The Collin County Observer™

David Cary

After a two week trial, a jury gave David Cary 14 years in the penitentiary, effective immediately.

Cary was charged with Organization of Criminal Activity, 6 counts of Bribery, and one charge of Money Laundering in the campaign of Suzanne Wooten.

The jury convicted him of all charges, and each with 14 years in Huntsville.

Suzanne Wooten was an elected 380th District Judge in Collin County in 2008. Two years ago, Wooten was convicted of Engaging in Organized Criminal Activity, 6 counts of Bribery, Money Laundering, and Tampering with a Government Record to Defraud.

Suzanne Wooten	Stephen Spencer	Stacy Cary	David Cary

All four defendants were named in the case: Suzanne Wooten, James Stephen Spencer, Stacy Cary, and David Cary. The State proved that the judge took $150,000 from the Cary's. Stacy Cary provided and sent the $150,000 to Stephen Spencer for the Wooten campaign.

David Cary has been involved in a million dollar divorce case that began in 2003 (and still is being litigated). Cary has been driven to remove Judge Charles Sandoval, who presided over his mega divorce saga in the 380th District Court.

In 2008, Suzanne Wooten defeated Sandoval in the Republican primary using mostly money that was given by the Carys' to Spencer.

Stephen Spencer was Suzanne Wootens consultant and the campaign manager. He pled guilty to Criminal Organization, one Bribery charge, and Money Laundering. He was given, in a plea bargain, 100 days in county jail, a $10,000 fine, and 10 years probation including $83,000 in court costs.

Stacy Cary was found guilty by a jury, and sentenced by the judge 30 days in the county jail, a $10,000 fine and 10 years of probation. Stacy is appealing her case.

Suzanne Wooten's portrait in the courthouse

David Cary was sentenced by a jury. Lawson Pedigo, Cary's attorney, asked the jury to give probation - Cary had never been convicted of any crime.

The State of Texas Assistant Attorney General, Harry White, asked the jury to sentence Cary to "11 years or more than you think". White told the jury that Cary would not be capable for meeting the requirements of probation. He told the jury that Cary had not paid his $415,000 assessment ordered by a court in his divorce case, and that Cary was hiding his income from the court. (Cary was getting his salary as cash, not a check.)

In less than an hour and a half, the jury returned with a sentence of 14 years in the penitentiary on each of the six charges, running concurrent.

The Dallas Visiting Judge John Nelms told Cary that since his sentence is more than 10 years, he was unable to gain an appeal bond. According to an article on the Dallas Morning News, Cary will have to serve at least 1/3 of his term before given parole.

Suzanne Wooten was found guilty on all charges by a jury. Wooten worked out a sentence deal with the Assistant Attorney General, Harry White. She was given only probation for 10 years, a $10,000 fine, and community service. Wooten also was removed from office and then suspended by the Texas Bar.

Last week, the County removed Suzanne Wooten's portrait at the courthouse.

Bill

This is the first in a series of interviews of those candidates who are running for elected office in Collin County, Texas. The information in this article is based on materials and interviews provided by the candidate. If you would like to be interviewed by Bill Baumbach, please email your request to bill@baumbach.org.

Jody Johnson, 53, met with me so that I could learn more about her and her candidacy. She has been married over ten years, has four step-sons and is a resident of Plano, Texas. She attends Christ Church Plano.

She graduated in 1983, Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Minnesota with a Journalism degree. She earned her law degree from SMU in 1983 and has been a licensed attorney in the State of Texas for 28 years. She is Board Certified in Family Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization.

Johnson has a reputation for representing clients from all walks of life, whether they are pro bono clients, regular citizens of Collin County, or professional athletes. She has handled complex civil litigation cases as well as criminal cases involving abduction of children, family violence, child sex abuse, failure to support children, and visitation with children.

She lists her strongest skills as the ability listen, giving litigants the opportunity to be heard, and looking for solutions within the boundaries of the law.

Johnson’s service to the community has been far reaching. She has represented many indigent clients pro bono. She has an adult sister who is mentally disabled which inspires her support of the Opportunity Partners Organization which helps the mentally challenged community obtain training and find jobs in the community. She is frequently appointed as an Amicus Attorney in family law cases to advise the court on what is in the best interests of the children involved in a family law conflict. She has been asked to serve as a visiting Associate Judge in Dallas County to hear and rule on Temporary Orders in Family law cases.

When asked about how she would run her court, Johnson states that over one-half of the cases filed in District Courts are family law cases. Family law cases touch the lives of mothers, fathers, and children. She has been committed to minimize damage to children, and will encourage the parties to work out agreements when that is possible. If an agreement cannot be arrived at, Jody will apply the laws fairly and consistently when making a decision.

She emphasizes that her role is not to legislate or prosecute from the bench. The legislature makes the laws. The District Attorney prosecutes the cases. The judges apply and enforce the laws. As a pioneer in the collaborative law movement in Texas (beginning in 1999), she strongly advocates using alternate dispute processes that give litigants more control over the outcomes of their cases and decreases the need for trials. Johnson is a frequent speaker regarding the collaborative law option and is a participant of a pro bono collaborative law project for those litigants who cannot afford this process.

When asked how her qualifications could restore integrity to the Collin County Courts, she cited her service on the State Bar of Texas District 6 Attorney Grievance board. She chaired the committee for 3 of her 6 years of service hearing evidence from litigants who filed lawyer complaints and attorneys and issuing rulings that determined whether a particular lawyer should be sanctioned or disbarred. In order to serve on this committee, she was required to demonstrate impeccable ethics and reputation and she will use these same qualities as a judge.

Moreover, she has the respect of her peers and the bench. As a Board Certified Attorney, she must have the recommendation of fellow attorneys and judges. She has been consistently selected, through peer recommendation, as a Texas Super Lawyer (including Top 100 attorneys in Dallas Fort Worth and Top 50 Women Attorneys in Texas) and many other accolades which are detailed in her biography at the link below.

Johnson is also the only attorney running for this bench who is "AV" rated by Martindale-Hubbell. This is an unsolicited peer review rating and is the highest rating issued. It means that Johnson has achieved a "Very High Ethical Standards rating" and the highest score for Legal Ability based on performance in the following 5 areas:

1. Legal Knowledge: Lawyer's familiarity with the laws governing his/her specific area of practice(s)
2. Analytical Capabilities: Lawyer's creativity in analyzing legal issues and applying technical knowledge
3. Judgment: lawyer's demonstration of the salient factors that drive the outcome of a given case or issue
4. Communication Ability: Lawyer's capability to communicate persuasively and credibly
5. Legal Experience: Lawyer's degree of experience in his/her specific area of practice(s).

If elected, Johnson hopes to be remembered as a fair and hardworking judge. She wants litigants and attorneys to know that she will apply the law as written and will be unbiased.

When asked why she is more qualified than the other candidates, she finds that although, other candidates do have some strengths, Johnson contends that she is the most qualified of all the candidates because
she:

- has been licensed to practice law longer than the other candidates;

- has the most relevant attorney experience required for this bench;

- is the only candidate who has a Board Certification by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization;

- has the most litigation and trial experience;

- has made judgments as an associate judge and attorney grievance committee member;

- and has the respect and support of the legal community by virtue of her being consistently listed as a Texas Super Lawyer

For more information, please see http://www.facebook.com/?ref=tn_tnmn#!/jodyjohnsonforjudge or her biography http://www.baumbach.org/2012/JodyBio.pdf

The Collin County Observer will continue to cover the 2012 election. We will attempt to give our readers information and insight into the candidates, the issues and their campaigns.

The Collin County Observer does not recommend nor endorse any candidate.

Some notes from the Observer's notebook range from the humorous to the nasty:

Campaign Trucks

Barnett Walker is running for judge in the County Court at Law #2.

I got a hoot when I saw a picture Barnett Walker's truck. I did remind Barnett the story two years ago when Ralph De La Garza put a giant placard on his truck for his Collin County District Attorney race. Ralph's truck was stolen almost immediately.

A wonder if auto thieves are quicker to steal from a judicial candidate or from a District Attorney candidate.

What District am I in?

The Observer does try to know what districts I live in, who will represent me, and who I can vote for?

I, like many in Texas, I don't know who my congressman will be. Many in Collin County do not know who their congressman, state senator or state representative - no matter how hard they try to find out.

The US Supreme Court has put the Texas redistricting plans for Congress, Texas Senate, and the Texas House on hold.

The SCOTUS has ordered arguments in January, but the filing period ends on December.

Even the Texas Attorney General doesn't know what maps the candidates should file in their district.

Nice deal, eh?

The 380th Court getting crowded

The 380th District Court bench is vacant since Suzanne Wooten was convicted of bribery.

Five Republicans have filed for the position in the March primary.

Terri Green
Jody Johnson
Chip Jarvis
Piper McCraw
Ben Smith

At this date, no Democrats have filed for the bench.

None of the candidates have a campaign website yet. More information, on all five, to come.

District 12 SBOE race already ugly

All of Collin County (and North Dallas) is now in 12th district for the State Board of Education.

The incumbant is Republican George Clayton. He is a resident of Richardson and an educator at North Dallas High School. Last year Clayton defeated Tincy Miller, the long time member of the SBOE. She served on the SBOE from 1984 to 2010.

After Clayton first challenged Miller, he won, despite being the target of a whisper campaign charging him with being gay.

Earlier this, Susan Fletcher, the president of the Golden Corridor Republican Women’s Club was questioning Clayton's "living arrangements".

In response, Clayton sent an email to the media confirming that, “To avoid the tyranny of misinformation and innuendo in this political race, I wish to say that I, in fact, do have a male partner who lives with me in my home in Richardson, Texas”.

The right wing and Tea Party websites are already on the attack.

There are three Republican candidates:

George Clayton
Pam Little
Tincy Miller

So far, I have not heard of any SBOE candidates for the Democratic Party primary.

****

More news on the Observer's notebook will be posted as interesting stories develop. I hope you enjoy.

Bill

A three panel of the San Antonio US District Court has approved, and ordered, the redistricting maps (on a 2-1 decision) for the Texas House, and Senate. The court has approved that Texas Legislative candidates will file on these new plans.

Filing for candidates begin today, on November 28. The filing period ends on December 15 at 6:00 PM.

The question is… Will the court ordered maps be the final ones for the election? On last Wednesday, the court announced his decision, but today, Greg Abbott, the Texas Attorney General petitioned the US Supreme Court to grant an Emergency Stay to hold the implementation of the court ordered restricting maps.

The AG has, “explained that a stay of the election process is needed because ‘elections should not proceed based on legally flawed maps that are likely to be overturned on further review.’”

If the Supreme Court grants the State’s stay, the primary dates will likely be moved out.

On Saturday, the court has issued and ordered their maps to be used for the congressional districts.

The maps can be downloaded and viewed at the below site at the Legislature GIS site:

The Plans:

• The Congressional ordered plan: Plan 220 [map]
• The Texas House of Representatives ordered plan: Plan 302 [map] [order,]
• The Texas Senate ordered plan: Plan 164 [map] [order]

The Primary:
These local races will be on the 2012 primary ballot:

• United States Representative – District 3 (Johnson)
• United States Representative – District 4 (Hall)
• United States Representative – District 32 (Sessions)
• Texas State Senator – District 8 (Shapiro, not seeking re-election)
• Texas State Senator – District 30 (Estes)
• Texas State Representative – District 3 (vacant, new district)
• Texas State Representative – District 66 (Taylor)
• Texas State Representative – District 67 (Madden, not seeking re-election)
• Texas State Representative – District 70 (Paxton, not seeking re-election)
• Texas State Representative – District 89 (Laubenburg)
• Texas State Board of Education - District 12 (Clayton)
• 199th District Court (Dry, not seeking re-election)
• 380th District Court (vacant)
• 401st District Court (Rusch)
• 416th District Court (Oldner)
• County Court at Law #2 (Lewis not seeking re-election)
• Sheriff (Box)
• Tax-Assessor Collector (Maun)
• County Commissioner Precinct 1 (Shaheen)
• County Commissioner Precinct 3 (Jaynes, not seeking re-election)
• Justice of the Peace – Precinct 3, Place 1 (Lewis, not seeking re-election)
• Constable Precinct 1 (Elkins not seeking re-election)
• Constable Precinct 2 (Barton)
• Constable Precinct 3 (Presley)
• Constable Precinct 4 (Todd, not seeking re-election)

Dallas attorney Michael Li has done an amazing job in reporting all to do with Texas Redistricting. His site “Texas Redistricting” is exhaustive. He keeps the news very current, and with intelligent, in-depth analysis. He’s unbelievable!

Bill

The Texas House Districts

The Federal Court Proposed Plan

The 2011 enacted plan

The current plan prior to 2011

The San Antonio Federal Court has released their proposed maps of the Texas House and the Senate District.

The Texas Democratic Party, the NAACP, the LULAC and several Democratic elected officials have sued Texas Legislature's 2011 redistricting maps. The federal courts in Washington, D.C. and in San Antonio have held that the Texas plan dilutes the vote of minorities.

Redistricting is in its nature a political operation. The Republican majority legislature drew several districts to elect more Republicans. That is perfectly legal.

The Democrats however have charged that the legislature gerrymandered the districts to fragmented minority communities to disfranchisement those ability minority elected offices. The federal courts have agreed that the Texas plans are illegal under the Civil Rights Law writing:

"the Court finds and concludes that the State of Texas used an improper standard or methodology to determine which districts afford minority voters the ability to elect their preferred candidates of choice and that there are material issues of fact in dispute that prevent this Court from entering declaratory judgment that the three redistricting plans meet the requirements of Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act."

The courts decision have left the Texas voters confused. They can not know who can and will be able to run for election in their own districts. The court have promised final maps in the following month.

The Texas Legislature House Districts:

The court has extended the filing period. Until the decision is final, the court has allowed candidates to file in their previous districts if the court does not act in time.

If the legislature fails to draw a legal map, then their failure gives the authority to the federal courts. And the courts do their decisions for their own logic. The Democratic issues were mostly involved gerrymandering in Austin, San Antonio and Fort Worth - not that involved Collin County. Nevertheless, the court offered substantial changes to the county's house districts.

The legislature made some significant changes to the Collin County house districts. The newly created District 33, was carved out of District 89 (Jodi Laubenberg) drawn from Rockwall to Frisco. The federal court is planning to also move of District 70 (Ken Paxton) into the District 33 (and renumbered to Dist. 3).

The maps to the right show:

• The proposed Texas House districts. (Plan 298)
• The 2011 legislature enacted districts.
• The previous districts prior to the last redistricting.

The Texas Legislature Senate Districts:

Collin County has two Texas Senate Districts. Senate District 8 encompasses the north-east quadrant of the county, including Plano and Allen. Three quarters of the lesser populated remainder are in Senate District 30.

The legislature was taken a substantial part of Dallas from District 8. The court did not make any major changes to the legislature plan.

Both the legislature and the court has changed the huge 30th District. District runs from Wylie along the Red River to Wichita Falls and south to Erath County. However the legislature and the court have made few changes within the District 30th within Collin County. But the Court has removed very little in Senate District 30 within Collin County. However, the court has made large changes in the remainder of the 30th Senate District by removing Erath County will added the Denton County voters could change the rural demographics adding the ratio to suburbanites in Collin County, and change the locus from Wichita Falls to Denton and Collin County.

(Click the maps to download a pdf larger map)The Texas legislature has maps that show all of the plans here.

The Texas Senate Districts

The Federal Court Proposed Plan

The 2011 enacted plan

The current plan prior to 2011

Bill

Collin County had a pathetic 3% voter turnout, but statewide it was 5%. It is interesting that the county which has a much higher educated and an affluent (and apathetic) population, but still voted about 40% lower rate than the rest of Texas.

The County did not vote to approve half of the Constitutional Amendments. Collin County voters refused to approve: Prop 3 (Bonds for college loans), Prop 4 (Bonds for blighted redevelopment), Prop 6 (To distribute for money from the permanent school land funds), Prop 7 (Bonds for conservation and parks), and Prop 8 (To appraise land for water-stewardship purposes).

But statewide, the voters approved all of the constitutional amendments except for, Prop 4 (Bonds for blighted redevelopment), Prop 7 (an El Paso County permission to form a reclamation district) and Prop 8 (To appraise land for water-stewardship purposes).

All the local propositions including Plano and McKinney were approved by the voters.

Collin County has all polling place results. The turnout was 3.1%

The State of Texas statewide results are not complete, but 96% of the precincts have reported. The statewide turnout 5%.

The 10 Constitutional Amendments proposed are:

1. "The constitutional amendment authorizing the legislature to provide for an exemption from ad valorem taxation of all or part of the market value of the residence homestead of the surviving spouse of a 100 percent or totally disabled veteran."

Collin County:

• For: 10,560 (80.65%)
• Against: 2,534 (19.35%)

Texas statewide:

• For: 82.86%
• Against: 17.13%

2. “The constitutional amendment providing for the issuance of additional general obligation bonds by the Texas Water Development Board in an amount not to exceed $6 billion at any time outstanding.”

Collin County:

• For: 6,956 (53.55%)
• Against: 6,033 (46.45%)

Texas statewide:

• For: 51.43%
• Against: 48.56%

3. "The constitutional amendment providing for the issuance of general obligation bonds of the State of Texas to finance educational loans to students.”

Collin County:

• For: 5,899 (45.29%)
• Against: 7,126 (54.71%)

Texas statewide:

• For: 54.45%
• Against: 45.54%

4. "The constitutional amendment authorizing the legislature to permit a county to issue bonds or notes to finance the development or redevelopment of an unproductive, underdeveloped, or blighted area and to pledge for repayment of the bonds or notes increases in ad valorem taxes imposed by the county on property in the area. The amendment does not provide authority for increasing ad valorem tax rates."

Collin County:

• For: 5,314 (41.01%)
• Against: 7,643 (58.99%)

Texas statewide:

• For: 40.20%
• Against: 59.79%

5. "The constitutional amendment authorizing the legislature to allow cities or counties to enter into interlocal contracts with other cities or counties without the imposition of a tax or the provision of a sinking fund."

Collin County:

• For: 8,023 (62.03%)
• Against: 4,912 (37.97%)

Texas statewide:

• For: 57.93%
• Against: 42.06%

6. "The constitutional amendment clarifying references to the permanent school fund, allowing the General Land Office to distribute revenue from permanent school fund land or other properties to the available school fund to provide additional funding for public education, and providing for an increase in the market value of the permanent school fund for the purpose of allowing increased distributions from the available school fund."

Collin County:

• For: 5,750 (44.29%)
• Against: 7,233 (55.71%)

Texas statewide:

• For: 51.44%
• Against: 48.55%

7. "The constitutional amendment authorizing the legislature to permit conservation and reclamation districts in El Paso County to issue bonds supported by ad valorem taxes to fund the development and maintenance of parks and recreational facilities."

Collin County:

• For: 6,168 (48.41%)
• Against: 6,573 (51.59%)

Texas statewide:

• For: 48.24%
• Against: 51.75%

8. "The constitutional amendment providing for the appraisal for ad valorem tax purposes of open-space land devoted to water-stewardship purposes on the basis of its productive capacity."

Collin County:

• For: 6,280 (48.81%)
• Against: 6,586 (51.19%)

Texas statewide:

• For: 46.94%
• b>Against: 53.05%

9. "The constitutional amendment authorizing the governor to grant a pardon to a person who successfully completes a term of deferred adjudication community supervision."

Collin County:

• For: 7,490 (57.77%)
• Against: 5,476 (42.23%)

Texas statewide:

• For: 57.18%
• Against: 42.81%

10. "The constitutional amendment to change the length of the unexpired term that causes the automatic resignation of certain elected county or district officeholders if they become candidates for another office.
Collin County:

• For: 7,413 (57.40%)
• Against: 5,501 (42.60%)

Texas statewide:

• For: 55.91%
• Against: 44.08%

Bill

The Observer will be watching:

• Today, the beginning of the bribery trial for District Judge Suzanne Wooten. I expect this trial to last for several days.

• On Tuesday, vising Judge Nelms will hold a hearing on Hannah Kunkle, Patricia Crigger and the other two indicted District Clerks for conspiracy and theft of more than $20,000 in government money. The hearing will be held on Election Day (ironic?).

  This hearing might have some interesting developments. We'll keep you informed. Rebecca Gregory has been appointed as 2nd Attorney pro tem. Gregory was the former appointed US Attorney in the Texas Eastern District. Gregory was appointed to the US Attorney by George W. Bush and confirmed by the Senate. The trial is scheduled for November 28.

• Tuesday is also Election Day on the Constitutional Amendments, and several local propositions. Both the City of Plano and McKinney are asking the voters to increase the terms of the city councilmen.

  The decision of the state's voters on Proposition 10 will affect at least two Collin County primary races in 2012. (The Texas Legislature, District 70, and the Collin County Sheriff)

Readers, we will keep you informed.

Bill

Jerry Madden, the veteran state representative for the 67th district, is facing two young candidates seeking to unseat the 19 year veteran in the 2012 Republican primary. Jerry Madden was first elected to the Texas Legislature in 1992, and he now serves in the legislature as the chairman of the Corrections Committee.

Both of his opponents are under 30 years old. Jeffrey Leach and Jon Cole are both attorneys in Collin County. Four years ago Jon Cole gave Jerry Madden a spirited contest in which Madden won by less than 650 256 votes. The voters can expect a very interesting well-fought race.

The Map (maybe)

The 67th District is in central Plano, parts of Richardson, Allen and Dallas. The district is made of 27% of Plano (69,280 from Plano), 4% of the City of Dallas (46,883), 29% of Richardson (28,495) and also 424 in Allen and 266 in Garland. (The map to the right is of the 2011 redistricting plan.) This map is still being challenged in federal court in San Antonio. The complainants [the Democrats] are asking the court to redraw the map to eliminate excessive gerrymandering. An example is Collin County's new District 33 which runs from West Plano and Frisco and along the north part of the county to the eastern border including Royse City and all of Rockwall County. The Federal Court has put the Texas House plans for the Congress districts in jeopardy. Jerry Madden served on the Texas House Redistricting Committee.

Jon Cole

Jon Cole received his bachelor's degree from the University of Texas at Austin with a double major in history and government and graduated from the Institute of Comparative Political and Economic Systems at Georgetown University in Washington, DC. Cole graduated from the University of Texas Law School and was admitted to the bar in 2010.

On his campaign website, he describes himself, as “a proven conservative leader in the private sector and our community. A finance attorney and healthcare investor… A finance attorney and healthcare investor, …[and] a partner in a Dallas merchant banking firm and board member of a Dallas technology company.”

Jon has worked as a volunteer state coordinator for a Texas anti-drug organization. He touts that he “led conservative and law enforcement groups from around the state and nation to kill “The Drug Dealer Protection Act” that would have released thousands of drug dealers into our communities.” He also states that he “was part of a task force comprised of elected leaders, judges, and law enforcement officials, formed to eliminate new synthetic narcotics that were creeping into Plano and Allen public schools. This group’s efforts led to the passage of Senate Bill 331, which was signed into law by Governor Perry in 2011.”

He has served as a legislative aide in the Texas House of Representatives, has worked in the Governor's Criminal Justice Division analyzing Texas' drug court system and assisting the Texas Crime Stoppers program. He also assisted the Governor's Office of Homeland Security in producing the state's emergency communication network.

He writes that he also, “knows the issues facing job-creators as he interacts with entrepreneurs, CEOs, and financial institutions on a daily basis to help grow companies, create jobs, and assist struggling businesses to meet payroll.”

Jon said he is running for the Legislature because, “We’re coming together because ‘business as usual’ is no longer tolerable in Austin. We depend on our elected leaders to represent our values and beliefs. Instead, we get business as usual from our elected officials – saying one thing at home and doing another in Austin.”

And that he will, “work to earn your vote and be your honest conservative voice to Austin. With your help, I’ll work to bring back our economy, secure our borders, rein in out of control government spending, and restore accountability to Austin. Most importantly, I will take our shared values of faith, family, and freedom to Austin.”

Jon Cole's second attempt to unseat Jerry Madden ran a much criticized campaign which included "push polling", misleading flyers and mean-spirited attacks.

The Collin County Observer wrote of the 2008 campaign, "This is old-fashioned, shoot-em-up, nasty Texas politics." Cole's tactics almost worked; he garnered 48.27% of the votes in the March, 2008 GOP primary.

Jeff Leach

Jeff Leach graduated from Plano Senior High School, and Baylor University in 2005 with a degree in Political Science. He obtained his Law Degree at SMU in 2008, and was admitted to the Bar in 2009. He is an Associate at Griffith Nixon Davidson, P.C., and on the Governmental Affairs Committee of the North Texas Association of General Contractors (TEXO).

At Baylor, Leach was elected twice as the Student Body President in 2003-2005, and was a Texas State Society Scholar in 2004.

Leach is an active member of Prestonwood Baptist Church where he has served for several years in the Young Families Ministry.

On his campaign website, Leach writes that his “conservative convictions are deeply rooted. He is dedicated to reducing the size and scope of government and lowering taxes to create more economic freedom for individuals, families and businesses in Texas.”

He describes himself as, “an attorney with deep roots in the community, is committed to bringing strong conservative values back to the district.”

Leach writes that, “As the next true conservative State Representative in Collin County, I will aggressively work to eliminate wasteful spending, fight to lower taxes and will be committed to improving education by sending more dollars directly to the classroom where they do the most good instead of on ineffective and inefficient administrative bureaucracy.”

“A lifelong conservative, Leach is an advocate for tort reform and has worked over the past few years with Texans for Lawsuit Reform to further reduce the frivolous lawsuits that clog up the justice system in Texas. He is also strongly committed to traditional conservative values and will fight to preserve our Second Amendment freedoms, safeguard traditional marriage, and protect the sanctity of every human life.”

Leach states that he, “demonstrated his commitment to conservative values, serving President Bush in the White House Office of Political Affairs and at the Republican National Committee helping to elect Republicans across the country.”

He writes, “The days of politicians saying one thing to voters at home and doing another in Austin are over.”

Jerry Madden

Jerry Madden, graduated from West Point with a Bachelor of Science in Engineering. He then spent six years in the Army, including one year in Vietnam and two years in Germany, before bringing his family to Richardson, Texas, in 1971. In 1979, he obtained a Master of Science in Management and Administration Sciences from the University of Texas at Dallas.

Madden worked 11 years for Texas Instruments, 8 years for Teledyne Geotech, and in 2000 formed Jerry Madden Insurance to offer group health plan coverage options to small businesses out of his independent agency's Plano offices. In July of 2008, he sold his company and retired from the insurance business.

Madden on his campaign website, describes himself, “As a 38 year resident of Collin County, Jerry has been involved in numerous veterans' and community organizations, holding positions such as President of the Collin County School Board, and Chairman of the Collin County Hospital Board as well as serving on the Advisory Board of the Plano Chamber of Commerce.”

He also writes that he was,” Dedicated to the Republican philosophy, Jerry was elected Precinct Chairman in his local neighborhood in 1974, and Chairman of the Republican Party of Collin County in 1984.”

Madden was first elected to the Legislature in 1992, and has been re-elected 8 times.

