: Trump 45, Clinton 38
    UT/TT, Oct 27: Trump 45, Clinton 42
    KTVT/Dixie Strategies, Nov 2: Trump 52, Clinton 39
    NBC/WSJ/Marist, Nov 3: Trump 49, Clinton 40
    ECPS, Nov 3: Trump 49, Clinton 34
    YouGov, Nov 5: Trump 50.3, Clinton 42.4
  • Polling Texas 2014

    UT/TT, Nov 2013: Abbott 40, Davis 35, Glass 5
    PPP, Nov 2013: Abbott 50, Davis 35
    UT/TT, Feb 2014: Abbott 47, Davis 36
    ECPS, Mar 2014: Abbott 49, Davis 42
    Rasmussen, Mar 2014: Abbott 53, Davis 41
    PPP, Apr 2014: Abbott 51, Davis 37
    UT/TT, June 2014:Abbott 44, Davis 32
    YouGov, July 2014: Abbott 50, Davis 34
    Rasmussen, Aug 2014: Abbott 48, Davis 40
    YouGov, Sep 2014: Abbott 56, Davis 38
    Lyceum, Oct 2014: Abbott 49, Davis 40
    Rasmussen, Oct 2014: Abbott 51, Davis 40
    KHOU, Oct 2014: Abbott 47, Davis 32
    UT/TT, Oct 2014: Abbott 54, Davis 38
    YouGov, Oct 2014: Abbott 57, Davis 37
  • Polling Texas 2012

    PPP April 26: Romney 50, Obama 43
    UT/TT May 22: Romney 46, Obama 38 (RV) - Romney 55, Obama 35 (LV)
    WPAOR Sep 13: Romney 55, Obama 40
    YouGov Sep 24: Romney 52, Obama 41
    Lyceum Oct 2: Romney 58, Obama 39
    YouGov Oct 17: Romney 55, Obama 41
    UT/TT Oct 29: Romney 55, Obama 39
    Baselice Oct 30: Romney 54, Obama 38
    YouGov Nov 3: Romney 57, Obama 38
  • Recent Posts

  • Recent Comments

  • Tags