Madden serves in the legislature as the chairman of the Corrections Committee, and is a member of the Judiciary and civil jurisprudence committee, the Redistricting committee, and on the Election Contest committee. Prior committee appointments have included Calendars, Public Education, House Select Committee on Public School Finance, State Affairs, Urban Affairs, Public Safety, Elections, State, Federal and International Relations, and Rules and Resolutions.

He states that in 2005, the Speaker of the house first appointed him to Chair the Corrections Committee with his marching orders, "Don't build new prisons. They cost too much”

Madden is one of the most influential and well-respected members in the legislature, and is considered one of the nation’s leading leaders in reforming the penal system. In 2007, Texas Monthly named him as one of the ’10 Best Legislators’.

Madden writes that he is, “especially proud to have been the first recipient in 2007 of the Carmen Miller Michael Mental Health Advocate Prism Award, being presented in March of 2009 with a University of Texas at Dallas Distinguished Alumnus Award, being named as a member of the Board of Directors of the Council of State Government’s Justice Center in April of 2009, and in July of 2009, being nominated to serve as Chairman of the Law and Criminal Justice Committee formed by the National Council of State Legislatures.”

Madden writes that, “[he] continues to exhibit the commitment and drive which he first brought to the Legislature. Always accessible to his constituents and sensitive to the changing needs of Texas and District 67, Representative Madden seeks to promote limited government, fiscal responsibility, safe and thriving communities and successful families and businesses.”

Bill

The Constitutional Amendments election is on November 8th. The polling places are all center votes, so that any voter can vote at any polling place in the county. The list of sample ballots and polling places can by found at the Elections Department.

The 10 Constitutional Amendments proposed are:

1. "The constitutional amendment authorizing the legislature to provide for an exemption from ad valorem taxation of all or part of the market value of the residence homestead of the surviving spouse of a 100 percent or totally disabled veteran."
2. “The constitutional amendment providing for the issuance of additional general obligation bonds by the Texas Water Development Board in an amount not to exceed $6 billion at any time outstanding.”
3. "The constitutional amendment providing for the issuance of general obligation bonds of the State of Texas to finance educational loans to students.”
4. "The constitutional amendment authorizing the legislature to permit a county to issue bonds or notes to finance the development or redevelopment of an unproductive, underdeveloped, or blighted area and to pledge for repayment of the bonds or notes increases in ad valorem taxes imposed by the county on property in the area. The amendment does not provide authority for increasing ad valorem tax rates."
5. "The constitutional amendment authorizing the legislature to allow cities or counties to enter into interlocal contracts with other cities or counties without the imposition of a tax or the provision of a sinking fund."
6. "The constitutional amendment clarifying references to the permanent school fund, allowing the General Land Office to distribute revenue from permanent school fund land or other properties to the available school fund to provide additional funding for public education, and providing for an increase in the market value of the permanent school fund for the purpose of allowing increased distributions from the available school fund."
7. "The constitutional amendment authorizing the legislature to permit conservation and reclamation districts in El Paso County to issue bonds supported by ad valorem taxes to fund the development and maintenance of parks and recreational facilities."
8. "The constitutional amendment providing for the appraisal for ad valorem tax purposes of open-space land devoted to water-stewardship purposes on the basis of its productive capacity."
9. "The constitutional amendment authorizing the governor to grant a pardon to a person who successfully completes a term of deferred adjudication community supervision."
10. "The constitutional amendment to change the length of the unexpired term that causes the automatic resignation of certain elected county or district officeholders if they become candidates for another office.

Some explanations and arguments for the amendments are:

• VoteTexas.org is run by the Texas Secretary of State
• League of Women Voters of Texas
• The Dallas Morning News, Editorial: Slate of state amendments deserves a ‘yes’ vote [may require subscription]
• Paul Burka the Senior Executive Editor of The Texas Monthly offers a curmudgeon's opinion of the 10 amendments.

The election will also include some local propositions (sample ballots are linked):

• The City of McKinney will seek approval of 3 propositions; one is Prop 3 which is to increase City Council members terms to 4 years.
• Lowery Crossing is asking to increase sales tax by 1/4 cents for maintenance and repairs of streets.
• The City of Plano is requesting the voters to approve 3 propositions. Prop 1 will change city council member terms will be 4 years.
• The City of Melissa is asking to adopt a Home Rule Charter.
• The City of Murphy is changing the use of 1/2 cent of sales tax to create The City of Murphy Municipal Development District.
• The Wylie Northeast Special Utility District is holding an election for a Director. The candidates are, Brenda Kellor, Joseph T. Sebring, Greg Lutz, and Sue Jones.
• The Collin County Water Control and Improvement District #3 is asking voters to confirming the creation of the District, the election of the directors (whose names are not listed?), and the issuance of $87 million, and a tax levy of $1.20 per $100 of valuation.

Early voting days and hours:

• Monday, Oct 24
  8 am - 5 pm
• Tuesday, Oct 25
  8 am - 5 pm
• Wednesday, Oct 26
  8 am - 5 pm
• Thursday, Oct 27
  8 am - 5 pm
• Friday, Oct 28
  8 am - 5 pm
• Saturday, Oct 29
  8 am - 5 pm
• Monday, Oct 31
  8 am - 5 pm
• Tuesday, Nov 1
  8 am - 5 pm
• Wednesday, Nov 2
  8 am - 5 pm
• Thursday, Nov 3
  7 am - 7 pm
• Friday, Nov 4
  7 am - 7 pm
• Election Day
  Tuesday, Nov 8
  7 am - 7 pm

Early voting polling places:

Temporary Early Voting Polling Locations

Melissa City Hall,3411 Barker Ave., Melissa
Oct 31 - Nov 2: 8am - 5pm &
Nov 3 - Nov 4: 7am - 7pm only

Texas Star Bank, 402 W. White, Anna
Oct 24 - Oct 29: 8am - 5pm only

Valliance Bank, 5900 Lake Forest Drive, McKinney
Oct 24 - Oct 28: 9am-4pm &
Oct 31 - Nov 4: 9am-4pm

Bill

The 15 year County Commissioner Joe Jaynes has "non-announced" that he might run for the 70th District in the Texas Legislature.

Under the Texas Constitution, if Jaynes announces that he is running for another position less than 1 year at the end of his term, is automatically resigned from his commissioner's court seat. Since the legislature has changed the dates for the deadline to file for a race would be 13 months before the end of his term. If he 'officially' runs, then his seat is declared vacant, and the County Judge, Keith Self can replace a new interim precinct 3 commissioner.

The special elections for the Constitutional Amendments' election is on November 8th. The 10th amendment on the ballot will allow an official to hold his position and run for a different office if his announcement is 1 year and 1 month from his term ending without resigning his seat.

Joe has sent a letter to his friends, by email and on his Facebook page. He writes:

Dear Friends,

Thanks to encouragement from so many of you, my family and I are strongly considering running for State Representative from District 70 which represents McKinney and most of northern Collin County.

I cannot make an official announcement at this time because throughout Texas, county office holders are restricted on formally announcing for a state position until December 2, depending on the passage of Proposition 10 in the upcoming November 8 constitutional amendment elections. (Complicated, isn't it?)

However, in the meantime, I am looking for your thoughts and input.

This position has had excellent representation from Ken Paxton. It would be my goal to carry on the conservative principles that Ken has established through his leadership.

My own record as county commissioner reflects these conservative values. For example:

• I have never voted for a tax increase;
• I authored the 5% county homestead exemption;
• Collin County was one of the first counties in the state to receive a AAA bond rating;
• We have approximately $2 billion worth of transportation projects underway;
• The commissioners' court placed our employees on a pay for performance system as opposed to the traditional step system that most government entities have in place;
• I led the effort in freezing taxes for senior citizens;
• We cut the county property tax to one of the lowest in the state.

Unfortunately the state of Texas is not as well off. For the upcoming legislative session in 2013, Texas could be facing another deficit. It is during these trying times that Collin County needs a state representative with the necessary experience to make the hard decisions necessary to keep this state great.

My pledge to you would be to approach the difficult issues with three core beliefs that I hear every day from constituents which are:

• People want less government intrusion in their lives
• Counties, cities and school districts should have more local control
• No new taxes

I would also make as my platform the following issues which I believe are so important to the future of Collin County:

• No new toll roads - Collin County does not need to be one big gated community;
• Water -- in this fast growing area it is essential that we develop long-term water resources;
• Local control for our school systems -- If Austin is going to cut funding for schools they should cut unnecessary regulations as well;
• Unfunded mandates - There should be a constitutional amendment prohibiting unfunded mandates for cities, school districts and counties;
• End diversions -- almost half of gas tax revenues meant for roads are diverted to other areas of the state budget.

I plan on using the time between now and December 2 to listen to you in order to find out what you want to see in your next state representative. Please send me your thoughts and ideas on these issues and others.

As always, it is a pleasure serving you.

Best,

Joe

Bill

Two candidates have begin campaigning for Precinct 3 on the Collin County Commissioner's Court. The Precinct 3 place has been held by Joe Jaynes for the last 15 years and has announced that he will not seek re-election.

In September, the Commissioner's Court redistricted the commissions precincts (districts) and the voting precincts. The precincts may change slightly if the Federal Court finds the legislatures districts illegal. The county is required to keep any voting precincts that cross the lines of congress, legislature, commissioner's etc. If the legislature and/or congress districts must be redrawn again, the voting precincts may need to be re-aligned.

Ray Eckenrode

Republican Eckenrode is the Founder and Managing Partner of Appian Commercial Realty in McKinney. He describes himself as, "a 22-year Collin County resident, is a fiscal conservative, proven businessman, and well-respected corporate citizen. He currently serves as a Commissioner of McKinney’s Planning and Zoning Board, sits on the Medical Center of McKinney’s Board of Trustees, the Board of Directors of the McKinney Chamber, and the McKinney Education Foundation’s Board of Directors. Past community involvements include Chairman of the McKinney Community Development Corporation, President of the McKinney A&M Club, and member of the Board of Directors for Avenues Counseling."

In his announcement, Eckenrode said, “Collin County and Precinct 3 have been well-represented by Commissioner Joe Jaynes for over a decade. His effective leadership and successful progress in the areas of transportation, expansion, infrastructure improvements, and creating beneficial partnerships between cities should be continued. Collin County is truly one of the best places to live and I am committed to sustaining and the quality of life our citizens enjoy. I believe my success as a business entrepreneur and a community leader uniquely qualify me for this position. I look forward to earning the opportunity to serve and represent Precinct 3.”

Eckenrode graduated with honors from Texas A&M with a degree in Finance in 2000. Prior to real estate, he was an Account Executive and Partner Manager for EMC, one of the world’s leading data storage and software companies, with a client list including J.C.Penney, ExxonMobil, and Bank of America. In 2003, he was one of the youngest brokers in the nation to receive the CCIM (Certified Commercial Investment Member) designation.

His campaign website is not up, but he has a Facebook campaign page.

Chris Hill

Republican Chris Hill is a Certified Public Accountant, Certified Internal Auditor and, a Certified Fraud Examiner. He is the Controller at North Texas Public Broadcasting (KERA TV 13 • KERA 90.1 FM • KXT 91.7 FM). He has been a Controller at A3D Technologies, Fellowship of Stonebridge and at Cornerstone Bible Fellowship.

He earned a BA at A & M, Commerce at Political Science in 1998. He has also earned a MA degree in Leadership at the Columbia International University, a MBA at Webster University, and a MS in Accounting & Information Management at The University in Texas at Dallas.

While Hill has been campaigning, he has not issued an announcement. His website is at www.votechrishill.com, but has no pages posted. We should expect to here more about him in the weeks to come.

Bill

The 2012 campaigns have started beginning. Two candidates have begun campaigning for the Texas House in District 70.

The Map (maybe)

The 70th District is in northern Collin County. The map to the right is of the 2011 redistricting plan. (This map has still challenged in federal court in San Antonio. The complainants [the Democrats] are asking the districts to redraw the map to eliminate excessive gerrymandering. An example is Collin County's new District 33 runs from West Plano and Frisco and along the north part of the county to then along the east including Royse City and all of Rockwall County. The Federal Court has put the Texas plans for Texas House on for the Congress districts in jeopardy.)

Ken Paxton has been the incumbant in Dist 70, but has decided to run for the State Senate race for District 8 when Florence Shapiro has announced to retire.

The two Republican candidates have begun campaigning so far for the 70th House District:

Scott Sanford

Republican Scott Sanford is a life-long Texan, and a Baylor Bear for about half of that time. He earned BBA and MTax degrees, and maintains a CPA license in the State of Texas. His career path includes positions at Ernst & Young, and ownership in two franchise endeavors. Scott has served Cottonwood Creek Baptist Church in Allen, TX (formerly First Baptist Church in Fairview) since 1997 and is currently the Executive Pastor.

On his website, Sanford wants to serve as a state representative because, "Our nation is at a perilous point in history. The danger is great and our demise as the world’s leading free country is plausible, if not likely. The uniqueness of today’s crisis as compared to past threats to America is that today’s most pressing issues were brought on ourselves by American governmental leadership at all levels—federal, state, and local. We have not been invaded nor are foreign armies amassing at the borders. Nevertheless, we find ourselves in a country of serious decline. Our decline is financial, governmental, cultural, structural, and moral."

He writes, "My background as a CPA, business owner, and Executive Pastor has provided me with the experience to serve effectively in a difficult time in our history. My experience has given me insight and practice with balancing budgets, creating jobs, and imploring people to live in such a way that they are blessed."

The Scott Sanford campaign web site

Bracy Wilson

Republican Bracy Wilson is the President of HelpCharters, whose is a Charter Service Company that provides charter school consulting and support services to people who want to make a difference in kids through the public charter school system.

In 1998 Wilson earned a BS degree in Pastoral Ministries at Southwestern Assemblies of God University. He is also the founder and president dba/Bracy Wilson Ministries, Inc. is a non-profit organization that serves "kids on the spectrum" (K.O.T.S.) of Autism. Who aims to launch the first Charter School for KOTS pending Texas legislation passage of law. He also worked at Life School of Dallas and he was the founder of the Stonebridge Church.

At his website, Wilson ,states that he was, "a job creator and conservative leader, knows how to get the job done. From his service in vocational ministry to his work with high performing public charter schools around the state, Bracy has spent his career helping change lives. We face a lot of serious challenges as a county, a state and a nation, and we need people in elected office who have done more than just talk about our shared conservative values."

The Bracy Wilson campaign web site

Bill

In the Allen school district, 4,373 voters have approved a 13 cent property tax rise (to $1.67 per $100 valuation) by 60.5% to 39.5%.

The 9.7% turnout was a large turnout for a school election proposition.

The vote was:

2,645 FOR
1,727 AGAINST
out of 45,141 registered voters

The school district board explained the tax raise was needed to, "offset $21 million in cuts to local funding by the Texas Legislature in 2011."

"The Texas Legislature reduced funding of over $4 billion to Texas public schools in June. Cuts to Allen ISD are approximately $9 million for 2011-2012. An additional $12 million will be cut from state funding to Allen ISD in 2012-2013.

"The school district reduced 80 positions this year saving approximately $3 million and made an additional $1.5 million in cuts to non-instructional areas such as administration, maintenance and energy expenses.

The local anti-taxes groups and the Tea Parties argue that there is no tax. The information by the Allen Patriots point out that, "AISD could curb non-essential spending and focus more on education"., and that the new tax would, "Move Allen ISD from 19th highest tax rate to the max rate of $1.67, joining 3 other Texas districts out of 1024 with the highest allowed."

The AISD argued that the taxes ($10 million) would be used to "help hire additional teachers to meet student growth and reduce class size[s]".

But the Allen Patriots complain that the district has used bonds more for "non-essential spending...than on education". They point to the $60 million HS stadium and the "$23 million for a Performing/Fine Arts Center, including a $70 thousand grand piano."

The AISD voters gave a 60-40 percent decision to give their money to their schools, and a loud setback for the anti-tax groups.

Bill

January 11, 2011
By ED HOUSEWRIGHT / The Dallas Morning News

read this story at DallasNews.com (registration may be required)
read the rest of this article at DallasNews.com

===================================================================================

Comment: Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night will stay our intrepid editor, Bill Baumbach, from the completion of his self-appointed rounds - including braving the traffic on 75 on the first snow day of the year to attend a Commissioners Court meeting with important issues on the agenda!

Unfortunately, some other key folks didn't make it to the meeting, so the much anticipated report on the "vote center" experiment wasn't formally presented at the January 10th meeting. It would be reasonable to assume it will be on the agenda for the January 24th meeting, but we won't know for sure until the agenda is posted online on Friday, 1/21 (Commissioners Court Agenda 1/24/11)

As reported by Ed Housewright of The Dallas Morning News in this article, two citizens appeared to express concerns about the implementation of vote centers to the Court. It's interesting to note that Republican precinct chair Chris Freeman rated the headline and the lead in the story, while Bill, a member of the site selection committee for the November 2010 election, was relegated to paragraph 6. You can watch both gentlemen's comments online at the County's website. Bill's comments begin at the counter reading 8:30, while Mr. Freeman's comments begin at 17:30.

Bill and The Collin County Observer have been closely following the efforts to implement the "vote center" concept since 2006. You'll find a list of our previous posts, including news clippings and several original articles, below.

If you have input on the subject of vote centers in general, or as implemented in recent elections - including the November 2010 general election, we suggest you make your thoughts known to your Commissioners, either in writing or in person. You can send an e-mail to the Court's general mailbox at commcourt@collincountytx.gov or call 972-424-1460 ext. 4631.

The 2012 presidential election isn't that far away.

angellsmith

=====================================================================================

Additional information on Vote Centers on The Collin County Observer:

11/3/2010 - DMN - Collin County judge says "vote center" system may have contributed to long lines on election day

11/2/2010 - The Texas Observer - Voting Problems in Collin County

11/2/2010 - Technology issues reported at Collin County vote centers

8/9/10 - Vote Centers: Expert's report and public hearing today (comprehensive analysis by Bill Baumbach and links to many other posts and resources)

9/9/2009 - Collin to take part in vote center experiment despite concerns

8/10/2009 - Does Collin County understand what a vote center is?

Link: http://trailblazersblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2011/01/paxton-not-backing-out-of-spea.html

January 10, 2011
by Robert T. Garrett/The Dallas Morning News - Trailblazers Blog

read this story at DallasNews.com (registration may be required)

Link: http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/city/collin/stories/DN-housecol_19met.ART.East.Edition1.4375173.html

December 19, 2010
by ED HOUSEWRIGHT/The Dallas Morning News

read the article at DallasNews.com

Link: http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/120910dnmettheboyjp.3a8474e.html

December 9, 2010

By ED HOUSEWRIGHT / The Dallas Morning News

read this story at DallasNews.com

Link: http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/localnews/stories/DN-lucas_27met.ART0.State.Edition1.4b808c1.html

November 27, 2010

By IAN McCANN / The Dallas Morning News
imccann@dallasnews.com

read this article at DallasNew.com

Link: http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/politics/state/stories/DN-speaker_17tex.ART.State.Edition1.b180a7.html

Collin County's contender in the race for Speaker of the Texas House, Rep. Ken Paxton, has repudiated e-mails circulated by his supporters which make an issue of current Speaker Joe Straus' religion, Judaism.

The e-mails have been sent by supporters of both Paxton and fellow Republican Warren Chisum, emphasizing the importance of electing a conservative Christian, and some specifically point out that Straus is Jewish. Conservative leaders have responded to charges of antisemitism by saying that critics are being overly sensitive and that their real concern with Straus is based on issues. Other observers suggest that the real problem is that Straus has been able to work with, and has support from, Democrats.

The story surfaced on Monday, as political stories in Texas often do, in The Quorum Report (www.quorumreport.com), an online newsletter published by Harvey Kronberg, a veteran political journalist in Austin. The story was picked up by major publications like the Dallas Morning News and The Texas Observer (see below) and since then there has been a flurry of statements issued on the subject.

E-mailed "whisper campaigns" of questionable veracity (and plenty of outright lies) have become commonplace in political campaigns in recent years. Of course, the beauty of the technique from the political operative's perspective is that, in addition to being free, the candidate and the campaign can deny responsibility and repudiate the statements, while the questionable allegations still plant the seeds of doubt in the minds of many recipients.

Kronberg reported Paxton's statement condemning the e-mails today.

CHISUM AND PAXTON CONDEMN OUTSIDE GROUPS' RELIGIOUS ATTACKS IN SPEAKER RACE

"There is absolutely no place for religious bigotry in the race for Texas Speaker"

Two Republicans seeking to unseat House Speaker Joe Straus in the new legislative session released statements this afternoon condemning language used by outside groups that some say imply that Straus isn’t fit to be Speaker because he is Jewish.

Here’s the statement from Rep. Ken Paxton (R-McKinney):

“There is absolutely no place for religious bigotry in the race for Texas Speaker, and I categorically condemn such action. Furthermore, it is just as shameful for anyone to imply that I would ever condone this type of behavior. My campaign is singularly focused on a message of providing proven, dependable conservative leadership to the Texas House.”

Read other posts on this topic at QuorumReport.com

Abby Rapoport of the Texas Observer has several blog posts on the topic, including this bit, edited from a longer post:

It's not easy to trace the allegations of mailers and robo-calls. While there's been increased activism around the Speaker's race, there has not been increased transparency. Because the race is not on an open ballot race none of these activists will actually cast a vote, non-profit groups can be active without filing to the Texas Ethics Commission. We can't follow the money or know who's backing whom…

…Anti-Straus activists chose to create a grassroots campaign around this political fight—as I've written before, the speaker's race was once an insiders-only affair. The anti-Straus movement has brought more people into the decision-making process, and activists have never before been mobilized on anything approximating this scale in this type of race. One web letter demanding a new speaker, ConservativeSpeakerMandate.com, brags it has over 4,000 signatures. Almost every representative I've talked to has mentioned calls and emails regarding the race.

And predictably, there has already been an allegation that the furor was REALLY started by Straus supporters. Here's Abby's reporting on this juicy tidbit:

The Texas Home School Coalition PAC has sent out an email accusing Straus supporters of manufacturing the scandal. Tim Lambert, who heads the coalition, was one of the 46 leaders who signed the letter asking members dump Straus. Here's an excerpt from the email:

Straus' supporters started pushing back against those who are highlighting his record by sending out fake e-mails accusing the Republican activists and TEA party groups of being bought and paid for and accusing Straus's opponents of being anti-Semitic. (Most didn't even know Straus was Jewish.) This is, of course, a tactic used by Democrats against conservatives in the recent election cycle. His supporters continue to say that Straus is being "attacked" personally.

read more from this and other posts on this topic at TexasObserver.org

Note the use of quotation marks around "attacked" and the allegation that the source of all of this nastiness is "of course" the Democrats.

For comprehensive overview of the controversy, read this article by Robert Garrett in the Dallas Morning News.

E-mails targeting Texas House Speaker Joe Straus cite his Judaism, rivals' Christianity

November 17, 2010

By ROBERT T. GARRETT / The Dallas Morning News

AUSTIN – Some conservative Republican activists working to unseat House Speaker Joe Straus are circulating e-mails that emphasize his Judaism.

Several e-mails have surfaced in recent days that mention Straus' rabbi and underscore the Christian faith of his leading critics in the House Republican Caucus.

"Straus is going down in Jesus' name," said one, whose origins were unclear.

Straus, R-San Antonio , "clearly lacks the moral compass to be speaker," said another, written by Southeast Texas conservative activist Peter Morrison.

"Both Rep. Warren Chisum and Rep. Ken Paxton, who are Christians and true conservatives, have risen to the occasion to challenge Joe Straus for leadership," Morrison wrote in his newsletter last Thursday, referring to two Republicans who are running against Straus for speaker.

Morrison, asked Tuesday if he intended to signal that Straus is unfit because he is Jewish, replied in an e-mail, "I was simply making factual statements about Rep. Chisum and Rep. Paxton."

Morrison said his opposition to Straus is driven by issues, not religion.

Straus, asked his reaction to the e-mails, said in a statement that religious freedom and "the Judeo-Christian values of the dignity and worth of every individual" are key American principles.

"At its core, America believes in the freedom of every individual to worship as his or her conscience dictates, and it would be most unfortunate for anyone to suggest someone is more or less qualified for public office based on his or her faith," Straus said.

As the speaker's race has heated up in recent weeks, Straus has said he's solidly conservative and happy to compare his decades-long service to the GOP with that of his rivals.

But his alliance two years ago with 10 other dissident Republicans and 64 House Democrats in a speaker's race has drawn sharp criticism from Chisum, R-Pampa, and Paxton, R-McKinney. Since both launched formal bids for speaker, support for Straus has slipped slightly.

The day after last week's election, Straus released a list of 126 House members who he said have pledged him support. By most public counts, the list now is down to about 120. He needs 76 votes to keep the speaker's post.

The Quorum Report, an online newsletter, reported extensively late Monday on e-mails that mentioned Straus' Judaism, his rabbi and the Christian faith of his House critics, who include Rep. Bryan Hughes, R-Mineola.

read the rest of this article at DallasNews.com

Link: http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/city/collin/columnists/ehousewright/stories/DN-housecol_14met.ART.Central.Edition1.4b7cd70.html

November 14, 2010
By ED HOUSEWRIGHT / The Dallas Morning News

read this article at DallasNews.com

November 14, 2010 12:25 AM CST
By Marthe Stinton/ McKinney? Courier-Gazette

For the first time in United States history, the nation will have a Democratic president, a Democratic Senate and a Republican House next year. The split has occurred before, though not in this composition.

Dr. Loran Miller is a professor of political science at Collin College and provided a few examples of the House-Senate split.

“During the Reagan years we had a Democratic House and a Republican Senate; during the first two years of the George H.W. Bush administration we also had a Democratic House and a Republican Senate; and early in the George W. Bush administration we had a Republican House and a Democratic Senate,” Miller said.

Though this will affect national politics, Miller said it will be hard to tell how it will impact the average citizen.

“Obviously, to get anything done you are now going to need bipartisanship,” he said. “Will the party leaders exhibit this or will gridlock ensue? The chance of bipartisanship is more likely during the first year than the second, as during the second year, politicians will be on reelection mode and less likely to bargain. When the Democrats had 60 votes in the Senate and an overwhelming majority in the House - and a Democratic president, bipartisanship was not necessary.”

Miller said the addition of tea party Republicans, and whether they decide to stick with the ideas they had during the election cycle — of “cut, cut, cut” without adding new taxes — could create interesting results.

“Both political parties need to make progress on cutting the deficit and dealing with economic issues — since those seem to be the mandates from last Tuesday’s election,” Miller said. “How these issues are addressed and how much each side is willing to give are the key questions. When political leaders talk about spending cuts, they don’t get specific. They tend to talk about ‘cutting the fat’ — but one person’s fat is another person’s meat,” Miller said.

Obamacare was a lightning rod on Election Day, but Miller said completely eliminating it is unlikely.

“Insurance companies — one of the Republicans’ largest contributors — love parts of it,” he said. “While they want to eliminate the provisions that require the industry to cover kids with preexisting conditions and they want to set lifetime limits on medical care, they make billions on the requirement to purchase insurance.”

Shawn Stevens, chairman of the Democratic Party of Collin County, said now that the Republicans have a majority in the U.S. House, they have the responsibility to actually govern and work together with the Democratic majority of the U.S. Senate and President Obama. He said they now have the chance help more Americans get good-paying jobs, “not the minimum-wage jobs that have been most of what has been created in Texas recently.”

“That is what Americans care most about,” Stevens said. “Hopefully, the Republicans in the U.S. House under Speaker John Boehner will not waste all of their time doing their contributors’ bidding by relitigating the recent health insurance reform legislation and trying to make President Obama a one-term president — as Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell? has said was his main focus, instead of focusing on helping the Democrats try to improve the economic mess that was underway when President Obama took office — and focus on helping get Americans back to work.”

Stevens said it is difficult to tell whether the split will have a profound effect on local and national government.

“It all depends on how the Republicans approach the situation,” he said. “If they continue to be obstructionists and seek to try to frame President Obama and the Democrats as not being able to get anything done, and shut down the federal government like Newt Gingrich did when he was speaker and battled President Clinton, then that will obviously have an effect on the national government.”

Though what happens in Washington affects the public’s perceptions of politics in general, Stevens said, how the two big political parties relate to each other has an effect on the atmosphere of state and local politics.

“The biggest political reality on the ground in Texas right now is that the state of Texas is facing an estimated $25 billion state budget shortfall,” he said. “The Republicans completely control Texas state government, which in many ways has more of an impact on Texans’ lives, both directly — with school and college funding, prisons, roads and bridges, Medicaid, and safety-net programs like food stamps, which many Texans are having to rely on just to eat in this difficult economic environment — and indirectly with how state funding affects local governments.”

Stevens said because Gov. Rick Perry won’t have $16 billion in federal stimulus money from Washington in the legislative session next spring, Texans will likely see public college tuition increases, more students crammed into public school classrooms, closing of a number of state prisons and a continuation of the underfunding of the construction and maintenance of roadways, leading to even more congestion.

“Local governments, including local school districts, will very much be affected by what happens with the state budget in Austin next spring,” Stevens said. “The state budget shortfall is likely to have a severe impact on local community-college funding, like that for Collin College, which may be forced to either raise local tax rates, or tuition, or both.

Fred Moses, chairman of the Collin County Republican Party, sees the Republican House as an opportunity.

“We have a more conservative House that can put restraint on government spending,” Moses said.

Moses said that when one party controlled both the Senate and the House, it was presented the opportunity to pass something like health care without bipartisan support.

“I don’t know that it was good for the country,” he said.

He said the split will have a profound effect on both national and local governments in that there will be a more “conservative agenda.”

“I think in terms of some of the mandates we get from the federal government, there will be less likelihood that we have these government mandates on local districts like Collin County, because one is more conservative and we are looking more strongly to represent local government interests,” he said.

Moses hopes that both parties will work together and have the country’s best issues at heart.

read the rest of this article at StarLocalNews.com

Link: http://trailblazersblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2010/11/collin-county-paxton-joins-the.html

November 11, 2010
By Erin Mulvaney/ The Dallas Morning News - Trailblazer Blog

Rep. Ken Paxton, R-McKinney, threw his hat in the ring to join the race for Speaker of the Texas House.

read other blog entries on this topic at DallasNews.com

Link: http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/110410dnmetcollinglitch.1f3db7fba.html

November 3, 2010
By ED HOUSEWRIGHT / The Dallas Morning News

read this story at DallasNews.com

=====================================================================================

Commentary: Just for the record, vote times in excess of an hour were reported as early as 3 pm at high traffic locations such as the Allen Municipal Courts building, Christ United Methodist Church and Harrington Library in Plano, Renner-Frankford Library in Dallas and the Murphy Municipal building -- while other locations had minimal wait times.

It was not just last-minute voters who experienced long lines, as many Collin County voters who waited hours to vote, some outside in the rain, can attest. Unknown is how many voters were discouraged and left polling locations due to the long lines.

The Wait Time indicators on the County Elections website seemed to be updated for some locations, but not for others. At one point in the late afternoon, the indicator for Ford Middle School in Allen showed no wait when exiting voters were reporting waits of 90 minutes. A few miles away, voters at Suncreek United Methodist Church also waited 90 minutes as the online system showed a 15 minute wait.

Other than the indicators on the county website, there did not appear to be any system in place to advise voters in long lines that other nearby locations had significantly shorter lines. For example, while voters waited in a 90 minute line at Renner-Frankford Library in Dallas, lines were negligible at Rose Haggar Elementary School, half a mile away.

As frustrating as this experience was for so many, it was positively inspiring to see the long lines of voters so determined to cast their vote that they were willing to wait for an hour or more, particularly those who did so standing in the rain. They should be commended for their dedication, and we can hope that those who didn't vote at all will be encouraged by their example.

angellsmith

Link: http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/politics/local/stories/DN-collin_03met.ART.State.Edition1.2947d93.html

November 2, 2010

By ED HOUSEWRIGHT / The Dallas Morning News

link to the full article at DallasNews.com

Link: http://www.texasobserver.org/forrestforthetrees/voting-problems-in-collin-county

by Forrest Wilder/The Texas Observer

Tuesday, November 02, 2010

The Collin County Observer has a post up describing "multiple reports of voting issues in Collin County today." Collin County is trying out a new "vote center" concept in which voters can vote at any polling location rather than their neighborhood precinct. The system requires the use of electronic pollbooks linked together.

According to The Collin County Observer, technical glitches with these pollbooks is causing trouble at the polls.

Concerns brought to our attention so far include a corrupt file loaded on all of the county-issued electronic pollbooks, network and telephony issues.According to our information, voting in many locations was interrupted due to the issues with electronic pollbooks and networks, and the resulting phone calls into the Elections Office overwhelmed their capacity to receive and handle calls.



While some election judges and their crews capably kept processing voters, others were paralyzed by the technology failures and essentially stopped voting for periods of time. All polling locations are provided with paper ballots and instructed to process voters on paper in the event of technical failure.

Election judges are also responsible for reporting wait times to the Elections Office so that the Wait Time indicator on the county's website can be updated and indications are that this is not happening consistently.

The Texas Observer talked to the author of the post, Debra [sic] Angell Smith. "From my standpoint, [the vote center concept] is a great idea," Angell Smith said. "The problem is do they have adequate infrastructure? I would say today the answer is 'no'."

Angell Smith said she didn't know how widespread the problems are. When I called the office of the Collin County Voter Registrar I was put on hold for about 10 minutes before reaching an operator. I left a message with an elections official in an attempt to corroborate this information. I will update this post when I hear back from her.

Update: I spoke with Tim Wyatt, a spokesman for Collin County. He confirmed that there were problems today with the electronic pollbooks, which are essentially laptop computers that contain a database of voters. But Wyatt said the delays in voting were relatively short and the problem is now fixed.

Here's what happened: Some of the laptops became overloaded and had to be reset, temporarily delaying folks from voting. It took the county IT people about 30 minutes to identify the root cause – a "Windows glitch" (damn you Microsoft!) that brought down the computers.

"It caused some delays," said Wyatt. "It slowed things down." He didn't know how many polling places were affected in all but said 47 technicians were deployed to fix the glitch. The longest reported wait was 90 minutes, Wyatt said. The voting machines themselves were not compromised and poll workers were able to verify voters over the phone.

The glitch wasn't caught during pre-election simulations because the system wasn't tested with the type of loads (number of voters) seen on Election Day.

As noted in the original post, the "vote center" model is relatively untested. Collin County is one of a handful of counties trying it out this election. The primary advantage of "voter centers" is convenience. On Election Day, voters can vote at any polling place of their choosing and can move to a different location if the lines are long. However, the system necessitates new layers of technology, i.e. more stuff that can go awry.

read the full post at TexasObserver.org

Link: http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/politics/topstories/stories/110310dnmetcollinglitches.1ee30e742.html

November 2, 2010

By THEODORE KIM and ED HOUSEWRIGHT / The Dallas Morning News

link to the complete story at DallasNews.com

From volunteer staff reports

There are multiple reports of voting issues in Collin County today, primarily due to avoidable infrastructure failures. Concerns brought to our attention so far include a corrupt file loaded on all of the county-issued electronic pollbooks, network and telephony issues.

According to our information, voting in many locations was interrupted due to the issues with electronic pollbooks and networks, and the resulting phone calls into the Elections Office overwhelmed their capacity to receive and handle calls.

While some election judges and their crews capably kept processing voters, others were paralyzed by the technology failures and essentially stopped voting for periods of time. All polling locations are provided with paper ballots and instructed to process voters on paper in the event of technical failure. Election judges are also responsible for reporting wait times to the Elections Office so that the Wait Time indicator on the county's website can be updated and indications are that this is not happening consistently.

There is no way to know if the voters who left troubled polling locations went to other locations to vote, but it's extremely unfortunate that any voters were turned away or left on their own due to lengthy delays.

Technicians in the field are working to correct the IT issues, but making changes to the software while voting is in process raises multiple security concerns. All software loaded onto election equipment is required to have been approved by the Texas Secretary of State's Elections Division.

We hate to say "I told you so…" but the Observer has been sounding the alarm on this issue for years. The "vote center" concept can be a good one if implemented with appropriate IT and telephony infrastructure and adequate communication to voters, but unfortunately this has not been the case in Collin County.

If you haven't voted, please do, and if you encounter problems at one polling location, try another. Hopefully most of the systemic issues have been addressed and we won't have further interruptions due to technical problems, but if necessary be prepared to ask for a paper ballot.


link to Collin County Elections - Election Day Polling Locations & Sample Ballots

Other coverage of vote centers by the Collin County Observer:

Vote Centers: Expert's report ad public hearing today

Collin to take part in vote center pilot despite concerns

Link: http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/city/collin/columnists/ehousewright/stories/DN-housecol_31met.ART.East.Edition1.33702a0.html

October 31, 2010
Ed Housewright/The Dallas Morning News

Read this column at DallasNews.com

Link: http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/localnews/stories/102610dnmetcollinclerk.1ca65e396.html

October 27, 2010

By ED HOUSEWRIGHT / The Dallas Morning News

read this story at DallasNews.com

Link: http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/102810dnmetcollinclerkda.1cfb09484.html

October 27, 2010
By ED HOUSEWRIGHT / The Dallas Morning News

read this story at DallasNews.com

Link: http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/1024dnmetcollinjudge.24b1c01.html

October 23, 2010
By VALERIE WIGGLESWORTH, ED HOUSEWRIGHT and MATTHEW HAAG / The Dallas Morning News

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/1024dnmetcollinjudge.24b1c01.html

Link: http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/1023dnmetgopburbs.2343248.html

October 22, 2010
By THEODORE KIM / The Dallas Morning News

link to this story at The Dallas Morning News

Link: http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/city/collin/prosper/stories/DN-collin_17met.ART.Central.Edition1.334eeac.html

Sunday, October 17, 2010
By ED HOUSEWRIGHT / The Dallas Morning News

link to this article at The Dallas Morning News website

This lawsuit filed in Travis County references e-voting machines manufactured by Hart Intercivic, but there are similar concerns about e-voting machines sold by all manufacturers, including Diebold, the source of Collin County's voting equipment. This is a re-print of Bill's comments about e-voting here in Collin County from a post in December '09, still relevant today:

Collin County has used Diebold's electronic voting machines for several years now, and not without incident. In the 2004 presidential election, a Diebold machine "locked-up" at one polling place, and election officials were unable to get the vote counts from the memory card. The votes were finally counted a week later, but only after the memory card was secretly sent to a Canadian lab for analysis.

Recently, ars technica reported, "Diebold machines have been responsible for dropping votes and derailing elections in several states, including Ohio and Alaska. These high-profile failures and repeated findings of low reliability and poor security during tests have compelled several states to ban Diebold voting machine products. The company has also been sued for a wide range of misconduct associated with its voting machine business, including fraud and even GPL infringement."

Nevertheless, in 2008 Collin County bought 410 more Diebold machines for use in future elections. The county now owns over 1,400 of these "AccuVote" machines.

A couple of years ago, Diebold, concerned about the unlimited legal liability that could ensue from machine errors in contested elections spun off the elections division after it was unable to find a buyer. Renamed Premier Elections Solutions, the old election division was then sold this year to rival Elections Systems and Software, Inc.

Bill
(from post "Reuters - Diebold sale challenged" - 12/20/09)

Group of Travis voters takes e-voting case to Supreme Court
NAACP, others want paper ballot backups.

By Chuck Lindell/ AMERICAN-STATESMAN

October 13, 2010

Alleging that Travis County's electronic voting machines are not secure or reliable, a group of voters Tuesday asked the Texas Supreme Court to let their lawsuit demanding changes go to trial.

The lawsuit, filed in 2006 but held up on procedural questions, seeks to force Travis County to provide voters with a paper copy of their just-cast ballot to review for accuracy. That ballot would then be submitted to create a record that can be checked in event of a recount or problem with a machine.

The current system, which tabulates all votes cast on a machine but does not provide individual printed ballots, cannot ensure accuracy or provide a backstop to a voting system that has had problems in the past, the voters say.

But on Tuesday, a lawyer for Secretary of State Hope Andrade urged the state's highest civil court to throw out the lawsuit, arguing that the voters cannot show they have been harmed by the voting machines and therefore have no standing to sue.

Alleging hypothetical scenarios in which votes might be lost because of tampering or malfunctions is not the solid proof of harm that the law requires, Kristofer Monson , an appellate lawyer with the attorney general's office, told the court during oral arguments.

"This is not a case about the right to vote," Monson said. "This is a case about the relative policy merits for two alternative mechanisms for performing recounts after someone has voted" — ballots printed on paper versus the computer tabulation of votes compiled by each machine.

In addition, Monson argued, the secretary of state properly followed the law in certifying in 1999 that the voting machines meet state standards for accuracy.

Travis County purchased its machines, made by Hart Intercivic Inc., in 2001.

Similar arguments failed to sway the District Court in Travis County or the 3rd Court of Appeals, which ruled 2-1 that the lawsuit could proceed to trial.

The state has asked the nine-member Supreme Court to reverse those rulings and dismiss the suit.

Timothy Herman, lawyer for the voters — who include 2006 Democratic attorney general candidate David Van Os and the Austin chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People on behalf of its members — said a history of voting machine problems raises valid questions about the reliability of the ballot system in Travis County and elsewhere in Texas.

A paper record, he said, is necessary to protect voting rights guaranteed by state law and the Texas Constitution.

"The right to vote is meaningless unless you are also assured that the vote you cast is going to be counted properly," Herman said.

In briefs to the court, Herman recounted several past failures with electronic voting machines, including the loss of voting records in Collin County in 2004 and the inclusion of 100,000 uncast votes in Tarrant County in 2006.

"If a voter could demonstrate, as these voters have, that they are forced to use a machine which does not comply with the Election Code (requirement for accuracy), then they are in danger of being harmed," Herman said.

"We have right to plead it. All we want is to go back to the trial court and sort it out," he said.

Thirty-two states now require voter-verified paper ballots, according to the Verified Voting Foundation , a nonpartisan nonprofit reform group.

The Supreme Court has no deadline to rule but typically issues an opinion about 13 months after oral arguments. The case is Andrade v. NAACP of Austin, 09-0420.

=========================================================================================

link to this article in The Austin America Statesman

Additional coverage on electronic voting on the Collin County Observer:

Reuters - Diebold sale challenged

Wired - Diebold admits systemic audit log failure

DMN - Anyone want to buy a white elephant?

Texas judges run in the dark

Editorial Board - Austin American Statesman

As we've noted many times before, Texans zealously cling to their right to elect their judges but would be hard pressed to name even a few of the 18 people who occupy the benches of two highest courts in the state, the Texas Supreme Court and the Court of Criminal Appeals.

Nonetheless, every two years, judicial candidates ask people for money and votes then cross their fingers. There might be a better way to do this, but until Texas finds it, the state's voters will hand the power to redirect lives and money to people they barely know.

The nine-member Supreme Court is the last stop in the state system for civil disputes, and, as the name implies, the Court of Criminal Appeals is the last word in the state system for criminal cases.

This year, three Supreme Court justices — all Republicans — face challenges from Democrats, and only one of the three justices running for re-election to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals faces a Democratic challenger.

Texas Court of Criminal Appeals

It is no coincidence that Justice Mike 
Keasler drew a Democratic opponent. Though Keasler, a Republican, who has served two six-year terms, is an amiable enough fellow, he is associated with a faction of the court that never met a conviction it didn't like.

A series of death penalty cases involving ineffective assistance of counsel, allegations of bad science or just plain sloppy police work have been affirmed by the court of appeals. One particularly troublesome case involved Verla Sue Holland, a former member of the Court of Criminal Appeals who, as a state district judge, presided over a capital murder case in which the evidence against the defendant was strong. The problem was not the quality of evidence, though. When long-standing rumors that Holland and the prosecutor in the case had a romantic affair were confirmed, questions arose about how fair the trial was for defendant Charles Dean Hood.

Keasler was part of the Court of Criminal Appeals majority that refused to grant Hood a new trial when the defense claimed that the first one couldn't have been fair given the circumstances. The case drew national attention and a lot of comment about the appeals court standards for a fair trial.

The appeals court finally ordered a new punishment trial for Hood but had to reverse an earlier ruling that had nothing to do with Holland's illicit affair with then-Collin County District Attorney Tom O'Connell Jr.

It isn't the only example of the court's strange notions of justice.

Keasler, 68, shrugs when asked about the cases, saying the law is imperfect sometimes. That attitude might make sense in a strictly academic legal sense to someone, but it is chillingly cavalier when a life is at stake.

Clearly, it is time for new blood on the court, and we recommend Keith Hampton, 49, an Austin lawyer, to inject it. Hampton is a well-respected advocate who was the overwhelming winner in a statewide poll of lawyers. The poll might not mean much outside legal circles, but it speaks volumes because incumbent jurists usually have an advantage in those surveys

It should concern all Texans that the Court of Criminal Appeals has lost respect; the judiciary is the bedrock of a civilized society.

Hampton won't necessarily be able to fix all the court's ills, but we bet that he'll make a pretty good start toward restoring the public's confidence in its court.

Incumbent Justices Lawrence Meyers, and Cheryl Johnson, both Republicans, face Libertarian opponents on the Nov. 2 ballot.

read the rest of this editorial at Statesman.com

DA pulls 100 indictments from Wooten's court, Wooten's attorney says Roach has "lost his mind"

DA pulls 100 indictments from Wooten's court, Wooten's attorney says Roach has "lost his mind"

By Danny Gallagher, StarLocalNews.com/McKinney Courier-Gazette
October 5, 2010

The tension between Collin County District Attorney John Roach and District Judge Suzanne Wooten grew another notch Tuesday when Roach announced he would pull and re-submit over 100 cases from her court.

Roach said in a released statement that he ordered his office to pull and review more than
100 indictments filed in Wooten's court and resubmit them to another Collin County grand jury due to allegations of biased members that Wooten placed on the jury panel and the appointing commissioners.

Roach, who conducted an investigation into Wooten's election practices to the 380th District Court that ousted incumbent Charles Sandoval before handing the case to a special prosecutor from the Texas Attorney General's Office, claimed the questionable indictments were made by a grand jury selected by Wooten.

A separate grand jury approved the appointment of a second special prosecutor to investigate the Collin County DA's office's conduct in launching their investigation against Wooten. Roach's office recused themselves from the investigation after the Texas Attorney General's took over the case.

Roach alleged in a separate statement that Wooten had stacked the grand jury with questionable appointments including the father of her attorney Pete Schulte of Dallas and a former Collin County DA employee "who has had personal and professional conflicts with my office."

Schulte said Wooten did not directly appoint the members of the grand jury. She appointed commissioners to choose jurors from a sealed document.

Roach pulled the indictments when he discovered that an unidentified aunt of Schulte's served as one of the commissioners on the grand jury panel.

"We have also learned at least one of Judge Wooten's grand jurors, who we believe to be acting independently of the 'special prosecutor,'" Roach said, "has personally contacted at least one person to be a witness for Judge Wooten's grand jury."

Schulte rebuked the allegations made by Roach's office as the last act of a desperate man.

"The DA of Collin County has completely lost it," Schulte said. "He's lost his mind."

Schulte said he recommended her aunt to Wooten as a commissioner for the grand jury panel after Wooten asked him if he knew anyone "in Plano who has a lot of time. I thought of my aunt because she's retired."

He called Roach's decision "unprecedented."

"Basically for the DA to decided without any other determination that a grand jury is not lawful is unprecedented and probably illegal," Schulte said. "The fact of the matter is that taking the time to do away with these cases that he's dismissing and re-indicting or resubmitting is obstruction of justice."

The resubmitted cases represent the distrust that Roach and his office have in Wooten's ability to construct a credible and impartial grand jury, Roach said.

"I took these actions because I have profound reservations about the integrity of the entire process in impaneling Judge Wooten's grand jury and its subsequent actions, which also present serious ethical questions," Roach said. "Neither I, not any other citizen of Collin County can have confidence in the composition and operation of Judge Wooten's grand jury. All persons whose cases are presented to a grand jury have a right to expect, without reservations, that their cases will be considered ethically and within the bounds of the law. I am duty bound to see to it."

Schulte denied the allegations that Wooten tried to stack a grand jury with favorable members.

"If Judge Wooten was going to stack a grand jury, she would have put 12 angry lawyers on that grand jury because it takes nine out of 12 jurors to do anything," Schulte said. "This is all a smoke screen because he's scared. He knows the activity that he and his office have done and he knows he could get indicted. He's trying to cast a shadow of doubt because he has no other recourse."

link to article at StarLocalNews.com....

JOHN R. ROACH
CRIMINAL DISTRICT ATTORNEY

McKinney, TX
October 5, 2010

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Collin County DA Orders Review of More Than 100 Indictments, Halts Submission of New Cases

Collin County District Attorney John Roach has ordered the review and re-submission of more than 100 indicted cases to another Collin County grand jury.

The indictments in question were issued by a grand jury selected by Judge Suzanne Wooten. At the time of the grand jury’s selection, Judge Wooten and at least two other persons were being investigated by the DA’s office for allegedly violating campaign election laws and for other alleged criminal conduct. Mr. Roach’s office later recused itself from the investigation, and the Criminal Justice Division of the Texas Attorney General’s Office was appointed by a court to continue the investigation and, if necessary, to prosecute any criminal cases resulting from it. That investigation is still ongoing.

In a statement released by the DA’s office two weeks ago, Mr. Roach announced that the same grand jury selected by Judge Suzanne Wooten had requested and obtained the appointment of a “special prosecutor” to investigate him and/or his assistants.

“Judge Wooten named to her grand jury the father of the attorney who represents her in the criminal case my office was, and the Attorney General is now, investigating.” Roach said. “She also named two grand jurors who are local lawyers, one of whom was dismissed from employment in my office and another who has had personal and professional conflicts with my office. One of those attorneys represents an indicted defendant in a high profile public corruption case my office is currently prosecuting.”

Mr. Roach ordered that all cases indicted by Judge Wooten’s grand jury be reviewed and resubmitted to another grand jury after it was discovered that the aunt of Judge Wooten’s criminal defense attorney (his mother’s sister) was one of the commissioners appointed by Judge Wooten to list the names of prospective grand jurors. Judge Wooten chose from that list when she impaneled her grand jury. Mr. Roach added, “We have also learned at least one of Judge Wooten’s grand jurors, who we believe to be acting independently of the “special prosecutor”, has personally contacted at least one person to be a witness for Judge Wooten’s grand jury.”

At Mr. Roach’s request, an additional grand jury was impaneled on October 1 to review the cases previously heard by Judge Wooten’s grand jury. That new grand jury will also consider all new cases that would otherwise have been heard by Judge Wooten’s grand Jury.

“I took these actions because I have profound reservations about the integrity of the entire process in impaneling Judge Wooten’s grand jury and its subsequent actions, which also present serious ethical questions. Neither I, nor any other citizen of Collin County can have confidence in the composition and operation of Judge Wooten’s grand jury. All persons whose cases are presented to a grand jury have a right to expect, without reservation, that their cases will be considered ethically and within the bounds of the law. I am duty bound to see to it,” Mr. Roach said.

link to PDF of news release....

Feud escalates between Collin County District Attorney John Roach, state District Judge Suzanne Wooten

October 5, 2010

By ED HOUSEWRIGHT / The Dallas Morning News

link to this article at The Dallas Morning News....

DMN - Collin DA John Roach, foes ready for his retirement


October 5, 2010

By ED HOUSEWRIGHT /The Dallas Morning News

Collin County District Attorney John Roach says he's looking forward to his retirement at year's end.

Some defense attorneys say they are too. They've become increasingly vocal in criticizing Roach as arrogant, autocratic and demeaning of defense attorneys.

"He doesn't seem to shy away from personally attacking anyone who dares to criticize him," said Mitch Nolte, a former chief felony prosecutor under Roach.

He and other attorneys began speaking out because of Roach's yearlong investigation of state District Judge Suzanne Wooten, who was elected in 2008. The inquiry is believed to involve campaign finance issues. Roach defends the investigation but won't comment on its substance.

"It's a witch hunt, and there's no witch," said Sharon Curtis, president of the Collin County Criminal Defense Lawyers Association.

Roach has received both criticism and praise in his eight years as district attorney.

He received the Lone Star Prosecutor Award from the Texas District & County Attorneys Association in 2008. The group honored Roach for "his courage and discretion in prosecuting – or choosing not to prosecute – several cases."

Roach's office has won a number of high-profile convictions. Last year, for instance, Raul Cortez was sentenced to death after being convicted of fatally shooting four people during a 2004 McKinney? home burglary. It was the worst mass murder in Collin County history.

Roach, an Air Force veteran, runs his office in a formal, regimented way. He addresses all his employees by "Mr.," "Ms." or "Mrs." Employees call him "Judge Roach" in recognition of his two decades as a district and appellate judge.

Roach requires male prosecutors to wear a suit or sport coat with a tie. Women can't wear "unreasonably short skirts or dresses or sexually provocative clothing," according to a 40-page office manual.

"I have some pretty set ideas about the way things ought to be," Roach acknowledges.

He has often riled county commissioners who set his office budget.

For instance, commissioners opposed his plan in January to spend $25,000 on high-powered rifles, shotguns, helmets and shields to equip a courthouse security team consisted of his investigators.

The money would have come from an asset forfeiture fund that Roach alone controls.

"It's my money," Roach said at the time. "I can spend it for anything my office requires, in my opinion."

Roach, 64, staunchly defends some policies that defense attorneys attack. For instance, he won't allow some defendants to plead guilty before a judge. Instead, Roach insists on trying the case.

"We're hard-nosed prosecutors," Roach said. "A lot of defense attorneys, not just here, want a DA who will roll over for them."

The repartee between Roach and defense attorneys won't last much longer. He decided not to seek re-election in the spring primary and his last day in office will be Dec. 31. In November, voters will decide his successor: Republican Greg Willis or Democrat Rafael De La Garza.

Roach plans to pursue his hobbies of swimming, scuba diving, skiing and firearm sports.

He won't rule out another run for public office, although he has no job in mind.

"Nobody holding office currently needs to be quaking in their boots," Roach said.

link to this article at The Dallas Morning News....

Editorial: David Smith for Collin County judge

The Dallas Morning News Editorial Board
Thursday, September 23, 2010

Give credit to Collin County Judge Keith Self for one achievement in office: stimulating citizen interest.

Unfortunately, much of the public interest that Self has ginned up has involved a level of acrimony and distortion that are a disservice to the county.

Self, a Republican, is seeking a second term by styling himself as an uncompromising fiscal conservative. Voters who like that message but could do without the drama have a good option on Election Day: former Plano City Council member David Smith.

Smith, 59, a telecommunications consultant, has the challenge of being a Democrat running in a GOP county. But he matches Self's credentials as a budget hawk. Known as a detail man in office, Smith served three terms on the Plano council as a finance committee member who pushed for efficiencies and lower taxes. One year, 1997, when Plano had a healthy budget surplus, the City Council approved an unprecedented property tax rebate; Smith pushed, albeit unsuccessfully, for a cut in the rate as well.

Smith used his voice in Plano to make the council's decision-making more accessible. He was sympathetic to homeowner interests when they clashed with big developers. He continues that work as legislative director for a statewide homeowners group.

One difference between the candidates that Smith pledges to accentuate: his interest in consensus-building vs. Self's predisposition to pick a fight.

Self, 57, a former career Army officer, has stirred up a fuss in arguing that the county funds extravagant pensions for its employees. He took that campaign to rallies and recruited supporters on Facebook, but the message stems from flawed assumptions.

Self has painted a picture of retirees rolling in pension dollars, when the truth is that most collect modest benefits. One session of the Commissioners Court overflowed with alarmed employees and raw emotion. A fellow officeholder, longtime Tax Assessor-Collector Ken Maun, challenged Self's integrity, saying, "Your math sucks."

Self grudgingly admitted to this newspaper that he might do some things differently now that the issue has caused such bitterness, but that's hard to believe when he insists that his numbers are not misleading. It's clear he doesn't accept responsibility for disingenuously pitting taxpayers against employees.

Self also fought his own Commissioners Court and a citizen-led planning process for a major countywide bond package for roads, a package ultimately approved overwhelmingly by voters. And he tangled at a hearing in Austin with state Sen. John Carona, R-Dallas, and has made clear that he sees regional cooperation as infringement on local control.

This should not be the face of one of the nation's fastest-growing, most affluent communities. The county deserves measured, professional administration.

Smith, an Air Force veteran, brings a business portfolio to the table, drawing from a career at Texas Instruments and EDS as leader of engineering and business-development projects. The county could use collaborative leadership after four years of counterproductive head-butting.

link to this editorial at The Dallas Morning News.....

Last week, the Collin County Commissioners Court held an evening meeting. The quarterly evening meetings are an experiment by the commissioners in opening up the county government to citizen interest and involvement.

Some of the evening meetings have been well attended, because the commissioners scheduled important public hearings or discussions for those nights.

Not so last week. The court's agenda was little more than routine consent items. In fact the court session lasted less than 10 minutes from invocation to adjournment - the shortest regular court meeting I remember seeing.

In a plus for the county's open government initiative, only one citizen showed up to watch the non-meeting. I understand that afterwards, Commissioner Jaynes bought the intrepid citizen a cup of coffee, hoping that would help make the trip to Bloomdale Rd. at least a little worthwhile.

This week, the court was back on its regular schedule of meeting at 9:30 AM when only retirees and the unemployed are not busy working. This week's agenda was chock full of items that would have really made the evening meeting interesting.

First came the theater.

Act 1
During the public comments, a Mr. Hostetler and our well known Karl Voightsberger used the comments section to solicit the court's interest in buying what's known as "Life Settlement funds" to increase the yield on the county's retirement funds.

With Life Settlement Funds, investors pay sick, elderly people cash today in return for the money from their life insurance when they die. The sooner they die, the more the investor makes.

Ghoulish, yes... and I didn't miss the irony of funding retiree pay by betting that other old folks will die soon.

Act 2
During the presentation of employee awards, District Clerk Hannah Kunkle presented a 15 year pin to her deputy Amy Mathis. The Observer's readers will remember that Ms. Mathis is under felony indictment for racketeering and theft by a public servant.

This author is astounded at the attitude Hannah Kunkle and the Commissioners Court. The indictment of Ms. Mathis, Patricia Crigger and 4 other deputy clerks has brought shame to our courthouse. All these indicted ladies are still supervising workers in the District Clerk's office -- acting as if nothing is wrong.

Instead of putting these ladies, who a Grand Jury has charged with the commission of multiple felonies and are out of jail on bonds out of sight, the county gives one of them an award. Wow!

If this is how we want to run our courthouse, perhaps the Texas Rangers need to put the Collin County courthouse on a monthly raid schedule.

Later in the meeting, by a vote of 4-1, the commissioners court approved the continuation of the Vote Center experiment for the November gubernatorial election. Commissioner Jaynes voted 'no' saying he had concerns that the Vote Center plan had not matured into the successful "big box" model used elsewhere.

Commissioners Jaynes and Shaheen asked Elections Administrator Sharon Rowe to consider opening an additional early voting location in Frisco and west Allen.

Jaynes also asked that the west McKinney early voting site be moved to a more convenient location.

Judge Self then gave his budget presentation.... the Observer will write more on this in the next day or so.

After meeting in executive session, the court appointed Jane Willard of Celina to replace Paul Wageman as one of the county's two representatives to the NTTA Board of Directors.

Bill

At the Commissioners court meeting today, the court will hear Dr. Robert Stein of Rice University present his report on the use of Vote Center in the November, 2009 election. After Dr. Stein's presentation, the court will hold a required public hearing on using the Vote Center concept in the upcoming November gubernatorial election.

Some background:

In 2006 and again in 2009, the Texas Secretary of State approved Collin County, along with Lubbock, Galveston and Erath counties, as a test site for the use of Vote Centers, or consolidated polling places.

The concept of Vote Centers involves reducing dramatically the number of election day polling places by eliminating precinct based polls and replacing them with larger Vote Centers where anyone in the county can vote. A similar concept has been in use for several years in early voting.

In an early voting polling place, anyone in the county can vote in any of the polling places. Citizens are no longer limited to voting in their neighborhood, but can vote near their school, office, stores or on their way to work.

It a popular idea, and the data shows the voters like the concept.

In 2006, the county elections department submitted a plan to the commissioners court, but withdrew it after the commissioners heard objections to the poorly designed plan from both political parties.

Collin County used Vote Centers for the first time in the November, 2009 constitutional amendment election. The County also contracted with Dr. Robert Stein of Rice University to perform some statistical analysis of the election and the effect of the Vote Centers.

Dr. Stein released his report in January. Stein compared statistics and exit poll data from Collin and Denton counties. Collin used the Vote Centers, and Denton did not.

Stein's report shows a lower Collin County turnout on election day compared to Denton County and Texas as a whole.

The data also showed that 8.4% of the Collin County voters waited in line for more than 10 minutes. In Denton County 5.2% waited for 10 minutes or more.

Several voting locations were used by large number of voters, while others were almost empty all day. In Collin County almost a third of the voters chose to vote in only 10% of the Vote Centers. This uneven distribution was, according to Stein, the likely cause of the additional waiting in line.

Since Collin County will be using substantially the same locations this year, it would be reasonable to predict that there will be lines of voters waiting at some of the more popular Vote Centers.

One issue that makes it difficult to use any analysis of the 2009 election is the great disparity expected in voter turnout between the 2009 Constitutional Election, and the 2010 Gubernatorial Election.

In 2009, less than 5% of the voters turned out to vote in 57 Vote Centers. This year, turnout should be closer to 25%-35% and they will vote in 70 Vote Centers.

The 70 proposed Vote Centers are a reduction from 129 precinct poling locations that would be expected if the Vote Centers are not approved.

After Dr. Stein's report, the county commissioners will hold a public hearing. It is expected that the Republican Party will support the 2010 plan, but that the Democratic Party will express some reservations.

In 2009, representatives of the Democratic Party, minority groups and disabled voter advocates who were on the county's Site Selection Committee all expressed some serious issues they believed could reduce voter turnout. Most then opposed going forward with the 2009 plan.

This year, the Democratic Party is expected to once again express real reservations of the wisdom of the plan. It is expected that their concerns will be similar to those in 2006 and in 2009 -

1. There are insufficient electronic poll books needed to check in voters. While this did not prove to be a huge problem in the low turnout 2009 election, the lack of poll books was a root cause of much of the lines seen in 2009 and it can be expected that the lines will grow exponentially this year.

Traditional vote centers offer multiple, as many as 10 or 20 electronic poll books so that voters can queue up in lots of shorter lines. Most Collin County Vote Centers will have only 2 poll books, thereby forcing voters into only 2 much longer lines.

Collin County has had real problems in the past with the electronic poll books and the VoteSafe software behind them. In 2008, Snafus with VoteSafe caused long lines, poll worker frustration and days of missed reporting during early voting. The lines were so long, and poll worker frustration so high that there were cases reported where election workers asked voters to 'come back on another day'.

2. Lack of parking. Almost every single Vote Center is located at a school or government facility. Election day is a normal work day and a school day. the parking lots will already be substantially full and it is feared that there is insufficient planning to allow parking for the anticipated 80,000 - 120,000 voters expected on election day. Dr. Stein's report lists most Vote Centers as having less than 5 available parking slots. Traditional vote centers avoid using schools, instead opting for large, recognizable buildings with plenty of parking.

3. Uneven distribution of Vote Centers:

• Allen has only 2 vote centers, or one for every 42,000 residents.
• Frisco has 6 vote centers, or one for every 17,800 residents.
• Plano has 16 vote centers, or one for every 16,500 residents.
• Murphy has one vote center for 13,700 residents.
• Wylie has 3 vote centers, one for every 13,000 residents.
• McKinney has 12 vote center, or one for every 10,600 residents.
• Farmersville has one vote center for 3,300 residents.

Long lines can be expected in Allen, Plano and Frisco. Some voters faced with no parking places and long lines will simply choose to go home and not vote.

Collin County will be using far more Vote Centers than is normally used in the Vote Center model. In Collin County, we will have 70 Vote Centers replacing 129 precinct polling places. In Larimer County, CO., they replaced 143 precinct polling places with only 22 'super precincts' or vote centers. Phoenix has replaced their 130 precinct polls with only 20 vote centers.

Collin County's use of a much larger number of 'super precincts' could help mitigate much of the issues that would wreak havoc (and have done so) in a more traditional Vote Center... that is IF the voters can find a parking place, and IF the VoteSafe software performs as promised.

The commissioners court will meet at the Jack Hatchell Administration Building, 2300 Bloomdale Rd. in McKinney. The meeting begins at 9:30 AM and public comments are welcome.

Bill

=================================
NOTES:

Proposed November General election poll locations, Collin County Elections, Aug. 2010

An Evaluation of Election Day Vote Centers In Collin County, Texas: 2009 Election, Stein and Vonnahme, January, 2010

November 3, 2009 Election Day Vote Centers open for business, CCO, Nov. 2, 2009

Collin to take part in vote center pilot despite concerns, CCO, Sept. 9, 2009

Does Collin County understand what a Vote Center is?, CCO, Aug. 10, 2009

Public Hearings on Countywide Election Day Polling Place Program, CCO, Aug. 3, 2009

Reports detail Collin County Early Voting problems, CCO, November 1, 2008

The 2009 Vote Center Plan submission to the Texas Secretary of State (MS Word doc)

Analysis of previous Collin County plan from 2006, Baumbach et al, July 2006

Collin County chosen to test polling place plan on Election Day, The Dallas Morning News, September 7, 2009

Vote centers "a total fiasco", The Denver Post, November 9, 2006

From the David Rippel for Judge Facebook page: "David believes in strict enforcement of, and fair treatment of the law. A conservative judge that Collin County will be proud of."

However, campaign reports filed with the county show that newly appointed County Court at Law Judge David Rippel has been consistently in violation of state law in that every one of his ethics reports has been late, misleading, incomplete and/or inaccurate.

Failure to file a complete, accurate and on-time campaign finance report is a Class C misdemeanor, and could subject Judge Rippel to civil fines by The Texas Ethics Commission or a criminal fine by a Justice of the Peace court.

Failure to file a timely Personal Financial Statement is a Class B misdemeanor and could lead to jail time as well as a fine.

Under Texas Law, the County Clerk is required to notify the District Attorney of all late Personal Financial Statements. It is unclear if Ms. Kemp did so. In past administrations, the County Clerk has refused to file the list with the DA, saying that she did not want to get involved in what seemed to be political disputes.

Only one of the 5 required report was on time

Only the first report Judge Rippel submitted was on-time and that one was filed in the wrong office. County candidates are required to file their campaign finance reports with the Elections Office. Judge Rippel filed his papers at various locations, including the Elections Office, the County Clerk's Office, and the Texas Ethics Commission.

All the other required reports were anywhere from 5 days to over 5 months late. Before the Election, The Collin County Observer contact Mr. Rippel several times about missing reports. I repeatedly told him that the reports were supposed to be filed in the Elections office, but they had no record of them being received. In every case, he insisted they had been filed, and on one occasion offered to fax them to me. I sent him my fax number, but Rippel never sent them.

Also troubling is that two of the reports (the Personal Financial Statement and the July Semi-Annual report) were filed one day after The Observer emailed an Open Records Request to Stacy Kemp, the County Clerk. It sure looks as if the County Clerk's office warned him that I was snooping around looking for his missing reports.

Reports filed

Reports inaccurate and misleading

Judge Rippel's reports contain mistakes in arithmetic, but most importantly they fail to state who gave him over $8,900 of the $36,000 he reported as having spent. Failure to state the sources of campaign funds is a Class C misdemeanor punishable by criminal and civil fines.

Of the $27,344 he does report as having received, $21,794 was his own money, and $5,000 was from relatives in Louisiana. Only 2 contributions, totaling $550, were from donors not surnamed Rippel -- none were from Texas.

Almost all the $36,000 spent went to a Plano political consultant. Rippel's reports show he paid consultant Joseph G. Counter over $31,000.

Contributions and expenses reported by David Rippel
Reported totals

Time lapses in the reporting periods

Judge Rippel's reports fail to explain where and when he received almost $9,000 in contributions - about a third of all his expenditures. Were some of these contributions made in the weeks that he never reported? What, if any, expenses did he pay during those lost weeks?

Campaign finance laws are designed to require candidates to fully disclose all sources and uses of campaign funds. The candidate's duty to report begins the day he appoints a Campaign Treasurer.

Rippel appointed his treasurer on September 4, 2009, but his report states it begins reporting on September 22 - three weeks later. Other reports indicate missing and overlapping reporting periods. One report, the "Run-off report" seems to have never been filed. Open Records requests at the County Clerk's office and to the Elections office have failed to produce any Run-off report. Nor does a search at The Texas Ethics Commission website uncover any Run-off report.

Dates reported

A profound inability to comprehend or contempt of the law?

David Rippel was appointed by the County Commissioners court to fill the vacant Court at Law #4 bench after winning the Republican Party primary run-off in April. There is no Democrat running for this court.

His appointment is until December 31. On January 1, he will begin a four year elected term on the same court.

County courts at Law are known as "Statutory Courts". They are created by acts of the Legislature. They handle misdemeanor criminal cases, appeals from Justice of the Peace and municipal courts and lawsuits below $100,000. Court at Law judges have the power to sentence law breakers to county jail up to two years.

With this kind of authority comes a responsibility to respect and obey the law. On that test Judge Rippel appears to have failed miserably. His ethics forms reflect a man whose ethics are trumped by his ambition -- a judge who either doesn't care what the law, as it pertains to him, requires.

Once again, as in the case of Doug Reeves, the ethic filings indicate either a profound inability to understand the law or a contempt of that same law which governs us all.

Bill

It's a truism that running for office is expensive and getting more expensive every year. Sure media and printing costs cost more money, and postage costs seem to increase every time you send out mail. But the real issue behind the inflation in campaigns are two fold.

One more folks are willing to spend more and more of their own money to get elected. Unless we are willing to concede public office only to those who can afford it, then other candidates must try to raise ever increasing sums to keep up.

Also as campaigns and the issues become more polarized, they attract out of town money. It's not unusual for a candidate in Collin County to run a campaign costing thousands of dollars, most of which was raised out of county. But on the whole local campaigns are still affordable to anyone with a political base who is willing to raise the needed funds.

For example, in the hotly contested primary battle for County Commissioner in Precinct 2, the winner Cheryl Williams spent about $67,000 while Jerry Hoagland spent $76,000. The difference is that Hoagland's campaign was financed by contributions, while Williams' campaign still owes her the $50,000 she loaned the campaign.

The County Judge's primary race cost challenger John Muns over $204,000 of which $80,000 was in loans to himself, while Keith Self spent $114,000 -- all donated.

These numbers, as large as they may seem to a potential candidate, are dwarfed in the race for State Legislature. Seats on the legislature have become very, very expensive.

The press has written much about Van Taylor and his $1.04 million primary race. Very little of that million was raised in-district. $950,000 of it was his own money, and much of the rest was from out of town donors. Mabrie Jackson too, lent herself $80,000 out of the $362,000 she spent trying to defeat Mr. Taylor's money.

While the District 66 Million Dollar Race has garnered the most media attention, it is the other legislative races that have brought in the big, outside dollars.

Unopposed Legislators

What other legislative races? The unopposed ones.

The war chests of our incumbant legislators are both bloated and stunning in their scope. It is ironic that thee legislators, whose pay is a measly $7,200 a year can amass campaign dollars in the hundreds of thousands, even though they are unopposed in both the primary and general elections.

A look at their campaign finance reports over time proves the fact that these large sums were not raised by loyal in-district constituents. On the contrary, these huge campaign war chests represent the donations from PACs, special interest lobby groups and rich out of town contributors.

Rep. Ken Paxton owns the largest campaign war chest -- over $679,000. Over the last six months, he has added over $35,000 to his campaign, including a $4,000 gift from the AT&T PAC, $1,000 from an Irving, Tx contributor, $5,000 from a Richardson real estate broker, $1,000 from the Tenet Healthcare PAC, $1,000 from the Texas Petroleum Marketers and Convenience Store PAC, $3,000 from Unity Resources, and $5,000 and $1,000 from in-district constituents.

During the first half of the year, he raised over $122,000. The big contributors were once again mostly out of towners and Corporate PACs.

Rep. Paxton is certainly not the only state representative to rely on outside interests to fund his campaign account. Without exception, all the large war chests I examined were funded in a similar manner.

These state legislators campaign war chests even dwarf all but one local Congressional accounts. Federal records show that while Rep. Sam Johnson (who is unopposed) has amassed over $600,000 in campaign dollars, Ralph Hall (who did face primary opposition) has less than $25,000 on hand. Sen. John Cornyn has only about $18,000 on hand.

Some critics of Texas' system for campaign contributions argue that our system, in effect, offers up seats in the Legislature to the highest bidder. If so, our Collin County Reps should feel secure in knowing that thanks to their friendly PACs, they have the means to out bid all but the most determined millionaire candidate.

Bill

The Collin County Observer believes that informed voters can be empowered to make better choices at the polls.

Federal and state laws require that all candidates file periodic reports detailing their campaign contributors and expenses. However it is nearly impossible for the average voter to navigate the myriad of regulations so that they can find and research the candidates' disclosures.

Federal campaign finance reports are filed with the Federal Elections Commission. The reports filed by congressional, senate and presidential candidates can be found here.

State reports are filed with the Texas Ethics Commission. State filers include candidates for Governor, Executive statewide offices, State House, State Senate and District Judges. These reports are also posted online and can be found here.

Searching for financial information for local candidates can be daunting. Most jurisdictions do not post campaign finance reports online. Citizens must take the time and expense to request the reports from city secretaries, school districts, and other taxing entities. Unfortunately, other than for county offices, it is beyond the resources of The Observer to try to post all these local filings.

Candidates and officeholders for Collin County offices are also local filers. They file with the Collin County Elections Department. While the county has told me they have plans to post these reports, as of now, they are still held in filing cabinets at the Elections Department.

The Collin County Observer has once again filed an Open Records request for all campaign finance reports due to the county. We have posted all county and state July, 2010 Semi-Annual Reports here. It is our hope that our readers will avail themselves of the opportunity to research these reports and learn more about the candidates who seek their support.

Bill

==============================

NOTES:

2010 Local County and selected State campaign finance reports.

The Collin County Observer has obtained the sworn affidavit by Texas Ranger A.P Davidson that was used to obtain the search warrant of the Collin County District Clerk's office yesterday. We are also posting the Search Warrant, 110 pages of attachments and the Return. The Return lists 18 pages of items seized in yesterday's raid.

In his sworn statement, Ranger Sergeant Davidson tells of 5 District Clerk employees who came to him with evidence of off-the-books time sheets used to pay District Clerk employees for time spent on Patricia Crigger's campaign.

The Affidavit and its attachments are damning. While I must point out that all these charges are still only allegations and must be proved in a court, the evidence shows that Ranger Davidson and his investigators spent considerable time gathering their facts before asking for a warrant. They present a compelling case.

The affidavit charges that, "On or about the dates of December 28, 2009 and June 1, 2010, in Collin County, Texas, Patricia Wysong CRIGGER, Sherry L. BELL, Rebecca A. LITTRELL, Amy E. MATHIS, Lorrie M. ROBERTSON, Marcia E. SIMPSON, Judy A. BLAZIER, and others did then and there, with intent to establish maintain and participate in a combination and in the profits of a combination, collaborate with each other and conspire to commit the offenses of Tampering with a Governmental Record, and Theft by a Public Servant by agreeing with each other that they would engage in conduct that constituted said offenses, namely, the falsification of official Collin County time and attendance records for employees of the Collin County District Clerk's Office and the maintenance of a separate system of accounting for their own additional program of unauthorized paid leave at Collin County Taxpayer expense..."

"On or about the dates of December 28, 2009 and June 1, 2010, in Collin County, Texas, Patricia Wysong CRIGGER, Sherry L. BELL, Marcia SIMPSON and Sandra K. HILL, public servants, with intent to obtain a benefit, did knowingly and intentionally misuse government property and services, namely, Collin County computers, printers, and copiers that had come into their custody and possession by virtue of their employment as public servants...."

Hannah Kunkle	Patricia Wysong Crigger

Ranger Davidson interviewed and took testimony from 5 District Clerk employees who charged that they were either pressured into working for the Crigger campaign or told they would be rewarded with "Blue Book" time for any PTO (paid personal time off) taken to campaign.

"Blue Book" time was paid time off that was not authorized by county policies, but instead kept by the supervisors on Excel spreadsheets, and later in binders. One informer told Davidson that the "Blue Books" began in the early 1990's after Hannah Kunkle was elected as District Clerk. When "Blue Book" time was taken by an employee, their supervisor would falsify county records to show that the employee was at work. Employees were reminded to leave their "Access Cards" with their supervisors when taking "Blue Book" time off, so that the supervisor could clock them in as 'present'.

One informant told Davidson that Kunkle had always authorized employees to receive "Blue Book" holidays off, including such holidays as, "Spring Day", "Summer Day", "Fall Day", "Winter Day", "Christmas Shopping Day", "Birthday Day", and two extra Holiday days to be used to extend three-day holiday weekends into four-day weekends.

The affidavit makes accusations against 6 ranking employees of using the "Blue Book" to reimburse employees time taken off for campaigning and/or for campaigning on County time and with County computers and printers. They are:

• Hannah Kunkle, the elected District Clerk
• Patricia Wysong Crigger, Chief Deputy District Clerk (and Republican Party nominee for District Clerk)
• Rebecca Littrell, Senior Administrator
• Sherry Bell, Civil/Family Manager
• Amy Mathis, Deputy District Clerk
• Lorrie Robertson, Civil/Family Supervisor
• Marcia Simpson, Deputy Minutes Clerk
• Judy Blazier, Criminal Supervisor

Davidson charges that at least 29 employees (out of 63 in the District Clerk's Office) received "Blue Book" time off during the Crigger Campaign. In the 24 page Affidavit, Davidson lists several examples of employees being reported as present, but not having logged into their computers and of having 'out-of-office' messages on their phones.

The Ranger's raid on the court house resulted in 68 items being seized, including computer hard drives, removable storage drives, calendars, binders, and 2 employee Access Cards.

The charges as laid out by the Texas Rangers show a District Clerk's office that encouraged and pressured employees to use their legitimately earned leave to campaign for Ms. Crigger, and then re-paid them with illegal "Blue Book" time. It describes an operation where the "Blue Books" effectively corrupted a large percentage of the employees, encouraging them to lie, steal and cheat the County's taxpayers.

The affidavit details an environment where a County Department became, in effect, a campaign office for Patricia Crigger, and where effective controls by independent auditors and management were non-existent.

In the weeks and month ahead, much will be written and talked about on how a Collin County operation could, for decades, flaunt County policies and steal payroll time. But first, Law Enforcement will have to step in where the lack of effective controls and personal integrity failed the citizens of our county.

Bill

Links to relevant documents:

Affidavit for Search Warrant, signed by Texas Ranger Sergeant A.P. Davidson, June 1, 2010

Exhibits attached to Affidavit (Warning, large file!)

Search Warrant for the Collin County District Clerk's Office, signed by Judge Michael E. Keasler of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, dated June 1, 2010

Return and Inventory of items seized during the search, signed by Texas Ranger A.P. Davidson and dated June 3, 2010

Only 4.2% of voters countywide turned out for the local city, school board and Collin College Trustee election held yesterday.

State Representative, District 66
Mabrie Jackson 1,353 (56.33%)
Van Taylor 1,049 (43.67%)
This election is meaningless. Mabrie Jackson has withdrawn from the race for the unexpired term of Brian McCall, and Van Taylor has already been sworn in. Interestingly though, Plano voters in a general election chose Mabrie (even though she had disqualified herself), while a much larger number of Republican Primary voters chose Taylor in the primary run-off.

Trustee, Place 1 - Collin College Board of Trustees
Nancy Wurzman 5,439 (53.64%)
David Hammel 4,701 (46.36%)
Plano attorney Nancy Wurzman upset incumbant trustee on Collin College Board. I can't remember the last time, if there ever was a last time that an incumbant on the college board of trustees was defeated.

Trustee, Place 3 - Collin College Board of Trustees
Larry Wainwright 5,911 (63.92%)
Earnest R. Burke 3,337 (36.08%)
This was an open seat.

City of Allen - City Councilmember, Place 4
Ron Alexander 291 (30.28%)
Robin L. Sedlacek 670 (69.72%)
Both incumbent council members handily win re-election.

City of Allen - City Councilmember, Place 6
Kevin Livesey 236 (26.37%)
Jeff McGregor 659 (73.63%)

Allen ISD - Trustee, Place 5
Paul Sundar-Singh 237 (26.19%)
Gary Stocker 668 (73.81%)

Anna ISD - Trustee, Place 3
Brent Hendricks 140 (62.22%)
Becky Woodard 85 (37.78%)

City of Anna - City Council, Place 6
Joe Osborn 63 (42.00%)
Becky Glover 87 (58.00%)

City of Celina - Councilman, Place 5
Brooke Kincannon 45 (32.37%)
Bill Webber 94 (67.63%)

City of Celina - Proposition 1
$2,475,000 for Fire Safety Facilities bonds
For 112 (61.54%)
Against 70 (38.46%)

City of Celina - Proposition 2
$685,000 for Public Safety Information Technology and Communications Equipment bonds.
For 105 (58.33%)
Against 75 (41.67%)

City of Celina - Proposition 3
$3,100,000 for Drainage Improvement bonds.
For 117 (64.29%)
Against 65 (35.71%)

City of Celina - Proposition 4
$2,000,000 for Street Improvement bonds.
For 126 (69.23%)
Against (en Contra) 56 (30.77)%

City of Celina - Proposition 5
$1,375,000 for Parks and Recreation Facilities bonds.
For 98 (53.26%)
Against 86 (46.74%)

City of Celina - Proposition 6
$1,375,000 for Parks and Recreation Facilities bonds.
For 107 (59.78%)
Against 72 (40.22%)

City of Frisco - City Council, Place 2
Matthew Herrera 345 (10.58%)
Tony Walsh 456 (13.99%)
Jeff Cheney 2,459 (75.43%)
Incumbent Chaney easily wins re-election.

City of Frisco - City Council, Place 2
John Keating 1,307 (39.06%)
David L. Prince 710 (21.22%)
Jim Joyner 1,329 (39.72%)
In a stunning upset, incumbent David Prince gets only 20% of the vote, setting up a run-off between Jim Joiner and John Keating

City of Frisco - Proposition 1
Shall the City Charter be amended throughout to correct non-substantive errors...
YES 2,935 (91.23%)
NO 282 (8.77%)
It is gratifying to see that less than 10% of Frisco voters do not want to correct spelling errors in their charter.

City of Frisco - Proposition 2
Shall the Charter be amended to conform to the provisions and/or requirements of state and/or federal law?
YES 2,853 (90.14%)
NO 312 (9.86%)

City of Frisco - Proposition 3
Shall the Charter be amended to provide for clarification on the election of the places held by Council Members and Mayor; (Term Limits)
YES 2,215 (69.37%)
NO 978 (30.63%)

City of Frisco - Proposition 4
Shall the Charter be amended to provide that the City Manager rather than the City Council shall appoint or remove the City Secretary?
YES 1,772 (56.78%)
NO 1,349 (43.22%)

City of Frisco - Proposition 5
Shall the Charter be amended to provide that the City Council may, in its sole discretion, determine to hold only one (1) regular monthly meeting two (2) months out of the calendar year?
YES 2,135 (68.69%)
NO 973 (31.31%)

City of Frisco - Proposition 6
Shall the Charter be amended to clarify that if a certain percentage of affirmative votes to pass a measure to be approved by City Council is required, the number of affirmative votes must be measured against the entire qualified City Council, not just the number present and voting?
YES 2,729 (87.75%)
NO 381 (12.25%)

City of Frisco - Proposition 7
Shall the Charter be amended to require that the Personnel rules prepared by the City Manager and presented to the City Council for adoption shall include a procedure for the giving and receiving of gifts by City employees?
YES 2,734 (87.07%)
NO 406 (12.93%)

City of Frisco - Proposition 8
Shall the Charter be amended to provide that the candidates for elective City office shall be at least eighteen (18) years of age at the time of the election for which they are filing; and the required residency minimum for elective office be clarified to be for at least one (1) year immediately preceding the filing date?
YES 2,950 (93.03%)
NO 221 (6.97%)

City of Frisco - Proposition 9
Shall the Charter be amended to clarify petition signature requirements by qualified voters, designating the percentage of required signatures be at least thirty (30) percent of the number of votes cast at the last regular mayoral election (Recall petitions)
YES 2,483 (81.60%)
NO 560 (18.40%)

City of Frisco - Proposition 10
Shall the Charter be amended to clarify the establishment, qualifications and structure of the Planning and Zoning Commission?
YES 2,535 (85.21%)
NO 440 (14.79%)

City of Frisco - Proposition 11
Shall Section 9.06 (Sale of Liquor Prohibited in Residential District) be added to the Charter to provide that the sale of liquor by a person holding a package store permit, as described by the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Code, is prohibited in any zoning district which allows, in whole or in part, residential development?
YES 2,177 (69.29%)
NO 965 (30.71%)

City of Frisco - Proposition 12
Shall Section 13.04 (Officers and Employees) be deleted from the Charter to remove an unnecessary transitional provision from the original adoption of the Charter which pertained to officers and employees who existed at the time of the original adoption of the Charter?
YES 2,524 (86.68%)
NO 388 (13.32%)

City of Frisco - Proposition 13
Shall the Charter be amended to clarify that City employees are prohibited from contributing to, making, soliciting or receiving contributions for and participating in any campaign activities of a Council Member or Mayoral candidate rather than any other candidate for office?
YES 2,559 (83.68%)
NO 499 (16.32%)

City of Frisco - Proposition 14
Shall the Charter be amended to provide for revised prohibitions, requirements, and procedures related to the acceptance of gifts by City Officials?
YES 2,657 (86.94%)
NO 399 (13.06%)

Lovejoy ISD - Trustee, Position 2 2
Steve Duke 279 (23.64%)
Ann Casey 901 (76.36%)

Lovejoy ISD - Trustee, Position 3
Mike Guilbeau 914 76.81%
Larry Essary 217 18.24%
Daris A. Nevil 59 4.96%

City of Lowery Crossing - 3 City Councilmembers
Dan Arney 34 (13.33%)
Willard Bailey 45 (17.65%)
Rusty Robinson 40 (15.69%)
Elizabeth Christian 42 (16.47%)
Jeremy Sexton 34 (13.33%)
Paul Wood 60 (23.53%)

City of McKinney - Proposition 1
$12.5 million general obligation bonds for park and recreational facilities
For 1761 (71.94%)
Against 687 (28.06%)

City of McKinney - Proposition 2
$11.35 million general obligation bonds for public safety facilities
For 1817 (75.39%)
Against 593 (24.61%)

City of McKinney - Proposition 3
$15.5 million general obligation bonds for acquiring, constructing and improving streets and associated drainage improvements
For 1951 (80.32%)
Against 478 (19.68%)

City of McKinney - Proposition 4
$5 million general obligation bonds for public works facilities
For 1740 (72.74%)
Against 652 (27.26%)

City of McKinney - Proposition 5
$4 million general obligation bonds for construction and improvement to flood control facilities
For 1729 (72.92%)
Against 642 (27.08%)

City of McKinney - Proposition 6
$3 million general obligation bonds for connectivity and improvements of municipal parking facilities in the Historic Downtown area.
For 1604 (66.45%)
Against 810 (33.55%)

McKinney ISD - Board of Trustees, Place 3
Kathi Livezey 297 (82.73%)
Victor Manuel 62 (17.27%)
This is Mr. Manuel's 2nd run for the Board of Trustees. He's been trounced badly both times.

McKinney ISD - Board of Trustees, Place 3
Curtis R. Rippee 921 (45.10%)
Cindy Evans 729 (35.70%)
Bobby Amick 392 (19.20%)

City of Melissa - City Councilmember, Place 1
Shannon Andre Mott 159 (40.66%)
Kim Youngblood 232 (59.34%)
Melissa had over a 17% voter turnout - over 4 times the county average.

City of Melissa - City Councilmember, Place 5
Dan Trott 188 (47.84%)
Brent Brown 144 (36.64%)
Micki Jobson 61 (15.52%)

City of Murphy - City Councilmember, Place 6
Dave Brandon 246 (53.83%)
Gus Delaloye 211 (46.17%)

Plano ISD - Board of Trustees, Place 1
Bart Ridley 1,,926 (36.32%)
Tammy Richards 2,929 (55.23%)
Robert Canright 448 (8.45%)
This seat is currently held by Duncan Webb, who was elected to the County Commissioners court.

Plano ISD - Board of Trustees, Place 2
Raj Menon 1,953 (35.94%)
Paul P. Kaminsky 1,181 (21.73%)
Carrolyn Moebius 2,300 (42.33%)
Incumbent Mary Beth King chose not to seek re-election.

Plano ISD - Board of Trustees, Place 3
Bret Cullers 2,292 (41.54%)
Nancy Humphrey 3,225 (58.46%)
John Muns did not to seek re-election. He ran unsuccessfully against County Judge Keith Self in the March GOP primary.

Princeton ISD - Board of Trustees (2)
Brent Williams 108 (27.20%)
Ricky Gillespie 154 (38.79%)
Carol Bodwell 135 (34.01%)

Prosper ISD - Board of Trustees, Place 1
Mark McGuire 472 (57.42%)
Steven Benavides 350 (42.58%)

Town of Prosper - Mayor
Ray Smith 602 (79.63%)
John Washburn 154 (20.37%)

Town of Prosper - Councilmember, Place 1
Dave Benefield 406 (58.08%)
Woody Adams 293 (41.92%)

Town of Prosper - Councilmember, Place 4
Meigs Miller 598 (81.69%)
Athena Bivens 134 (18.31%)

Town of Prosper - Councilmember, Place 6
Jason Dixon 465 (65.13%)
Trent Lewis 249 (34.87%)

Wylie ISD - Board of Trustees, Place 5
Lacey LaPointe 114 (14.06%)
Heather Leggett 567 (69.91%)
Art Borgemenke 130 (16.03%)
After voters turned down the greater part of 3 bond issues in a row, two members of the school board chose not to seek re-election. Nevertheless, Wylie voters stayed home. Turnout was only 3.3% - less than the county average.

Wylie ISD - Board of Trustees, Place 6
Joe Stooksberry 564 (68.03%)
Tanisha M. Owens 265 (31.97%)

Wylie ISD - Board of Trustees, Place 7
Stacie Gooch 613 (76.91%)
Curt Marcantel 184 (23.09%)

City of Wylie - City Councilmember, Place 1
Gilbert Tamez, Sr. 263 (42.97%)
David Goss 349 (57.03%)
This was Tamez's second run at city council. Incumbent Davis Goss easily wins re-election.

Bill

UPDATE May 9

Below are some election results for cities and districts who conducted their own elections or whose elections were run by Dallas County. These results are not posted by the Collin County elections department because the county does not contract to conduct the election. I will continue to add to this list as I get final results.

Blue Ridge, Mayor
Phillip Pulliam 83% 81
Jim Bowling 17% 17

Blue Ridge, City Council, 2 positions
Wendy Shindler 28% 45
Bryan Burke 27% 43
Bill Pope 25% 39
Kenneth Beale 20% 32

Blue Ridge ISD, Bond proposition
For 71% 219
Against 29% 88

Blue Ridge ISD, Trustee, Place 7
Joe Harvey 59% 164
Kim Yancey 36% 100
Keiffer Harwell, Jr. 5% 13

Community ISD, Trustee, Place 4
Michael Walls 84% 117
Doug Farrish 16% 22

Community ISD, Trustee, Place 5
Tammy Walker 64% 114
Marc Stanfield 36% 64

City of Farmersville, Mayor
Joe Helmberger 70% 309
Diane Piwko 30% 132

City of Farmersville, City Council, Place 2
Paul Kelly 64% 265
Lee Warren 36% 147

City of Farmersville, City Council, Place 4
Jim Foy 66% 287
Kevin Green 34% 145

Farmersville ISD, 2 Trustees
Tommy Monk 25% 266
Jim Hemby 24% 259
Pete Vamvakas III 16% 165
Curtis Stanley II 15% 155
Darren Brooks 11% 112
Stanley Phifer 9% 92

Town of Josephine, Mayor
Mike Holmes 64% 122
Drew Binkley 36% 68

Town of Josephine, Alderman, Place 3
Lynn Gilbreath 51% 96
Doug Ewing 17% 32
Amanda Binkley 17% 31
Lee Roy Phillips 15% 28

Town of Josephine, Alderman, Place 5
Larry Aaron 50% 89
Bill Miller 20% 35
Billy Petty 18% 31
William Crosetti 12% 21

City of Lavon, City Council, Place 1
Chris Kane 70% 71
David Hawkins 30% 30

City of Lavon, City Council, Place 5
Charles Teske, Jr. 82% 80
John Horton 18% 18

City of Lucas, City Council, Seat 4
Philip Lawrence 49% 566
Wayne Millsap 48% 545
Sean McCaffity 3% 29
In a very close race, incumbent Wayne Millsap is forced into second place in a run-off by Philip Lawrence. The voters also re-elected two incumbents but defeated two tax propositions.

City of Lucas, City Council, Seat 5
Debbie Fisher 56% 651
Bryan Bellows 44% 514

City of Lucas, City Council, Seat 6
Kathleen Peele 56% 650
Scott Christiansen 44% 511

City of Lucas, Proposition 1
Business Enterprises Tax
For 41% 451
Against 59% 656

City of Lucas, Proposition 2
Projects and Tourism Tax
For 47% 477
Against 53% 547

City of Nevada, Mayor
Joe Poovey 62% 32
Johnny Stevenson 38% 20

Richardson ISD, Trustee, Place 3
Kris Oliver 70% 3,778
William Gordon 12% 629
Darryl Smyers 11% 572
Elaine Johnson 7% 360

Richardson ISD, Trustee, Place 4
Lanet Greenshaw 82% 4,108
Jennifer Hague 18% 928

Richardson ISD, Trustee, Place 5
Karen Holburn 89% 4,738
Raj Chari 11% 611

City of Richardson, Proposition 1
$24,710,000 Street Improvement bonds
For 64% 4,486
Against 36% 2,503

City of Richardson, Proposition 2
$22,645,000 Park and Recreation Facilities bonds
For 57% 4,010
Against 43% 2,987

City of Richardson, Proposition 3
$10,495,000 Municipal public buildings bonds
For 56% 3,910
Against 44% 3,075

City of Richardson, Proposition 4
$8,150,000 Neighborhood vitality improvement bonds
For 58% 4,053
Against 42% 2,949

Royce City, City Council, Place 4
Brooks Williams 63% 167
Jim McLeroy 37% 100

City of Sachse, City Council, Place 5
Patsy McMillan 52% 180
Pat Covington 48% 168

Bill

The Collin County Observer is taking a few days R & R.

I will resume posting later this week.

Don't forget that early voting begins today for local city, school board and the Collin College Board.

Sample ballots and early voting locations can be found at the Collin County Elections Department website.

Thank you all for reading the Observer and for your patience.

Bill

Shed no tears for Hoagland as he exits stage

Sunday, April 18, 2010
Ed Housewright / The Dallas Morning News

For 30 years, Collin County Commissioner Jerry Hoagland has been a political lightning rod.

He's riled people with his strong, unfiltered views, whether denouncing illegal immigration or opposing greater spending on indigent health care. And voters kept re-electing him by wide margins.

Even as Hoagland approached his 70th birthday and entered his fourth decade in office, he seemed politically invincible.

No more.

Cheryl Williams, a first-time county candidate, finished off Hoagland in a runoff election Tuesday after battering him in last month's Republican primary. Facing Hoagland alone, Williams knocked him out with almost 59 percent of the vote.

"We got caught up in the anti-incumbent sentiment that prevails throughout our country," Hoagland wrote in an e-mail to supporters.

So one of Collin County's longest-serving, highest-profile elected officials finds himself a lame duck. His term ends Dec. 31.

"I'm not devastated by this loss," Hoagland said in an interview. "I just feel like the Lord has bigger and better things for me."

Hoagland, an active member of First Baptist Church of Wylie, wants to get involved in prison ministry. He said he may also sell real estate. Unlike some former politicians, he isn't interested in lobbying or consulting.

But Hoagland, who earns about $111,000 a year as a commissioner, said he doesn't have to work at all.

"I've got a good retirement plan," he said, "having been in the system 30 years."

Oversaw growth

When Hoagland took office in 1980, Collin County was a rural outpost of 144,000 people. Today, it's a teeming suburban county of almost 800,000.

During his campaign against Williams, Hoagland touted his accomplishments. He said he was proud of helping launch the Collin County Community College District, building a new courthouse, and consolidating county offices on a 250-acre complex in north McKinney.

"My wife said you can drive all over Collin County and see evidence of things I was personally involved in," Hoagland said. "That's gratifying."

Former Collin County Judge Ron Harris can relate to Hoagland's situation. Harris, who had headed the five-member Commissioners Court for 16 years, was ousted by Keith Self in 2006.

Harris supported Hoagland in his race against Williams and offered him condolences afterward.

"It's not time for Jerry to go to pasture," Harris said. "Healthwise, he's good, and mentally he's as sharp as ever."

Enjoyed it all

Harris laments the rapid, almost complete turnover on the Commissioners Court after years of stability.

For more than a decade starting in the mid-1990s, the panel consisted of Harris, Hoagland, Phyllis Cole, Jack Hatchell and Joe Jaynes.

"I refer to it as the Dream Team," Harris said.

But the team has disbanded. Jaynes will be the only remaining member starting Jan. 1.

After Self defeated Harris, Matt Shaheen ousted Cole in 2008. Hatchell died of cancer three months later and was replaced by Kathy Ward, who fell to Duncan Webb in last month's primary.

Rick Neudorff, a former Collin County Republican Party chairman, supported Williams over Hoagland. He said political change is inevitable and wasn't surprised to see Hoagland lose.

"Everyone's time comes eventually," said Neudorff, who ran unsuccessfully for county judge in 2006.

Now, it's Hoagland's turn to hand over power. But he isn't mourning or second-guessing his final campaign. He told supporters in his e-mail not to worry about him.

"It has been my honor to represent you on the Commissioners Court," he wrote. "I have enjoyed every minute of my time as an elected official."

link to article at The Dallas Morning News....

==============================

The Observer comments:

As many of the Observer's readers are aware, I ran as a Democrat against Jerry Hoagland in 2006. I did so because I disagreed with his policy positions and his long tenure on the court.

Since that election, I have had many opportunities to visit with and interview Commissioner Hoagland.

I have to admit, I enjoyed our conversations. In every case he was a gentleman who showed himself to be both extremely knowledgable on county affairs and willing to share that knowledge.

Jerry Hoagland and I differ on many issues, but I readily acknowledge his impact on the growth of the county. He cares deeply for our county -- and he has left his mark.

I wish Jerry and Annette well in their retirement. I'm sure he will continue to stay active in the affairs of our community... and our community will be the better for his involvement.

Bill

Voters push Collin County more to the right

Wednesday, April 14, 2010
By THEODORE KIM and ED HOUSEWRIGHT / The Dallas Morning News

The political pendulum may have swung again in Dallas' northern suburbs.

Less than two years after Democrats made inroads in Collin County, Republicans shifted to the right in Tuesday's primary runoff elections.

Van Taylor, who ran on an unabashed conservative platform, soundly defeated the more moderate Mabrie Jackson in the GOP primary to represent west Plano in the Texas House of Representatives.

And Cheryl Williams, a former Plano City Council member who campaigned as a "true conservative," won big over incumbent Jerry Hoagland for a seat on the Collin County Commissioners Court.

To be sure, money and an anti-incumbent air played roles as large as any political message.

Taylor injected more than $700,000 of his own money in the race, among the highest totals ever for a state House primary.

And some voters were eager for a new face to replace Hoagland, who has served for three decades.

"It was a bad year to be an incumbent," Williams said.

Still, both Taylor and Williams tapped deeply into the anti-Washington, anti-tax outrage that has manifested itself in the fervent Tea Party movement.

Although much of the simmering anger is aimed at federal leaders, activists have worked hard to endorse local candidates, often outsiders, who hew to rigid fiscally conservative principles.

"The message is that fiscal sanity needs to be applied to all levels," said Michael Openshaw of Plano, a vocal member of the North Texas Tea Party.

He compared the city of Plano's fiscal habits to "lemmings making for the cliff. Some of us are hearing the surf down there and saying, 'Can we slow down?' "

Longtimer ousted

The Tea Party insurgency also confirmed its presence Tuesday in other House races across Texas, helping to oust a key Republican who helped Speaker Joe Straus come to power last year.

Lubbock businessman Charles Perry, a Tea Party organizer, clobbered longtime state Rep. Delwin Jones, one of 10 original GOP supporters of Straus.

In another Lubbock-area runoff, John Frullo beat Mark Griffin, an establishment-backed candidate, in the race to succeed retiring Republican state Rep. Carl Isett.

The outcomes follow last month's upset of Rep. Tommy Merritt of Longview, another early Straus backer who lost in the GOP primary to a Tea Party-backed challenger, David Simpson.

Strongholds

"The two places where you really saw a strong level of Tea Party organization were in Lubbock and East Texas, the Tyler area," Austin political consultant Todd M. Smith said. "Those are the two places where the Tea Party really flexed its muscle."

Tuesday's results also illustrate the ebb and flow of politics in suburbs such as Collin County, which is a political battleground between Democratic-leaning Dallas and Republican-dominated rural areas.

The 2008 primary and general election drew record numbers of Democrats to the polls in Collin, suggesting changing times in the Republican stronghold.

But in Tuesday's runoffs, Republican voters overwhelmingly responded to a fiscal conservative message.

Taylor cultivated the Tea Party movement while bombarding the district with mailers and ads painting his GOP opponent as a liberal spender.

The strategy apparently worked.

Jackson lost despite securing the backing of Plano's Republican establishment and many business and civic groups.

Likewise, Williams, who was considered a moderate during her days on the Plano City Council, campaigned as a penny-wise outsider and received backing from Tea Party-affiliated groups.

"Both [Taylor and Williams] ran as conservative candidates," said state Rep. Jodie Laubenberg, who endorsed Taylor and Hoagland. "They succeeded because they captured the message that is reflective of the voters."

The movement, of course, has had its share of setbacks.

A number of candidates who marketed themselves as fiscal conservatives were crushed in various primary elections across North Texas on March 2.

And the Tea Party-backed candidate lost in a special election runoff last month for Plano City Council.

But the success of Taylor and Williams had been building for years.

Hints surface

The first hints of change came in 2006, when upstart Keith Self, running as a strict fiscal conservative, won the seat of county judge by toppling Ron Harris, a GOP leader who had been in office for 16 years.

Self, who is running for re-election and has Tea Party support, won the GOP nomination handily over Plano school board member John Muns.

Newcomer Matt Shaheen won a seat on the Commissioners Court two years ago, using a similar template to oust 18-year incumbent Phyllis Cole.

Laubenberg said that Taylor's victory, in particular, was telling.

House District 66 encompasses most of west Plano, which has overwhelmingly backed moderate candidates in the past.

"The tougher that times get, the more people look to pocketbook issues," Laubenberg said.

'Changing times'

Longtime Collin County Republicans like James Muns, the father of John Muns, acknowledged that political change is afoot.

"We're in changing times," said the elder Muns, who was Plano's mayor when Williams served on the City Council in the 1990s.

"When you've lived as long as I have, you've seen things go up and go down, whether it's good, bad or indifferent. The Tea Party is one of a number of groups in my lifetime that have come and gone. It's just part of politics."

Read the entire article at The Dallas Morning News....

=====================

The Observer notes that the article should be titled, "Republican voters in Collin County push more to the right".

This last election was a Republican Party run-off -- by, of, and for Republican voters. Generally, the bulk of the Primary voters (and especially run-off voters) are committed Party members. To assume that the 4% turnout speaks for the county as a whole seems to be a bit of a stretch.

In the ONLY non-primary election this year where the Tea Party had an interest, their candidate, Kathy Fang was defeated.

However, because of the scarcity of well-financed, viable Democratic Party candidates, it is true that the results of the primary run-off will likely shift the political tone map in the county to the right.

Bill

Veteran Collin commissioner Hoagland loses runoff to former Plano council member Williams

Wednesday, April 14, 2010
By ED HOUSEWRIGHT / The Dallas Morning News

Challenger Cheryl Williams defeated longtime Collin County Commissioner Jerry Hoagland on Tuesday by a wide margin in a runoff election.

Williams received almost 60 percent of the vote, according to the Collin County Elections Department.

"I think we worked really hard," she said. "And I think it was a bad year to be an incumbent."

Williams, a former Plano City Council member, outpolled Hoagland in a three-person Republican primary last month.

Hoagland said he thought his long tenure worked against him.

"I think people were anti-incumbent this year," he said. "I guess we didn't communicate well enough to the public the fact that I am a fiscal conservative. I wish her nothing but the best."

Williams will face Democrat Rick Koster in the November general election. No Democrat has held Collin County elective office in more than 20 years.

"We take every opponent very seriously," she said.

Williams had labeled Hoagland a "career politician" for his 30 years in office. But Hoagland attacked Williams for moving back to Precinct 2 less than a year ago after spending a decade in Dallas County.

The two took opposite stands on a proposed rail and trucking distribution hub in rural southeastern Collin County. Hoagland, who originated the idea a year ago, said it would bring needed jobs and tax revenue.

But Williams said the massive intermodal facility would create noise and congestion and ruin the tranquil country atmosphere.

Precinct 2 includes East Plano, Murphy and Wylie.

Karl Voigtsberger, who finished third in the March 2 Republican primary, endorsed Hoagland.

Williams, meanwhile, had the backing of the Tea Party.

A second Collin County commissioner was defeated in the primary. Precinct 4 Commissioner Kathy Ward fell to Plano school board member Duncan Webb.

read the rest of this article at The Dallas Morning News....

Taylor, Williams win in runoff

By Zach Markovic / Plano Star-Courier
Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Van Taylor won out convincingly over Mabrie Jackson in the State Representative District 66 race.

The primary runoff election on April 13 had six judicial positions, one state representative race and one county commissioners race. Longtime County Commissioner Jerry Hoagland was defeated by former Plano council member Cheryl Williams for the County Commissioner Precinct 2 seat.

A mere 4 percent of voters came out and voted in the runoff, down from 15 percent in the primary election.

The state representative race between former Plano City Council member Jackson and political newcomer Taylor was highly contested, seeing plenty of money spent and attacks thrown from both sides as the candidates battled it out to Election Day. In the end, Taylor won the runoff with 58 percent of the vote, beating Jackson 4,954 votes to 3,541.

He said his victory was because of the support he received from the conservative voice in Plano. Conservative groups such as the Tea Party and pro-life groups came out in support of the former Marine.

“This is a big victory for Plano conservatives,” Taylor said. “I need to spend a little time with my family and reconnect. I want to thank all of the people who made this victory possible and start building relationships so I can start going to work for the people of Plano.”

Taylor said he had a chance to speak with Jackson and wished her, her family and her campaign workers the best and congratulated them on a strong campaign.

He said in their conversation she told him she would endorse him in the November election.

Taylor will not even have to wait until next year to take his seat. Gov. Rick Perry has set up a special election on May 8 to fill the seat of Rep. Brian McCall, who recently resigned from the District 66 chair. Taylor said Jackson told him she would withdraw her name from that ballot so Taylor could run unopposed and not cause any division in the party.

Jackson did not return phone calls for comment.

The other contest closely watched by citizens in Collin County was the County Commissioner Court Precinct 2 race between incumbent Hoagland and Williams. In a hard-fought victory for the challenger, Williams won with 59 percent of the vote. She drew 2,590 votes against Hoagland’s 1,803. She said it was a difficult race, but the voters really came out in support of her views on where the county needs to head.

“I feel really honored by it and pretty humbled by the trust the citizens have given me,” Williams said. “I am very grateful for all the volunteers and workers who really came out to support me. We worked hard.”

Hoagland, a 30-year veteran of the county commissioners court, said the message was clear on what the voters wanted.

“My district voted for change today; that is very clear to me,” Hoagland said. “It has been a wonderful 30 years; I have enjoyed every minute. I wish Cheryl and the county nothing but the best.”

Many of the candidates were counting on a higher voter turnout, after a primary that saw a record-level response for a non-presidential election year. But with only 4 percent of the voters turning out, voter fatigue and confusion is being blamed as the source of low voter participation.

Terri Green, who lost to Jay Bender in the Collin County Court at Law No. 6 race, said she knew people were unaware the race was going on or if they could even vote in it. But she was happy for what her campaign accomplished and all of the hard work her volunteers put in.

“I am very thankful. I think we ran a great race; I am sorry that all my voters didn’t come back out to vote,” Green said. “Voter confusion was an issue – we were on the heel of the special elections for some cities, so I think realistically some voters were confused on what we were voting on. We are going to go on, though, and do what we were doing: continue practicing law in Collin County and serving the people who live here.”

read the rest of this article at The Plano Star-Courier....

(Almost) Final 2010 Primary Run-off Voting results

Here are combined early voting and election day results. (with 91% of precincts reporting)

Justice, Supreme Court, Place 3

Debra Lehrmann 8,756 (53.89%)
Rick Green 7,491 (46.11%)

State Representative, District 66
Van Taylor has beat former Plano city councilwoman Mabrie Jackson in one of the hardest fought, and certainly the most expensive campaigns in Collin County history. Taylor was able to pour over $700,000 of his own money into the race, easily beating Jackson in media and mail. This one is a significant win for the Tea Parties.

Mabrie Jackson 3,541 (41.68%)
Van Taylor 4,954 (58.32%)

District Judge, 219th Judicial District
Scott Becker replaces retiring Judge Curt Henderson in the 219th district court on January 1.

Angela Tucker 78,86 (48.18%)
Scott J. Becker 8,483 (51.82%)

Judge, County Court at Law No. 3
Lance Baxter will face Democrat Sajeel Khaleel in November for the bench held by retiring Judge John Barry on January 1.

Lance S. Baxter 7,723 (53.67%)
Stewart Matthews 6,668 (46.33%)

Judge, County Court at Law No. 4
Rippel handily defeats Matt Goeller. I would expect the commissioners court to now appoint David Rippel to the unexpired remainder of the term on the court. He will then begin his full term in January.

David Rippel 9541 (61.75%)
Matthew Goeller 5911 (38.25%)

Judge, County Court at Law No. 6
This is another bench where I would expect the commissioners court to appoint the victor to finish the unexpired term. Jay Bender will be the next Court at Law #6 judge.

Terri Green 6,806 (42.73%)
Jay Bender 9,121 (57.27%)

District Clerk
Patricia Crigger will keep her job at the District Clerk's office, not as second in command, but as the new District Clerk.

Alma Hays 7,403 (45.93%)
Patricia Crigger 8,714 (54.07%)

County Commissioner, Pct No. 2
Thirty year incumbant Jerry Hoagland has finally met his match. Cheryl Williams will face Democrat Rick Koster in November. I would score this as another big win for the local Tea Parties.

Cheryl Williams 2,590 (58.96%)
Jerry Hoagland 1,803 (41.04%)

Bill

Incomplete 2010 Primary Run-off Voting results

With 40% of the precinct reporting, these are combined early voting and election day results. The percentages have not changed that much over the early voting numbers, and I expect no real surprises. I'm calling the races in bold type.

Justice, Supreme Court, Place 3
Debra Lehrmann 6,382 (55.65%)
Rick Green 5,087 (44.35%)

State Representative, District 66
Van Taylor has most likely beat former Plano city councilwoman Mabrie Jackson in one of the hardest fought, and certainly the most expensive campaign in Collin County history. Taylor was able to pour over $700,000 of his own money into the race, easily beating Jackson in media and mail. This one is a significant win for the Tea Parties.

Mabrie Jackson 2,192 (42.08%)
Van Taylor 3,017 (57.92%)

District Judge, 219th Judicial District
Scott Becker looks to replace retiring Judge Curt Henderson in the 219th district court on January 1, but I'm not ready to call this one yet.

Angela Tucker 5,610 (47.95%)
Scott J. Becker 6,090 (52.05%)

Judge, County Court at Law No. 3
Lance Baxter is cruising to take the bench held by retiring Judge John Barry on January 1.

Lance S. Baxter 5,720 (55.05%)
Stewart Matthews 4,670 (44.95%)

Judge, County Court at Law No. 4
Rippel will likely handily defeat Matt Goeller. I would expect the commissioners court to now appoint David Rippel to the unexpired remainder of the term on the court. He will then begin his full term in January.

David Rippel 6,684 (60.39%)
Matthew Goeller 4,384 (39.61%)

Judge, County Court at Law No. 6
This is another bench where I would expect the commissioners court to appoint the victor to finish the unexpired term. Looks like Jay Bender will be the next Court at Law #6 judge.

Terri Green 4,912 (43.11%)
Jay Bender 6,483 (56.89%)

District Clerk
Patricia Crigger looks like she will keep her job at the District Clerk's office, not as second in command, but as the new District Clerk.

Alma Hays 5,213 (44.87%)
Patricia Crigger 6,404 (55.13%)

County Commissioner, Pct No. 2
Thirty year incumbant Jerry Hoagland looks like he finally met his match. Cheryl Williams will face Democrat Rick Koster in November. I would score this as another big win for the local Tea Parties.

Cheryl Williams 1,649 (57.96%)
Jerry Hoagland 1,196 (42.04%)

Bill

These are early voting results only.

Justice, Supreme Court, Place 3
Debra Lehrmann 5,141 (56.43%)
Rick Green 3,969 (43.57%)

State Representative, District 66
Mabrie Jackson 2,041 (42.07%)
Van Taylor 2,811 (57.93%)

District Judge, 219th Judicial District
Angela Tucker 4,327 (46.83%)
Scott J. Becker 4,913 (53.17%)

Judge, County Court at Law No. 3
Lance S. Baxter 4,580 (55.51%)
Stewart Matthews 3,671 (44.49%)

Judge, County Court at Law No. 4
David Rippel 5,267 (60.13%)
Matthew Goeller 3,493 (39.87%)

Judge, County Court at Law No. 6
Terri Green 3,936 (43.44%)
Jay Bender 5,125 (56.56%)

District Clerk
Alma Hays 4,114 (44.83%)
Patricia Crigger 5,062 (55.17%)

County Commissioner, Pct No. 2
Cheryl Williams 1,441 (57.87%)
Jerry Hoagland 1,049 (42.13%)

Indications are that there will be a much higher than normal voter turnout in the Republican Party Primary Run-off on Tuesday.

The number of people voting in the Early Voting week just end was at historically high numbers. In the 5 days of early voting, 9,099 ballots were cast. That is almost twice the number of ballots cast in early voting than in 2006 (the last county-wide primary run-off). In fact, this year's early voting numbers alone exceed the total 2006 turnout - early voting and election day.

Normally about 45%-60% of ballots cast are early voting. Whether that percentage will be reflected in this election is unclear. Because of the long lines and delays many voters experienced in the March primary, some believe that the early voting percentage could be much higher.

However, as is normal, only a small percentage of those who voted in the primary are expected to show up for the run-off. In March, 28,261 early voters cast ballots in the Republican Primary, another 29,710 voted on election day.

This year's run-off has been dominated by two local races that have become very contentious.

Voters in south and south-east Collin County will choose the nominee for the commissioners Court seat held by long-time incumbant Jerry Hoagland. To his surprise, Hoagland came in second in a three way race to former Plano City Councilwoman Cheryl Williams. The winner of the run-off will face Democrat Rick Koster in November.

And voters in west Plano will choose their next State Representative for the district 66 seat previously held by Brian McCall. First place finisher and former Plano City Councilwoman Mabrie Jackson faces off against businessman Van Taylor.

Unfortunately, both races have little focused on issues, but have resorted to personal attacks, mud-slinging and debates over who is most conservative.

Other local races on the ballot that have drawn much less attention are for the 219th District Court, for 3 County Court at Law judges and for District Clerk.

There is only one statewide race on the ballot - for a Texas Supreme Court justice.

Election day is Tuesday, April 13th. The polls are open from 7 AM to 7 PM. Any registered voter can vote in the run-off, except those who voted in another party's primary in February.

Election day polling places and sample ballots are here.

Here are the races that will appear on the ballot:

State Supreme Court, Place 3:
Debra Lehrmann
Rick Green

State Representative, District 66:
Mabrie Jackson
Van Taylor

District Judge, 219th District Court:
Angela Tucker
Scott Becker

Judge, County Court at Law #3:
Lance S. Baxter
Stewart Matthews

Judge, County Court at Law #4:
David Rippel
Matthew Goeller

Judge, County Court at Law #6:
Terri Green
Jay Bender

District Clerk:
Alma Hays
Patricia Wysong Crigger

County Commissioner, Precinct 2:
Cheryl Williams
Jerry Hoagland

Bill

Texas House race in Plano a bitter one

Saturday, April 10, 2010
By THEODORE KIM / The Dallas Morning News

"the election might tell us what the future of the Republican Party will look like."
Michael McConachie, political science professor at Collin College

After Sam Johnson beat a young Brian McCall in 1984 to represent Plano in the Texas House, McCall drove to his opponent's election party to congratulate him.

A lot has changed in politically genteel Plano as Republicans Mabrie Jackson and Van Taylor now battle to succeed McCall, who won the House seat after Johnson moved to Congress.

The battle in House District 66, which culminates in a runoff election Tuesday because no Democrat is running, has unfolded as Plano's bitterest, costliest and most intense political race in memory, observers agree.

"This is probably the lowest we have seen," said Ken Lambert, a former Plano City Council member who has not endorsed either candidate. "The way to win today's elections, it seems, is to do character assassinations."

Some believe the contest is but a testament to how Plano rarely sees contested state legislative races. Others view this year's primary as a harbinger of heated campaigns to come.

Friction evident

In a broader sense, the contest illustrates the friction between mainstream and hard-line conservatives emerging in elections nationwide.

"Mabrie, a mainstream Collin County Republican, is seen as the natural successor to Brian McCall. And here comes this new guy, this hard-line conservative, outflanking her on the right," said Michael McConachie, a political science professor at Collin College. "It's a microcosm of what the Republican Party is struggling with."

Jackson and Taylor have blasted each other's records, affiliations and ideologies on Web sites, in television ads and in political mailers.

Record amounts of campaign money have only added to the stakes and intensity.

Taylor, a real estate investor and former Marine, had lent his campaign $710,000 as of last week. Experts say the amount is staggering for a local House primary.

Few House candidates have spent more since 2000, according to figures provided by Texans for Public Justice, which tracks money in politics. And those totals were for entire general election campaigns.

Taylor is on pace to spend more of his personal wealth on the House primary than any Texas candidate this year other than Democrat Farouk Shami, who spent millions on a bid for governor, the group's research found.

Jackson, meanwhile, has spent more than $172,000 since late February, the latest campaign finance reports show.

Of the nearly $120,000 that Jackson raised in the latest filing period, more than half came from political action committees and business groups. The former Plano City Council member also received checks from homebuilder Bob Perry ($15,000) and grocery-chain mogul Charles Butt ($10,000).

Topping the mailers and money totals is a palpable sense that the candidates, generally, do not like each other.

Jackson fired the first shot a few days before the March 2 primary when she accused Taylor and a third candidate, Wayne Richard, of misrepresenting their résumés.

Taylor, who came in second in the primary but triggered a runoff election, dismissed the criticism as "negative" and "false."

Accusations flying

The salvos continued on Friday.

Jackson took aim at Taylor's personal loans, accusing him of "trying to buy this seat."

"What's he going to do with your money if that's what he's doing with his money?" she asked. "It's an insane amount of money. It's irresponsible to spend that much money on a political opportunity."

She also portrayed Taylor as an opportunist with little connection to Plano. Taylor, who grew up in Midland, ran for Congress in the Waco area in 2006.

"I'm the only one with experience in Plano," Jackson said. "He isn't beholden to anybody in Plano because he's not from here."

Taylor characterized Jackson's comments as "ridiculous."

"I live 20 miles from where I was born. My mother lives here. It's ridiculous. I have served in this community for years before this election."

Taylor, as he has in a last-minute ad campaign, painted Jackson as "courting lots of liberal groups" such as an association representing teachers that has supported Democrats and President Barack Obama. (Jackson dismissed the criticism.)

Taylor also defended his largely self-financed campaign, saying the personal loans have been "necessary to defeat these liberal interest groups that are coming into Plano and these negative, false attacks."

'Bare-knuckled'

In general, Taylor said, he believes he has run a "positive, issues-based campaign."

Others would disagree, saying both candidates have bashed each other with equal force. Plano City Council member Harry LaRosiliere, who has remained neutral in the race, said he "can't remember any race being as bare-knuckled as this."

"I certainly hope this is not the direction of our local politics," LaRosiliere said.

McConachie of Collin College noted that more is at stake than election tactics.

"Depending on which side wins," he said, "the election might tell us what the future of the Republican Party will look like."

link to this article at The Dallas Morning News....

at least $800,000.

That is the amount Van Taylor will likely spend in his bid to win the GOP nomination for the District 66 seat vacated by veteran Brian McCall.

It looks to be a record sum for a Texas Legislative seat, and leaves Taylor vulnerable to the charge of trying to buy a seat in the Texas Legislature.

In his latest campaign finance report filed with the Texas Ethic Commission, Taylor lists personal loans to he made to is campaign that total $710,000.

During the reporting period from February 22 to April 3, Taylor spent $326,000. Since January, his total expenditures have been over $771,000. He also reported $25,000 in contributions.

Mabrie Jackson listed expenses of $172,000 during the reporting period, and she reports she has spent about $265,000 since January 1. She also listed $116,000 in contributions from February to April.

In 2006, Van Taylor spent over a million dollars of his own money in an unsuccessful attempt to buy unseat Democrat Chet Edwards for a Waco congressional seat.

Nicholas Van Campen Taylor can afford the huge sums he puts into his divers political races. He is a heir to an oil company fortune, living on dividends from over $11 million in inherited Exxon Corp. stock and least $1 million in big pharma stock.

And there's another election yet to come after the run-off. On May 8, on city and school board election day, Van Taylor and Mabrie Jackson will once again face off at the ballot box. This time in a special election to fill the unexpired term of Brian McCall, who resigned his seat last Friday to accept the chancellorship at the Texas State University System.

The winner of the special election will fill the District 66 seat until December 31. The winner of the run-off will (since there is no Democrat in the race) serve a two year term, beginning January 1, 2011.

Bill

==========================

Notes:

Mabrie Jackson's campaign finance reports filed with the Texas Ethics Commission.

Van Taylor's campaign finance reports filed with the Texas Ethics Commission.

Governor Rick Perry proclamation calling a special election to be held on May 8.

All candidates in the April 13 run-off were required to file campaign finance reports detailing contributions, expenditures and loans for the period from February 22, 2010 to April 3, 2010.

Since Collin County does not post campaign finance reports online, The Collin County Observer has posted all reports by local filers. The latest reports were filed with the County Elections Department on April 3.

All have filed with the exception of David Rippel, running for County Court at Law #4. He told the Observer he thought he was supposed to file with the County Clerk's office. He did state that he would refile his last 3 reports (all misfiled) at the Elections Department by Wednesday.

The local filers are the run-off candidates for:

• County Commissioner, Precinct 2
• County Court at Law #3
• County court at Law #4
• County Court at Law #6
• District Clerk

In the Court at Law races, Jay Bender spent the most during the reporting period. His report shows $15,000 in expenditures, Stewart Matthews came in with $11,200 in expenditures. Matthews also reported $15,000 in loans to the campaign.

Terri Green raised the most money during the period. She raised $11,000 in contributions. The next highest was Jay Bender, with $6,900.

In the Commissioners court race, Cheryl Williams outspent Jerry Hoagland almost 4 to 1. She listed expenditures of $21,630 to Hoagland's $5,595. However Hoagland raised 3 times the money in contributions - $15,200 to William's $3,100.

Cheryl Williams lent her campaign over $46,000 and reported a balance of zero dollars on hand. Jerry Hoagland listed $9,800 in loans, but ends the period with over $14,000 he can still spend.

In the district Clerk's contest, Alma Hays spent $10,677 to Patricia Crigger's expenditures of $6,900.

Hays reported loans of $63,000, while Crigger listed only $2,500.

The webpage linking to all these locally filed reports is here.

The other two local races on the ballot are required to file with the Texas Ethics Commission. Click on the Candidate to link to the reports:

• Texas House of Representatives, District 66
  Van Taylor
  Mabrie Jackson
• 219th District Court
  Scott Becker
  Angela Tucker

In the race for the 219th bench, both Becker and Tucker spent about $9,000 during the reporting period. However, Scott Becker raised over $15,000 in contributions to Tucker's $6,000. Neither candidate reported outstanding loans.

The big bucks were spent in the Legislative race in West Plano. I have discussed these in my post, "The Fair Market Value of a seat in the Legislature is..."

Bill

Running for Judge

There are 4 judicial races in the run-off. One for District Judge and three in the County Courts at Law. I wonder how many voters know the difference between these courts, or can name any 2 or 3 of the eight candidates.

Voters will have one more opportunity to see and ask questions of the judicial candidates on Monday. The Collin County Bar Association will be holding a question and answer forum at noon at Ralph and Kacoo's in Allen.

Your Collin County Observer will moderate the Q and A. I'm looking forward to leading a lively discussion. The public is invited.

The Observer is trying to give the voters an opportunity to learn all they can about the courts and the candidates. I have just finished interviews with each of these candidates. Scroll below and you will find profiles of each race and each candidate.

I hope I can help make your choice less confusing.

The best political ad of the year

Plano's District 66 legislative race has certainly seen its share of mud slinging. Recently, the Mabrie Jackson side put up a clever website and 30 second TV ad about "Moving Van Taylor". Yes, I know it's an attack -- but the video IS funny.

Of course, Taylor has put up his own attack site, accusing Jackson of (guess what?) being a liberal.

Oh no, not another election!

Pity the diligent Plano voter. His/her presence was required at the polls for the Primary, the City Special Election, the city run-off, and will be for the Primary run-off, City and School elections in May, and the November general election.

Paul Burka of Texas Monthly writes of a truly scary scenario -- another Mabrie Jackson vs. Van Taylor election battle.

Burka writes, "If Jackson wins the runoff, it would not be surprising to see Taylor enter that race, since he has spent a small fortune to get his name and message out and has made no secret of his desire to run for Ralph Hall’s or Sam Johnson’s congressional seat, if either retires. The special election gives him the chance to continue to put his name before the public. Jackson conceivably might enter the race too, to get a leg up on seniority and to be able to hit the ground running in January — and, if she were to win the runoff handily, to squash Taylor permanently."

Regardless of whose running, there will be another election - on May 8 to fill Brian McCall's unexpired term. McCall has been named Chancellor of the Texas State University system.

Where do you live?

That seems to be the burning question in the Precinct 2 Commissioners Court race between incumbent Jerry Hoagland and former Plano City Councilwoman Cheryl Williams.

It's another race where the mud-slinging threatens to overwhelm the issues as Hoagland's camp continues to question if Williams really, really lives in her Richardson duplex. Rumor has it that Hoagland even has Williams' neighbor, Karl Voigtsberger spying on her duplex to make sure they come home at night.

I'm looking forward to seeing the first Peeping Tom complaint. That's got to be a terrifying thought - Karl looking in your windows!?

Meanwhile back to the issues, the Save Lake Lavon anti-bridge folks are all over Jerry Hoagland. His assurances that the bridge will never be built doesn't seem to dampen their ardor at all.

At a recent Tea Party forum in Lucas, both the anti Williams forces and the anti bridge folks were out in force. There was a lot of emotion from the crowd, and unfortunately, sometimes basic civility was lost in the discussion.

Ed Housewright at The Dallas Morning News has written an interesting piece about the Precinct 2 race. It's worth the read.

Clerking or campaigning?

Last month accusations were made that district Clerk employees were campaigning at the polls for their boss, Patricia Crigger on county time.

The Observer looked into these allegations. In an Open Records request, I asked for all the time sheets for all District Clerk employees for a two month period that included the early voting dates.

What I found was that absences were very high during early voting and leading up to election day. But all those absences were recorded as comp time, personal leave with pay, or personal leave without pay.

The Observer concluded that NO funny business was occurring on county time.

It was just another example of what I'm beginning to call "Republicans doing the nasty to each other".

This primary season has plenty of the nasty.

Bill

Early voting starts Monday in the 2010 Republican Party run-off. Election day is April 13.

• Early voting locations are here
• Election day poll locations are here

The Collin County Courts at Law are courts of general jurisdiction handling misdemeanor cases, appeals from Justice of the Peace and municipal courts, and civil suits under $100,000.

The Primary results were:

• Terri Green 11,574 (32.36%)
• Jay Bender 11,231 (31.40%)
• Don High 10,560 (29.53%)
• Shawn Ismail 2,399 (6.71%)

Terri Green

• Her campaign website is here
• Her Collin County Observer judicial questionnaire is here
• Her campaign finance reports are here

Jay Bender

• His campaign website is here
• His Collin County Observer judicial questionnaire is here
• His campaign finance reports are here

Collin County Observer profiles for the 2010 Primary run-off:

• Collin County Commissioners Court, Precinct 2 - Williams / Hoagland

• 219th District Court, Becker / Tucker

• Collin County Court at Law #3, Baxter / Matthews

• Collin County Court at Law #4, Goeller / Ripple

• Collin County Court at Law #6, Green / Bender

Bill

Early voting starts Monday in the 2010 Republican Party run-off. Election day is April 13.

• Early voting locations are here
• Election day poll locations are here

The Collin County Courts at Law are courts of general jurisdiction handling misdemeanor cases, appeals from Justice of the Peace and municipal courts, and civil suits under $100,000.

The Primary results were:

• Matthew Goeller 9,719 (28.09%)
• David Rippel 9,494 (27.44%)
• Linda Wynn Drain 8,267 (23.89%)
• Chrysti Bryant 7,121 (20.58%)

Matthew Goeller

• His campaign website is here
• His Collin County Observer judicial questionnaire is here
• His campaign finance reports are here

David Rippel

• His campaign website is here
• His Collin County Observer judicial questionnaire is here
• His campaign finance reports are here

Collin County Observer profiles for the 2010 Primary run-off:

• Collin County Commissioners Court, Precinct 2 - Williams / Hoagland

• 219th District Court, Becker / Tucker

• Collin County Court at Law #3, Baxter / Matthews

• Collin County Court at Law #4, Goeller / Ripple

• Collin County Court at Law #6, Green / Bender

Bill

Early voting starts Monday in the 2010 Republican Party run-off. Election day is April 13.

• Early voting locations are here
• Election day poll locations are here

The Collin County Courts at Law are courts of general jurisdiction handling misdemeanor cases, appeals from Justice of the Peace and municipal courts, and civil suits under $100,000.

The Primary results were:

• Lance S. Baxter 12,301 (36.83%)
• Stewart Matthews 10,577 (31.67%)
• Barnett Walker 10,524 (31.51%)

Lance Baxter

• His campaign website is here
• His Collin County Observer judicial questionnaire is here
• His campaign finance reports are here

Stewart Matthews

• His campaign website is here
• His Collin County Observer judicial questionnaire is http://www.baumbach.org/2010/qa/matthews.pdf
• His campaign finance reports are here

Collin County Observer profiles for the 2010 Primary run-off:

• Collin County Commissioners Court, Precinct 2 - Williams / Hoagland

• 219th District Court, Becker / Tucker

• Collin County Court at Law #3, Baxter / Matthews

• Collin County Court at Law #4, Goeller / Ripple

• Collin County Court at Law #6, Green / Bender

Bill

Early voting starts Monday in the 2010 Republican Party run-off. Election day is April 13.

• Early voting locations are here
• Election day poll locations are here

The 219th District Court is a court of general jurisdiction handling felony cases, up to and including death penalty cases, family law cases and large civil suits over $100,000.

The Primary results were:

• Scott J. Becker 18,014 (48.43%)
• Angela Tucker 12,434 (33.43%)
• Wendy McMillon 6,753 (18.15%)

Scott Becker

• His campaign website is here
• His Collin County Observer judicial questionnaire is here
• His campaign finance reports are here

Angela Tucker

• Her campaign website is here
• Her Collin County Observer judicial questionnaire is here
• Her campaign finance reports are here

Collin County Observer profiles for the 2010 Primary run-off:

• Collin County Commissioners Court, Precinct 2 - Williams / Hoagland

• 219th District Court, Becker / Tucker

• Collin County Court at Law #3, Baxter / Matthews

• Collin County Court at Law #4, Goeller / Ripple

• Collin County Court at Law #6, Green / Bender

Bill

From a City of McKinney press release:

City of McKinney Press Release
For Immediate Release

Bond election held in McKinney
Six propositions on ballot worth $51.35 million

McKINNEY, TEXAS (March 29, 2010) – On May 8, McKinney residents will vote to make decisions about the future growth of the city. A bond election will be held with a ballot including projects totaling $51.35 million centered on land acquisition, parks and recreation, public safety and streets improvements.

“McKinney’s bond election will have a huge impact on the next steps in the growth of our community. This year, we don’t have an election for representatives of our citizens, but the bond election is just as important. It is vital to the future of McKinney? that every resident vote and let city leadership know their decisions for the future direction of our fast-growing community,” said Mayor Brian Loughmiller.

The following propositions appear on the bond election, with voters deciding whether or not the McKinney City Council is authorized to issue general obligation bonds for these projects.

• $12.5 million for park and recreational facilities, including land acquisition, construction, improvements and expansion
• $11.35 million for public safety facilities, including land acquisition, construction and improvements
• $15.5 million acquiring, constructing and improving streets and associated drainage improvements within the city, including sidewalks and railroad crossings, traffic control and signalization devices, street lighting, public streetscaping and landscaping improvements, curb and gutter replacements and related improvements
• $5 million for public works facilities improvements, construction and land acquisition
• $4 million for construction and improvement to flood control facilities including creeks, dams and lakes
• $3 million for connectivity and improvements of municipal parking facilities in the Historic Downtown area

Early voting is available for McKinney voters starting Monday, April 26. For a complete list of times, dates and locations, visit www.mckinneytexas.org.

Election Day Polling Locations: Saturday, May 8 from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.

McKinney City Hall
222 North Tennessee Street
Precincts (Distritos) 2, 3, 4, 9, 45, 96, 98, 100, 114, 128, 160, 161, 179

Valley Creek Elementary School
2800 Valley Creek Trail
Precincts 97, 102, 129, 156

Scoggins Middle School
7070 Stacy Road
Precincts 38, 126, 169

Burks Elementary School
1801 Hill Street
Precincts 1, 44, 57, 99

Collin College Central Park Campus
2200 West University Drive
Precincts 13, 16, 20, 43, 150

Dowell Middle School
301 East Ridge Road
Precincts 12, 122, 131, 140, 149, 155, 173

Fire Station #7
861 Independence Parkway
Precinct 163

###

For many election day watchers, one of the more interesting contests turned out to be the County Commissioners, Precinct 2 race.

Challenger and former Plano City Councilwoman Cheryl Williams out-polled 29 yr incumbent Jerry Hoagland by 9 percentage points. However, her 45.8% was not enough to avoid a run-off with Commissioner Hoagland.

The Collin County Observer visited with both Cheryl Williams and Jerry Hoagland this weekend. Both graciously allowed me into their home to record a series of interviews. I hope you find them interesting and helpful.

In the first segment, we talk about roads and mobility:

Bill

In light turnout, long time community volunteer André Davidson defeated Cathy Fang in a run-off for Plano City Council, Place 3.

In both the early voting and on election day, less than 5,000 voters cast ballots in this run-off to fill the seat made vacant when Mabrie Jackson resigned to run for the Texas Legislature in District 66.

The results were:

Cathy Fang 2,147 (43.97%)
Andre Davidson 2,736 (56.03%)

Turnout was 3.4%

Davidson was supported by a wide spectrum of the community and its leaders. Fang, who portrayed herself as an outside, independent voice, failed to capitalize on her "cut costs" conservative message.

Today's victory by Davidson will be seen as a set back for the Tea Party movement. While no Tea Party organizations formally backed Ms. Fang, she did get considerable support from many in their leadership.

Bill

Andre Davidson takes an early lead.

Early vote totals only:

Cathy Fang 1,492 42.30%
Andre Davidson 2,035 57.70%

2.5% of Plano's registered voters cast early voting ballots in the run-off. This has been an election marked by very low turnout, both in early voting and on election day.

Bill

Today is election day in the run-off for the vacant Plano City Council, place 3 seat.

The run-off between André Davidson and Kathy Fang has so far gained considerable attention, but a low voter turnout in early voting.

On election day, voters must vote in the neighborhood polling location for their precinct. Your precinct number is on your Voter Registration Certificate, or you can call the elections office at 972-547-1990 to find their correct polling place. Additional voter information can be found at the Collin County Elections Office web site.

Polling locations:

André Davidson
Age: 64

Occupation: Volunteer

Family: Husband and two adult children

Education: Bachelor of arts degree in general studies, University of Texas at Dallas; attended University of Southwestern Louisiana

Community highlights: Served numerous local volunteer groups ranging from Meals on Wheels to the Plano ISD Education Foundation; named Chamber of Commerce's Citizen of the Year in 2005

Campaign Website
Collin County Observer coverage

Kathy Fang
Age: 63

Occupation: Accountant

Family: Single

Education: Master's degree in business administration, University of North Texas; bachelor's degree in business administration, Soochow University in Taiwan

Community highlights: Leadership Plano graduate; founder of a local group for Chinese-American businesswomen

Campaign Website
Collin County Observer coverage

Bill

Editorial: We recommend Mabrie Jackson in House runoff

Wednesday, March 24, 2010
The Dallas Morning News Editorial Board

The Republican runoff campaign for the Texas House from West Plano has been a contest over who has the more legitimate claim to the term conservative.

Both Mabrie Jackson and Van Taylor have signed the nationally known "taxpayer protection pledge" against new taxes and posted it on their Web sites. (Taylor touts the fact that he signed his first, on Nov. 19, as his first act as a candidate.)

As for guiding principles, Jackson, 45, vows to "keep the government out of my pocketbook and out of my house" if elected from the House District 66.

Taylor, 37, maintains that he is the sole "really, truly, deeply convicted conservative" of the two and that his "singular goal" would be that kind of representation.

If conservative-minded Republicans need a tiebreaker between the two for the April 13 runoff, it won't be a weak résumé for either. Taylor, for example, is an Iraq war veteran with a career in real estate finance and banking.

What voters won't find among Taylor's credentials are two important things Jackson can claim: deep roots in Plano and a long record of public service to the community, both as an officeholder and civic leader. With a record as a former Plano City Council member, Jackson was the top vote-getter at the ballot box March 2, with 41 percent of the primary tally, compared with 33 percent for Taylor. (Candidate Wayne Richard ran third.)

Another tiebreaker is Jackson's solutions-oriented approach to governing and the priorities she has set, including economic development, public education and keeping up with growth through forward-looking transportation and water policies. The state also must do better fighting child abuse, she says.

Jackson, formerly in marketing for EDS and a manager for Microsoft, has lived in Plano since grade school in 1970. Taylor moved to the district after losing a race for Congress from Central Texas in 2006.

One recent comment by Taylor might give voters yet another tiebreaker: He told this newspaper that he would "starve state government."

That's a handy catchphrase, but it says nothing constructive about how to educate children, pave roads or boost the business climate.

The winner of the runoff has no Democratic opponent in November.

link to editorial at The Dallas Morning News....

Last week, The Republican Men's Club held a candidate forum between the run-off candidates for Texas House, District 66.

Both Mabrie Jackson and Van Taylor fielded questions posed to them by conservative radio personality Jeff Bolton.

I was disappointed in that the questions asked had little to do with the very real issues that will face the next legislature. Instead, the questions were more of a sounding board for Mr. Bolton to expound on the difference between conservatives vs real conservatives. The candidates responded predictably -- both touted their conservative values; neither offered very many specifics.

No questions were asked on exactly how to fund education, how to wean the DPS and education from any reallocation of gas taxes to roads, how to fund highway construction, etc.

Both Ms. Jackson and Mr. Taylor verbally agreed to sit for interviews with the Observer. I hope to pin them down to specific proposals that address the real core issues that the next legislature will grapple with.

Here are a few clips from Thursday's forum. I have tried to choose the questions that elicited the most thoughtful answers (but I have edited out the bulk of Mr. Bolton's prefatory speechlets):

Bill

The Collin Community College District, now known as Collin College, will soon have some new leadership on the Board of Trustees.

Three of the nine members on the Board of Trustees are up for re-election in May. Two of them have decided not to run. The third faces a challenger.

The Board of Trustees normally has little turnover. The Chairman, Dr. Robert Collins and Trustee Tino Trujillo are "founding members", meaning they have been on the Board since the inception of the Community College District in 1985.

In Place 1, the incumbent, Dr. David Hammel, first elected to the Board in 2004, is being challenged by a local attorney, Nancy Wurzman.

The incumbent in Place 2, Cindy Bauge was elected to the Board in 1998, and currently serves as Board Secretary. Ms. Bauge has decided not to run for re-election. Plano's Jenny McCall is unopposed for the Place 2 position.

The incumbent in Place 3, Dr. E T Boon, who has served on the Board since 1990 also chose not to seek another term. Vying for the Place 3 slot are Earnest Burke and Larry Wainwright.

Members of the College's Board of directors serve a six year term.

New and current board members will face significant challenges over the next few years:

FUNDING

Probably the greatest issue will be funding. The State off Texas will likely reduce state funding to all colleges by 5% during the next biennium. Local tax revenue is expected to fall this year with the anemic economy and lower property valuations. This combination will force the College to squeeze every cent out of their revenue in order to keep services intact and tuition low.

Last years $164 million budget allowed the district to both balance its accounts and grant taxpayers a slight tax rate decrease, but with burgeoning growth, and anticipated State cuts, future tax cuts may give way to tuition and/or tax increases.

Currently tuition is stable. The college had successfully bucked the trend by other public institutions in not raising tuition rates. Instead the college has relied on its growing enrollment (up 15% last year), and frugal management to keep to its mission of affordability.

Collin College now offers the lowest total tuition and fee scale in the State of Texas - and it wants to keep it that way.

EXPANSION

The district's strategic plan calls for new campuses in under-served but growing parts of the county.

The College District has already purchased land in Celina and Farmersville, and needs to acquire property in the Wylie/Sachse area to fulfill the master plan for new campuses.

When it opened its doors in 1986, the College enrolled about 5,000 students. This year it will educate over 46,000, becoming the 6th largest employer in the county.

To maintain its growth rate and to fully serve all parts of the county, the college will very soon need to begin to plan the bonds and construction for both the Farmersville and Celina campuses.

MISSION

With over 760,000 residents, Collin County is the largest county (in population) in Texas without a 4 year university. While the county boasts one of the most educated workforces in the nation, and its economy is driven in large part by high tech companies, until very recently our residents had to travel to Richardson, Denton or Commerce to earn a degree from a public university.

This year, Collin College opened its "Collin Higher Education Center" at a new facility in McKinney. At the Higher Education Center, five university partners offer a variety of bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees.

Even though it opened in mid-year, the Higher Education Center has attracted many more students than anticipated. Only 350 students were projected to enroll in the first semester of the Center, but in a vivid demonstration of the need for higher education options in the county, over 600 signed up.

The College's trustees will need to take a hard look at its mission. It needs to answer the question, "What do we become?"

Should it evolve into a 4 year college?

Should it plan to expand to become a university, offering research and advanced degrees?

Both options are very expensive, and will require obtaining substantial financial support from the community and the State.

Right now the school is leaning towards a rather unique alternative where its Higher Education Center 'diffuses', rather than grants advanced degrees. By partnering with nearby universities, the college can offer local student access to almost 30 different degree plans, without hiring professors or building expensive infrastructure. Perhaps this model can guide the future response by the college to the demand for a higher education by county residents.

This year marks the silver anniversary of Collin College. Its Board of Trustees, both older and new members, will be tasked to maintain the sterling reputation of the district in a period of rapid growth -- by both sticking to tried and true formulas, and pushing to "boldly go where no one has gone before".

Recognizing the importance of the college to our community, The Collin County Observer will attempt to offer our readers insights into the campaigns of and interviews with the Collin College Board of Trustee candidates.

Bill

Justin P. Nichols of Plano: Local political forums encourage apathy

Sunday, March 14, 2010
The Dallas Morning News - Local Voices

Justin P. Nichols is a Plano resident and former candidate for the Plano City Council in 2008.

Voters just went to the polls to decide dozens of political contests. But before the election there were countless forums and debates sponsored by various groups. Some groups host forums for the benefit of the public, and some give candidates a chance to cater to a particular type of voter. But the one thing all these proceedings had in common was terrible dullness and boredom – hence why few news sources, if any, covered them.

The typical political "debate" consists of too many candidates being given too little time to introduce themselves with a canned intro, followed by a handful of questions that are asked so candidates can show off their canned responses.

Don't we want some political vigor – some democratic passion?

Sure, it's easy to take a jab in a mailer or through a press release, but it's another thing to call out opponents at a forum. Why aren't there any debates that offer real insight into candidates' personality and positions?

The question, "Why do you want to be elected?" doesn't give me all the information I need. I want to see tough questions asked – questions that no one sees coming – questions that only get whispered in gossip circles. I want to see candidates address each other.

I would have liked to see Kelley Adley ask Justice of the Peace Mike Yarbrough, "Why aren't you willing to get up early on Saturdays to perform arraignments like your fellow JPs?" In turn, it would have been interesting to see Yarbrough ask Doug Reeves, the other candidate in the race, "How many times will you run against me?"

Someone should have asked judicial candidate Linda Drain if she was at all ashamed to have been endorsed by former prosecutor Tom O'Connell, who has recently brought a lot of negative publicity and discredit to the Collin County legal system. After all, Republicans hammered President Barack Obama for associating with the Rev. Jeremiah Wright and Bill Ayers. He had to address that in debates. Asking tough questions about supporters is fair play – Republican or Democrat.

Besides being interesting and somewhat uncomfortable, these types of questions are good because they allow voters to see the off-the-cuff side of candidates, and they keep candidates on their toes. If you think about it, pre-election debates are the only time candidates are compelled to answer questions. If elected, the most someone can do is make a statement at a public meeting, and the official doesn't have to respond at all.

I'm sure some folks will tout the traditional civility of Collin County campaigns.

But Collin County has outgrown the good ol' boy network, and elections will no longer be decided at a country club over cigars and brandy. Rather, to win an election these days, it will take a fight to win each vote.

I just wish there were public forums where true political discourse occurred. I'm not advocating outright brawls or cheap shots, but I do advocate for more vigorous debate and excitement at these events. Plus, having been a candidate myself, I believe those vying to be elected wouldn't mind these events being a bit livelier. They have to sit through them, too.

Apathy and voter fatigue are already challenges to an engaged electorate, and I think it would help if local debates more closely resembled the Roman senate than an afternoon of tea and crumpets.

Justin P. Nichols is a Plano resident and former candidate for the Plano City Council in 2008.


link to this Local Voices opinion at The Dallas Morning News....

Many in Collin County jumping at chance to serve on city councils, school boards

Sunday, March 14, 2010
By MATTHEW HAAG / The Dallas Morning News
Dallas Morning News Staff writers Valerie Wigglesworth, Jessica Meyers and Sam Hodges contributed to this report.

Collin County voters this spring will find more candidates on the ballot for some city council and school board races than in previous years.

In the Plano school district, eight candidates are vying for three seats on the school board. Seven people filed to run for two seats on the Frisco City Council. And in Allen, three of the four incumbents drew challengers.

The robust election of mostly political newcomers represents a small shift for Collin County politics, where incumbents often run unopposed. Part of the increased interest comes from a rare opportunity: There won't be any incumbents from the McKinney and Plano school boards on the May 8 ballot.

"They see their opportunity and are jumping," said Mike McConachie, a Collin College political-science professor. "It is so hard to beat an incumbent despite all you hear about the anti-incumbency."

That's playing out in Frisco ISD, where all three trustees up for re-election are running unopposed.

Board president Dan Mossakowski said the school district doesn't have the turnover of other local offices or the slew of political opponents because the trustees avoid drama.

"It has a lot to do with how the community views how the school board is doing," Mossakowski said. "And there's a lot more stuff going on in the city government level that really doesn't happen in the school district."

Controversies

The increased interest in some races, especially for the Plano school board and the Frisco City Council, stems in part from past controversial decisions.

In Plano ISD, trustees unanimously approved a divisive school boundary realignment plan in November without explaining their vote.

"I would really imagine after that redistricting debacle that more parents would put their hat into the ring," said Place 2 candidate Paul P. Kaminksy, a retired Army warrant officer, who faces two opponents.

One of those parents is Nancy Humphrey. She said she decided to run for Place 3 because she thought board decisions have too often occurred unanimously and without discussion.

"I just feel like the communication hasn't been there," said Humphrey, who lives in a part of Richardson that is in the Plano school district's boundaries.

Contested races for the Frisco City Council have been common the past decade and don't seem to faze anyone now.

"The days of council races being unopposed are over," said Mayor Pro Tem Jeff Cheney, who's running for a second term. "A lot of exciting things are happening in Frisco. It's hard not to want to be a part of it."

Cheney faces two challengers for his Place 2 seat, while incumbent David Prince is in a four-way race for Place 4. Most challengers are political novices. In fact, only Jim Joyner, who served on the council for two terms and has been on numerous city boards and commissions, has previous political experience.

Joyner said he filed for the Place 4 seat after the high-profile debate over support for the Collin County arts hall. He said he wants to focus on the city's vision that has made it so successful in the past. Other candidates mentioned that arts hall debate and opposition to the city's support for two proposed multi-housing projects that would include Section 8 voucher-holders.

Those issues served as a wake-up call for Tony Walsh, who's running for the Place 2 slot.

"A lot of people in Frisco have their head in the sand, and I used to be one of them," said Walsh, a mortgage broker and youth sports coach. "I just want to vote for the people."

Raising performance

Allen is seeing competitive races both for school board and city council, but the candidates says they've not been drawn in by single issues or frustration with an incumbent.

Paul Sundar-Singh was among residents of an Allen neighborhood upset by school zone changes that shifted where their children attended middle schools. But he says that's a "closed chapter" and not why he's running against incumbent Gary Stocker for Place 5 on the Allen school board.

Sundar-Singh says he has ideas to lift school ratings and academic performance, particularly in science.

Kevin Livesey is another first-time Allen candidate, running for Place 6 on the city council. Livesey said he's pleased with how Allen is run and has no quarrels with incumbent Jeff McGregor.

"This is just a matter of me wanting to contribute to my community," Livesey said.

McKinney has competitive races for two school board seats, but in both cases the incumbent chose not to run again. So far, the rhetoric has been high-minded, with candidates such as Curtis Rippee arguing that they have expertise that the district needs in a recession.

read the rest of this article at The Dallas Morning News....

Earlier today, I had an opportunity to sit down with André Davidson, and later with Cathy Fang. Both ladies graciously agreed to interrupt their campaigning for a video interview.

I asked both candidates questions relating to their vision of Plano's future and how they saw their role on the City Council in facing the issues of today.

André Davidson

Cathy Fang

Early voting in the city council run-off election continues through March 23.

Early voting locations and hours

Election day is March 27. The polls will be open 7 AM to 7 PM.

Election day polling locations

Bill

On Saturday, the League of Women Voters held a candidate's forum for the Plano City Council, Place 3 run-off between Andre Davidson and Cathy Fang.

The Observer was there with his hand-held camera.

Each candidate was given a 3 minute opening and then several questions were asked. Here are some clips from the forum:

Bill

In a response to an email from The Collin County Observer, Doug Reeves informed me that on Friday, he withdrew for the race for Justice of the Peace, Precinct 4.

Mr. Reeves was responding to a request to comment on or rebut the issues raised in this investigative article.

####

Doug Reeves, whose surprising 2nd place finish in the Republican primary race put him in a run-off against the incumbent Mike Yarbrough, will soon have his day in court.

But Reeves will appear in Judge Raleeh's JP Court, not as a judge but to defend himself against a Class C misdemeanor charge of filing an incomplete campaign finance report.

CASE NO. 01-TR-10-01329, STATE of TEXAS vs.DOUGLAS REEVES has not been scheduled for trial as of the date of this article. Court records appear to indicate that a fine of $320 dollars is proposed.

The hapless Mr. Reed, who boasts on his website that he has been "Tea Approved" by the North Texas Tea Party, is also under investigation by the Texas Secretary of State for illegally notarizing his own signature on a campaign finance report.

Not the first time: My Brother's Helper, Inc.

This is not the first time Mr. Reeves has run afoul of state law and regulations.

Research by the Collin County Observer has turned up a disturbing record of failure to comply with the law.

On his campaign website, Reeves writes, "In 1988 I founded My Brother's Helper, Inc. For the past 22 years, I have assisted handicapped adults in their quest to obtain meaningful employment and become self-supporting. This small business, 501(c) (3) non-profit organization also provides for young people to perform community service and learn life lessons. In January, 2009 we began a program mentoring fatherless young men."

There is a website for My Brother's Helper, and it is actively soliciting donations. It asks that donations be sent to "101 West Buckingham Road, Ste. 144 Richardson, Texas 75081".

However the company at that address is not "My Brother's Helper", but "Lincoln American Security Officer/Concealed Handgun Academy".

The website for Lincoln American advises, "Call Doug to schedule a class", and that is is "designed and hosted by Doug Reeves @ Homestead."

A search at the Texas Department of Public Safety lists Doug Reeves at 101 West Buckingham Rd. as a licensed to operate a school for private investigators.

A search of incorporation records at the Texas Secretary of State shows that "My Brother's Helper" was incorporated as a non-profit on August 28, 1989, but that on August 3, 2007 Reeves was sent a "Notice of Forfeited Rights for non-filing of Periodic Report"

The State of Texas then "involuntarily dissolved" My Brother's Helper on December 5, 2007. Yet in an article about a pro-life rally in 2008, Mr. Reeves continued to represent that My Brother's Helper was an incorporated non-profit.

Further, on a web page titled "Ethics and Texas, Happy Halloween from My Brother's Helper", Reeves writes that:

"Approximately seven years ago Carol McKinney, a Texas Rehabilitation Commission Counselor, called me with some astonishing news. Paul Begales, the TRC regional Programs Director had visited the Plano field office. He met with the Vocational Rehabilitation Commission counselors. He told these VRCs that they could no longer take referrals from me and to cease doing business with my organization, My Brother's Helper Inc.

"I had been referring handicapped clients to TRC for years. They in turn would refer many of them back to me for various services that I provide. Some of the services I provide are, helping clients with a resume, and teach them job getting and job keeping skills. The main service I provide is teaching a security course and helping handicapped people get a job as a security officer."

Nevertheless, Reeves continues to state in his campaign materials that My Brother's Helper, Inc. is a non-profit corporation helping rehabilitate young men.

Withdraws from race: Reeves responds

The Observer contacted Mr. Reeves and asked him to refute or comment on any of the issues raised in this article. I received 3 seperate email responses from Mr. Reeves.

The first one was a terse, "I withdrew from the race on Friday."

His second response asked me to double check my facts, charging that I, "have drawn a wrong conclusion in some regards".

On the issue of the campaign finance reports, Reeves stated that:

"You and many others do not take into account the circumstances that I faced in this campaign. I am not a criminal or evil man. I have made stupid mistakes on paper work. Much of this campaign I have been depressed related to circumstances. My father passed away last year, a few months later an uncle who was like an older brother passed. We were close in age, fished and hung around together, and he was the big brothers that I never had. In the middle of the campaign my cousin passed away. You are probably aware of the grief process which can last one week or in some cases over one year. The first stage is shock---you expect them to walk through the door. You pick up the phone to call them; it does not seem real. Then anger sets in. I was at this stage at the very beginning of the campaign. People who knew me inquired into what was wrong with me. I wasn't myself. I was able to put a smile on my face when in public, but as soon as I left the public the smile left my face. The third stage--grief did not set in until the last 1 1/2 months into the campaign. Also my job went the way of the economy. My income dropped and I took on a part time job. I was the candidate, the campaign manager, and the campaign secretary. Almost every night I was up until one or two o'clock, and arose for my part time job at 4:45 in the morning. This eventually took its toll on my body--the grief--the lack of sleep---I developed stomach problems, my blood pressure went up. At 59 I am not the man I used to be. Yes, I made paper work mistakes, and have been beaten up pretty badly for them. I look forward to the day when everything is resolved."

On the issue of My Brother's Helper, Inc. accepting donations, Reeves wrote:

"Incidentally, My Brother's Helper, Inc. was run out of the office on Buckingham. I now operate it out of my home, and have done so for a long period of time. I operate another business out of the Buckingham address. I have asked the building owner to change the name on the door, but they have not. Some tenants have moved out of the building and the name on the door was not changed for up to two years. My Brother's Helper, Inc. does not accepted donations. When people inquire, I refer them to their church. The website needs to be updated, and I will get to it. I have not been on tha site in a long time."

He also issued a veiled threat, asking me if I had checked the statute of limitations, as someone might want to file a complaint against one of my 2006 campaign reports.

In his third response, Reeves again issued a veiled threat, but offered no specific defense or argument other than to say, "Some of your assessments earlier are definitely wrong. Some will amount to slander. I am under no legal obligation to correct before you go to print."

A few hours later, someone revised the donations page at My Brother's Helper, removing the suggested $10 donation and adding the line, "We will resume our non-profit status soon."

The Texas Election Code permits a run-off candidate to withdraw from the race, if he informs the County Chair of that party within 10 days of the primary. If Reeves does in fact officially withdraw, then Mike Yarbrough will be the nominee.

Since Yarbrough is unopposed in November, he is in effect, re-elected.

Bill

On March 8, I received the documents from the Texas Secretary of State's Office that are referenced in this article:

My Brother's Helper - Incorporation
My Brother's Helper - Incorporation Certificate
My Brother's Helper - 1st warning letter of periodic reports not filed
My Brother's Helper - 2nd warning letter of periodic reports not filed
My Brother's Helper - Notice of Involuntary Dissolution
North Shepherd Christian Center - Incorporation
North Shepherd Christian Center - Forfeiture of Incorporation

This year citizens are being asked to vote, and vote, and vote, and then vote some more.

In January, Plano citizens cast their ballots for the vacant Place 3 City Council seat. Since no one won the three way race they will vote again in a runoff on March 27.

Tuesday was Primary Election day, and there will be runoffs in the Republican primary. The run-off election date will be April 13.

....and two weeks later most Collin County voters will once again be asked to do their civic duty. City Council and School Board Elections are slated for May 8.

On the first Tuesday in November, voters will once again troop to the polls for the 2010 General Election.

Primary elections here are typically very low turnout, and so the results are often skewed to the most highly motivated voters. Those are generally voters on the extremes of their party.

In recent years, both Keith Self and Matt Shaheen have benefited from run-off contests. In both 2006 and 2008 primary run-offs the conservative far right in the Republican Party turned out enough of their voters to defeat the more moderately conservative incumbents.

On Tuesday, many Republicans stood in line for an hour or more in order to cast their ballots. They likely won't see those kind of lines in the 2nd round of voting - that is, if they show up at all.

2010 ELECTION DATES

• January 30, 2010 Plano special election
  
  
• March 2, 2010 Democratic and Republican Parties Primary election
  
  
• March 27, 2010 Plano special election run-off
  
  
• April 13, 2010 Republican Party Primary run-off
  
  
• November 2, 2010 General elections

Bill

It's been a long night of counting votes. The elections office finally reported their final counts at 2 AM.

But amid all the drama of the election, there was some really wonderful news.

Congratulations to Collin County Elections Administrator Sharon Rowe on the birth of her 4th grandchild.

The young lady, who was named after her favorite Grandma, was born in Denver while Grandma was counting votes in McKinney.

I hear that mother and baby are doing well.

Bill

Election Summary Report
Democratic and Republican Primary
Summary For Jurisdiction Wide, All Counters, All Races

COMBINED ACCUMULATED TOTALS (all precincts reporting)

Local races only:

U.S. Congress 4th CD - REP
Statewide results (76% of precincts reporting). Hall wins, and makes it look easy. He will face Democrat VaLinda Hathcox in November.

Ralph Hall [I] 29,336 58%
Steve Clark 14,775 29%
John Cooper 2,708 5%
Jerry Ray Hall 2,146 4%
Lou Gigliotti 688 1%
Joshua Kowert 714 1%

State Rep, 66 - REP
Mabrie Jackson will face Van Taylor in a run off. This will be an expensive, knock down brawl.

Van Taylor 4581 33.48%
Wayne Richard 3485 25.47%
Mabrie Jackson 5616 41.05%

District Judge, 219 - REP
Another run off

Scott J. Becker 18014 48.43%
Angela Tucker 12434 33.43%
Wendy McMillon 6749 18.14%

District Judge, 296 - REP
Judge Roach wins re-election in this very hard fought over race.

Keith Gore 19621 45.75%
John R. Roach, Jr 23263 54.25%

Criminal District Attorney - REP
With a surprisingly large margin, Greg Willis gets a clean win - no run off. He will face Democrat Raphael de la Garza in November.

Jeff Bray 7786 19.76%
Greg Willis 25638 65.06%
James Angelino 5985 15.19%

County Judge - REP
Keith Self wins decisively and will face Democrat David Smith in November

Keith Self 26822 57.54%
John Muns 19790 42.46%

Judge, County Court at Law 2 - REP
Jerry Lewis cruises to another term

Sharon Ramage 17394 45.99%
Jerry Lewis 20430 54.01%

Judge, County Court at Law 3 - REP
Who will face Baxter in the run off? It may be a few days before we know.

Stewart Matthews 10571 31.66%
Lance S. Baxter 12298 36.83%
Barnett Walker 10518 31.50%

Judge, County Court at Law 4 - REP
Matt Goeller will face off with David Rippel in a run off. they have very different personalities and styles. It will be an interesting contest.

Linda Wynn Drain 8263 23.89%
Matthew Goeller 9713 28.09%
Chrysti Bryant 7115 20.57%
David Rippel 9493 27.45%

Judge, County Court at Law 6 - REP
Terri Green will meet Jay Bender in the run off

Shawn Ismail 2396 6.70%
Jay Bender 11224 31.40%
Don High 10554 29.52%
Terri Green 11573 32.37%

District Clerk - Rep
Late comer to the race, Terrye Evans, is the spoiler - forcing a run off between Crigger and Hays

Patricia Crigger 15984 43.35%
Terrye Evans 8587 23.29%
Alma Hays 12303 33.36%

County Commissioner, 2 - Rep
Williams handily beats the 30 year incumbent, but not with a majority - This will be one heck of a run off. (83% of the precincts in district reporting)

Karl Voigtsberger 1827 17.45%
Cheryl Williams 4796 45.80%
Jerry Hoagland 3849 36.76%

County Commissioner, 4 - Rep
Webb unseats incumbent Kathy Ward

Kathy Ward 5181 49.29%
Duncan Webb 5330 50.71%

Justice of the Peace, 4 - REP
This one is a big surprise. Reeves is totally unqualified, but looks to face Yarbrough in a run off. In the next few days, there will be a lot of embarrassed Republicans who didn't look at who they were voting for.

Doug Reeves 2738 28.00%
WM "Mike" Yarbrough 4800 49.08%
Kelley Don Adley 2242 22.92%

Democratic Party County Chair - DEM

Shawn Stevens 3879 79.02%
Yasin R. Ali 1030 20.98%

Republican Party County Chair - REP
Fred Moses keeps his chairmanship

Fred Moses 23313 63.57%
Mandy Tschoepe 13362 36.43%

Complete election results from the Collin County Elections Department are here.

Bill

Doug Reeves, who came in a surprising 2nd place in the Justice of the Peace, Precinct 4 race has been accused of violating "the duties and responsibilities of [his] office as a Notary Public.

Reeves is accused of notarizing his own signature on a campaign ethics filing. State law specifically prohibits Notary Publics from notarizing their own signature.

In a letter to Mr. Reeves from the Texas Secretary of State's office, Reeves was ordered to respond to the accusations within 20 days. He was also asked to turn over to the State portions of his notary log book.

If the allegation is upheld, Reeves could have is Notary commission suspended or revoked. He may also face a fine and criminal prosecution.

Last month, the Observer pointed out that Reeves campaign ethics reports were the worst we've ever seen. It is our understanding that more than one complaint has been filed with the commission. The errors, omissions and creative accounting on all 3 of his reports will, if sustained, likely subject Mr. Reeves to heavy fines by the Texas Ethics Commission.

Reeves will face incumbent Mike Yarbrough in a run off for the Precinct 4 Justice of the Peace Republican nomination.

Bill

Notes:

Letter to Doug Reeves from the Office of the Texas Secretary of State dated February 25, 2010

Reeves form C/OH Campaign Finance Report dated February 3, 2010 signed and notarized by him on Feb. 2.

Reeves form C/OH Campaign Finance Report dated January 15, 2010

Reeves form C/OH Campaign Finance Report dated February 22, 2010

Collin County election results delayed amid heavy voter turnout

Wednesday, March 3, 2010
By ED HOUSEWRIGHT / The Dallas Morning News

Election results were delayed Tuesday night in Collin County, where officials said voting was extremely heavy.

At some polling places, people waited in line more than an hour, said Patty Seals, assistant county elections administrator. And some locations still had people waiting in line to vote at 7 p.m., when the polls are supposed to close. Those people were allowed to vote.

"A lot of locations probably could have used more [voting] machines," Seals said.

The county's highest-profile race was the Republican primary for county judge, and first-term incumbent Keith Self led John Muns in early voting.

The winner will face Democrat David Smith in the fall. He had no opposition in his party's primary.

During the campaign, Self said he had kept his promise to lower the county tax rate and slow the growth of government spending.

Muns, meanwhile, said the budget was too austere. He said the county needed to hire more sheriff's deputies and add courts to keep crime from increasing.

The county judge heads the five-member Commissioners Court, which approves the county budget.

In other Republican Commissioners Court races, Commissioner Kathy Ward was trailing Plano school trustee Duncan Webb, and Commissioner Jerry Hoagland was behind business consultant Cheryl Williams, with retired engineer Karl Voigtsberger in third place.

In the Republican district attorney's race, former county court-at-law judge Greg Willis was leading lawyer James Angelino and Jeff Bray, senior legal adviser to the Plano Police Department. Incumbent John Roach did not seek re-election.

In the county judge race, both Self and Muns had high-profile, passionate supporters.

Self was endorsed by state Reps. Jodie Laubenberg and Ken Paxton. Muns had the backing of former Plano mayor Pat Evans and former county Commissioner Phyllis Cole.

Self, a retired Army officer, toppled longtime county judge Ron Harris in the 2006 Republican primary.

Muns, a real estate developer, has been on the Plano school board for 17 years and has deep ties to the community. His father, James Muns, was Plano mayor from 1992 to 1996. His mother, Betty Muns, is on the Arts of Collin County Commission.

John Muns said he would work closely with local mayors if elected. Some were angered by Self's opposition to a 2007 county bond program that included money for city projects, Muns said. Voters overwhelmingly approved the $328.9 million package.

Muns also said he would increase the county's economic development efforts.

Self, meanwhile, said the best way to attract businesses was to keep county taxes low. He said he had a more proven conservative record than Muns.

Last month, some fellow Republicans criticized Self for using a quotation from a Nazi official to rebut campaign statements made by Muns.

Self put a post on his Web site and Facebook page titled "Let's Try Some Truth" that leads off by quoting Joseph Goebbels, Nazi Germany's notorious propaganda minister: "If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it."

Muns and some other Republicans said they were offended that Self would invoke a Nazi official's comments in a campaign. Others, however, defended Self, who said he didn't intend to link Muns to Nazism.

A record 39 candidates in 14 contested races appeared on the Republican primary ballot.

read this article at The Dallas Morning News....

Election Summary Report
Democratic and Republican Primary
Summary For Jurisdiction Wide, All Counters, All Races

COMBINED ACCUMULATED TOTALS (73% of precincts reporting)

Local races only:

U.S. Congress 4th CD - REP
Statewide results (76% of precincts reporting). Hall wins, and makes it look easy. He will face Democrat VaLinda Hathcox in November.
Ralph Hall [I] 29,336 58%
Steve Clark 14,775 29%
John Cooper 2,708 5%
Jerry Ray Hall 2,146 4%
Lou Gigliotti 688 1%
Joshua Kowert 714 1%

State Rep, 66 - REP
Mabrie Jackson will face Taylor in the run off
Van Taylor 3387 32.93%
Wayne Richard 2631 25.58%
Mabrie Jackson 4269 41.50%

District Judge, 219 - REP
Looks like another run off
Scott J. Becker 14775 48.67%
Angela Tucker 10254 33.78%
Wendy McMillon? 5329 17.55%

District Judge, 296 - REP
Judge Roach wins re-election in this very hard fought over race.
Keith Gore 16080 46.06%
John R. Roach, Jr 18832 53.94%

Criminal District Attorney - REP
With a surprisingly large margin, Greg Willis gets a clean win - no run off. He will face Democrat Raphael de la Garza in November.
Jeff Bray 6123 19.08%
Greg Willis 21127 65.83%
James Angelino 4843 15.09%

County Judge - REP
Keith Self wins decisively and will face Democrat David Smith in November
Keith Self 21728 57.67%
John Muns 15947 42.33%

Judge, County Court at Law 2 - REP
Jerry Lewis cruises to another term
Sharon Ramage 14159 45.82%
Jerry Lewis 16741 54.18%

Judge, County Court at Law 3 - REP
Who will face Baxter in the run off? It may be a few days before we know. UPDATE: With 90% of precincts reporting only 50 votes seperate Matthews and Walker
Stewart Matthews 8564 31.26%
Lance S. Baxter 10151 37.06%
Barnett Walker 8678 31.68%

Judge, County Court at Law 4 - REP
Matt Goeller will face off with David Rippel in a run off
Linda Wynn Drain 6786 23.96%
Matthew Goeller 8011 28.29%
Chrysti Bryant 5795 20.46%
David Rippel 7729 27.29%

Judge, County Court at Law 6 - REP
Another toss up for the run off. Terri Green and either Bender or High. The result might have to wait for all absentee and provisional ballots to be counted. Update: with 90% counted Jay Bender moves into the solid #2 spot with a 450 vote advantage over Don High.
Shawn Ismail 1944 6.65%
Jay Bender 9053 30.95%
Don High 8788 30.04%
Terri Green 9470 32.37%

District Clerk - Rep
Late comer to the race, Terrye Evans, is spoiler - forcing a run off between Crigger and Hays
Patricia Crigger 13331 44.00%
Terrye Evans 6849 22.60%
Alma Hays 10121 33.40%

County Commissioner, 2 - Rep
Williams handily beats the 30 year incumbent, but not with a majority - This will be one heck of a run off. (83% of the precincts in district reporting)
Karl Voigtsberger 1551 17.24%
Cheryl Williams 4162 46.27%
Jerry Hoagland 3283 36.49%

County Commissioner, 4 - Rep
Way too close to call, this is a real cliff hanger. (65% of the precincts in district reporting) Update: With 97% reporting Webb is holding his lead, with a 76 vote advantage.
Kathy Ward 3764 49.49%
Duncan Webb 3841 50.51%

Justice of the Peace, 4 - REP
This one is a big surprise. Reeves is totally unqualified, but looks to face Yarbrough in a run off, unless Yarbrough can get a clean majority (68% of his precincts are reporting)
Doug Reeves 2320 27.41%
WM "Mike" Yarbrough 4155 49.09%
Kelley Don Adley 1989 23.50%

Democratic Party County Chair - DEM
Shawn Stevens 2745 79.50%
Yasin R. Ali 708 20.50%

Republican Party County Chair - REP
Fred Moses keeps his chairmanship
Fred Moses 19011 63.58%
Mandy Tschoepe 10890 36.42%

Bill

The Associated Press has called the Republican Governor's race for Rick Perry, and the Democratic race for Bill White.

Election Summary Report
Democratic and Republican Primary
Summary For Jurisdiction Wide, All Counters, All Races

COMBINED ACCUMULATED TOTALS (17% of precincts reporting)

Local races only:

U.S. Congress 4th CD - REP
This is only the Collin County vote
Lou Gigliotti 232 3.29%
Steve Clark 2653 37.58%
John Cooper 437 6.19%
Joshua Kowert 109 1.54%
Jerry Ray "Tea" Hall 466 6.60%
Ralph M. Hall 3162 44.79%

State Rep, 66 - REP
Looks like Jackson will have to face Taylor in the run off
Van Taylor 2628 31.96%
Wayne Richard 2131 25.92%
Mabrie Jackson 3463 42.12%

District Judge, 219 - REP
Too close to call. Will Scott Becker make a clean victory?
Scott J. Becker 10015 49.84%
Angela Tucker 6642 33.05%
Wendy McMillon? 3437 17.10%

District Judge, 296 - REP
Keith Gore 10155 44.02%
John R. Roach, Jr 12916 55.98%

Criminal District Attorney - REP
Looks like Greg Willis will get a clean win - no run off
Jeff Bray 3563 16.82%
Greg Willis 14355 67.79%
James Angelino 3259 15.39%

County Judge - REP
Keith Self 13641 54.58%
John Muns 11353 45.42%

Judge, County Court at Law 2 - REP
Sharon Ramage 9320 45.22%
Jerry Lewis 11292 54.78%

Judge, County Court at Law 3 - REP
All three running about even to each other - the race is now to see who makes the run off
Stewart Matthews 5479 30.04%
Lance S. Baxter 6773 37.14%
Barnett Walker 5986 32.82%

Judge, County Court at Law 4 - REP
Another toss up for the run off
Linda Wynn Drain 4576 24.13%
Matthew Goeller 5431 28.64%
Chrysti Bryant 3754 19.80%
David Rippel 5201 27.43%

Judge, County Court at Law 6 - REP
Another toss up for the run off
Shawn Ismail 1283 6.56%
Jay Bender 5850 29.90%
Don High 6140 31.38%
Terri Green 6293 32.16%

District Clerk - Rep
Late comer to the race, Terrye Evans is spoiler, forcing a run off between Crigger and Hays
Patricia Crigger 9214 45.60%
Terrye Evans 4422 21.88%
Alma Hays 6572 32.52%

County Commissioner, 2 - Rep
Williams is beating the 30 year incumbent, but a run off will be needed
Karl Voigtsberger 778 15.07%
Cheryl Williams 2464 47.73%
Jerry Hoagland 1920 37.19%

County Commissioner, 4 - Rep
Still too close to call, but Webb appears poised to replace Kathy Ward
Kathy Ward 2992 48.43%
Duncan Webb 3186 51.57%

Justice of the Peace, 4 - REP
This one is a big surprise. Reeves is totally unqualified, but looks to face Yarbrough in a run off
Doug Reeves 1437 27.83%
WM "Mike" Yarbrough 2511 48.63%
Kelley Don Adley 1215 23.53%

Democratic Party County Chair - DEM
Shawn Stevens 1981 79.56%
Yasin R. Ali 509 20.44%

Republican Party County Chair - REP
Fred Moses keeps his chairmanship
Fred Moses 12493 62.39%
Mandy Tschoepe 7530 37.61%

Bill

Election Summary Report
Democratic and Republican Primary
Summary For Jurisdiction Wide, , All Races

EARLY VOTING ACCUMULATED TOTALS

U.S. Congress 4th CD - REP
Lou Gigliotti 223 3.31%
Steve Clark 2564 38.01%
John Cooper 422 6.26%
Joshua Kowert 108 1.60%
Jerry Ray "Tea" Hall 451 6.69%
Ralph M. Hall 2978 44.14%

Governor - DEM
Felix Alvarado 98 3.72%
Star Locke 40 1.52%
Alma Ludivina Aguado 58 2.20%
Bill White 2146 81.38%
Farouk Shami 218 8.27%
Clement E. Glenn 37 1.40%
Bill Dear 40 1.52%

Governor - REP
Kay Bailey Hutchison 8891 31.86%
Rick Perry 13980 50.09%
Debra Medina 5037 18.05%

Lt. Governor - DEM
Marc Katz 359 15.49%
Linda Thompson 1100 47.48%
Ronnie Earle 858 37.03%

Commissioner of General Land Office - DEM
Hector Uribe 928 44.15%
Bill Burton 1174 55.85%

Commissioner of Agriculture - DEM
Richard Friedman 1319 55.58%
Hank Gilbert 1054 44.42%

Railroad Commissioner - REP
Victor G. Carrillo 9532 46.77%
David Porter 10848 53.23%

Justice, Supreme Court, 3 - REP
Debra Lehmann 4267 21.78%
Rick Green 3666 18.71%
Jim Moseley 4337 22.14%
Jeff Brown 2005 10.23%
Rebecca Simmons 3842 19.61%
Rick Strange 1473 7.52%

Justice, Supreme Court, 9 - REP
Eva Guzman 13256 69.67%
Rose Vela 5771 30.33%

Member, State Board of Education, 9 - REP
Don McLeroy? 6770 48.90%
Thomas Ratliff 7074 51.10%

Member, State Board of Education, 12 - Rep REP
Geraldine Miller 2176 45.33%
George M. Clayton 2624 54.67%

State Rep, 66 - REP
Van Taylor 2323 31.94%
Wayne Richard 1805 24.81%
Mabrie Jackson 3146 43.25%

District Judge, 219 - REP
Scott J. Becker 9565 49.86%
Angela Tucker 6379 33.26%
Wendy McMillon? 3238 16.88%

District Judge, 296 - REP
Keith Gore 9672 43.96%
John R. Roach, Jr 12332 56.04%

Criminal District Attorney - REP
Jeff Bray 3357 16.60%
Greg Willis 13731 67.90%
James Angelino 3133 15.49%

County Judge - REP
Keith Self 12981 54.50%
John Muns 10837 45.50%

Judge, County Court at Law 2 - REP
Sharon Ramage 8908 45.20%
Jerry Lewis 10798 54.80%

Judge, County Court at Law 3 - REP
Stewart Matthews 5212 29.91%
Lance S. Baxter 6496 37.28%
Barnett Walker 5717 32.81%

Judge, County Court at Law 4 - REP
Linda Wynn Drain 4394 24.27%
Matthew Goeller 5179 28.60%
Chrysti Bryant 3582 19.78%
David Rippel 4952 27.35%

Judge, County Court at Law 6 - REP
Shawn Ismail 1225 6.55%
Jay Bender 5556 29.71%
Don High 5906 31.58%
Terri Green 6013 32.16%

District Clerk - Rep
Patricia Crigger 8839 45.74%
Terrye Evans 4194 21.70%
Alma Hays 6292 32.56%

County Commissioner, 2 - Rep
Karl Voigtsberger 771 15.10%
Cheryl Williams 2442 47.83%
Jerry Hoagland 1893 37.07%

County Commissioner, 4 - Rep
Kathy Ward 2687 47.78%
Duncan Webb 2937 52.22%

Justice of the Peace, 4 - REP
Doug Reeves 1378 27.86%
WM "Mike" Yarbrough 2399 48.49%
Kelley Don Adley 1170 23.65%

Democratic Party County Chair - DEM
Shawn Stevens 1723 79.44%
Yasin R. Ali 446 20.56%

Republican Party County Chair - REP
Fred Moses 11872 62.10%
Mandy Tschoepe 7247 37.90%

Bill

Early voting totals:
(incomplete with another 620 paper ballots to be counted)

U.S. Congress 4th CD - REP
Lou Gigliotti 219 3.31%
Steve Clark 2517 38.05%
John Cooper 416 6.29%
Joshua Kowert 104 1.57%
Jerry Ray "Tea" Hall 440 6.65%
Ralph M. Hall 2919 44.13%

Governor - DEM
Felix Alvarado 98 3.78%
Star Locke 38 1.46%
Alma Ludivina Aguado 57 2.20%
Bill White 2110 81.34%
Farouk Shami 217 8.37%
Clement E. Glenn 35 1.35%
Bill Dear 39 1.50%

Governor - REP
Kay Bailey Hutchison 8690 31.82%
Rick Perry 13662 50.03%
Debra Medina 4957 18.15%

Lt. Governor - DEM
Marc Katz 353 15.51%
Linda Thompson 1085 47.67%
Ronnie Earle 838 36.82%

Commissioner of the General Land Office - DEM
Hector Uribe 916 44.36%
Bill Burton 1149 55.64%

Commissioner of Agriculture - DEM
Richard Friedman 1298 55.64%
Hank Gilbert 1035 44.36%

Railroad Commissioner - REP
Victor G. Carrillo 9319 46.73%
David Porter 10625 53.27%

Justice, Supreme Court, 3 - REP
Debra Lehmann 4207 21.93%
Rick Green 3581 18.67%
Jim Moseley 4265 22.23%
Jeff Brown 1964 10.24%
Rebecca Simmons 3718 19.38%
Rick Strange 1448 7.55%

Justice, Supreme Court, 9 - REP
Eva Guzman 12973 69.60%
Rose Vela 5667 30.40%

Member, State Board of Education, 9 - REP
Don McLeroy 6640 48.93%
Thomas Ratliff 6931 51.07%

Member, State Board of Education, 12 - Rep REP
Geraldine Miller 2117 45.25%
George M. Clayton 2561 54.75%

State Rep, 66 - REP
Van Taylor 2259 31.74%
Wayne Richard 1772 24.89%
Mabrie Jackson 3087 43.37%

District Judge, 219 - REP
Scott J. Becker 9350 49.75%
Angela Tucker 6274 33.38%
Wendy McMillon? 3169 16.86%

District Judge, 296 - REP
Keith Gore 9494 44.02%
John R. Roach, Jr 12072 55.98%

Criminal District Attorney - REP
Jeff Bray 3302 16.69%
Greg Willis 13496 68.23%
James Angelino 2982 15.08%

County Judge - REP
Keith Self 12749 54.65%
John Muns 10578 45.35%

Judge, County Court at Law 2 - REP
Sharon Ramage 8712 45.16%
Jerry Lewis 10580 54.84%

Judge, County Court at Law 3 - REP
Stewart Matthews 5112 29.96%
Lance S. Baxter 6376 37.37%
Barnett Walker 5574 32.67%

Judge, County Court at Law 4 - REP
Linda Wynn Drain 4322 24.35%
Matthew Goeller 5087 28.66%
Chrysti Bryant 3525 19.86%
David Rippel 4817 27.14%

Judge, County Court at Law 6 - REP
Shawn Ismail 1201 6.55%
Jay Bender 5445 29.71%
Don High 5772 31.50%
Terri Green 5907 32.23%

District Clerk - Rep
Patricia Crigger 8673 45.80%
Terrye Evans 4135 21.83%
Alma Hays 6130 32.37%

County Commissioner, 2 - Rep
Karl Voigtsberger 758 15.20%
Cheryl Williams 2370 47.52%
Jerry Hoagland 1859 37.28%

County Commissioner, 4 - Rep
Kathy Ward 2619 47.71%
Duncan Webb 2870 52.29%

Justice of the Peace, 4 - REP
Doug Reeves 1345 27.73%
WM "Mike" Yarbrough 2357 48.60%
Kelley Don Adley 1148 23.67%

Democratic Party County Chair - DEM
Shawn Stevens 1692 79.36%
Yasin R. Ali 440 20.64%

Republican Party County Chair - REP
Fred Moses 11648 62.16%
Mandy Tschoepe 7090 37.84%

Bill

I drove to several polling locations this afternoon. All were reporting a heavier than expected turnout. I captured a couple of shots of candidates doing some last minute electioneering outside the polls.

The scene at Lucas City Hall was extraordinary, cars were parked along FM 1378 for at least 2 blocks, and a police unit was there to try and control the flow of traffic. (next door however, donkeys grazed, seemingly oblivious to the crowds a few hundred feet away).

Meanwhile, McMillan? Jr. HS in Wylie was reporting that the line to vote was over 25 minutes long. Other locations were also reporting long lines to vote.

According to the Elections Office more than 29,000 people had voted by 6PM, and that number, I was told was probably understated, since all polling sites had not reported in.

The Collin County Observer will be reporting election results as they come in this evening.

Bill

UPDATE:

At 7:40 PM there was still a long line to vote for the GOP primary at McMillan? JHS in Wylie. I think it will be after 8PM before the last voter casts her ballot.

Bill

If you've been stuck on an ice flow in the Antarctic for the last 4 months, you might not know that today is primary election day - but it is.

The polls are open from 7 AM to 7 PM. Precinct conventions begin at the polling place just after the 7PM closing.

More than 1/2 the anticipated voters have already done so, most in Early voting, a few by mail. In recent years a little more than 1/2 the voters vote early. Some analysts have told me that in west Plano, more than 70% of the expected voters voted early.

On election day, you must vote in your assigned neighborhood polling place if you want your vote to count. You must bring your voter registration card or a valid ID.

The Collin County Elections Department has great links and maps to voting locations.

If you are unsure where to vote, call the Elections office at 972-547-1990 or 800-687-8546 (Toll Free). they can help you.

The Elections Office also have sample ballots. Since the GOP ballot is very long, I would recommend printing out and marking up a sample ballot before entering the voting booth.

Oh yea and Happy Texas Independence Day!

Bill

The Collin County Observer is committed to providing voters the information they need to make informed choices in the 2010 Primary Election. We believe an informed voter will make better choices -- and to be informed, the voter should know who is contributing money to their candidates.

While Federal and State campaign finance reports are online, a voter had to drive to the county's election office to see the local reports. In order to make these local reports available online, the Observer made Open Records requests to the county elections office.

The Collin County Observer has now posted online the "8 Day" or "Telegraph" campaign finance report required of all local candidates who face an opposed primary race.

This report details contributions and expenditures from February 1, 2010 to February 22, 2010, and is the last of 3 reports filed before the primary.

The reports, along with the "January Semi-Annual" report (details from July 1, 2009 - December 31, 2009), and the "30 Day Report" (January 1, 2010 to January 27) are linked here.

The Collin County Observer is only publishing the reports from "local, county filers".

There are four kind of campaign finance filers. Only "County" filers form C/OH are posted by the Observer:

1. Federal - Officeholders and candidates for Congress and the Presidency file with the Federal Elections Commission. The reports are publicly available through an on-line database here.

2. State - Texas state filers include candidates for Governor, Texas State offices, Legislator, State Senate, all Appeals Courts, District Judge, and County Party Chair. These office holders and candidates file with the Texas Ethics Commission. The reports are publicly available through an on-line database here.

3. County - County officials and candidates file with the Collin County Elections Department. County filers include: County Judge, County Commissioner, District Clerk, District Attorney, County Court at Law justices, Justices of the Peace and constables.

   The Collin County Elections Department has told the Observer that it is their goal to post all campaign finance reports on-line, but they do not have a real time frame (budget) approved to do so. It is these local county reports that the Collin County Observer has posted.

4. Local - Office holders and candidates for local offices file with their respective local authority. School Board candidates file with their ISD, City Council candidates file with their city, etc. Most local filings, except in large cities, are not on-line and can only be obtained by request from the filing authority.

Personal Financial Statements for State filers are kept at the Texas Ethics Commission, but are not on-line. They can only be accessed by requesting them with an Open Records request. A copy fee is assessed for each request.

County PFS reports are kept by the Collin County Clerk, and are available by request in a personal appearance. The Observer will be requesting all local form PFS and will make them available on-line.

While campaign finance reports are kept for several years, Personal Financial Statements are destroyed annually.

The Observer tips its hat to and thanks Sharon Rowe, the Collin County Elections Administrator, and Elections Department staffer Sandy Braswell for their cooperation and assistance in helping gather all the reports as electronic files.

Bill

Keith Self attacks the tactics of ... Keith Self

Tuesday, Feb 23, 2010
Michael Landauer/Editor
The Dallas Morning News Opinion blog

Embattled Collin County Judge Keith Self issued an e-mail to supporters in response to allegations from the John Muns campaign. Here's what he said:

"Are these gutter attacks the "Collin County values" that my opponent says that he will bring to the county? No thank you. These are the same attacks that the same consulting firm made against Commissioner Joe Jaynes two years ago. I want to hear from John Muns - are you hiding behind an out-of-control consulting company or are these gutter attacks your values? I want to know."

They don't call this the political funny season for nothing. Keith Self endorsed the campaign against Jaynes in 2008. He never spoke out against the tactics in that campaign. He is now throwing an old friend, Corbett Howard, under the bus to score political points.

And here's the best part. "Are these gutter attacks your values?" According to the consulting firm in question, they are Keith Self's values. As a campaign adviser, he directed and suggested the very attacks he is now attacking. This from Brian Mayes at Allyn Media:

We talked to Mr. Self on a regular basis during the 2008 campaign, and of all Corbett's supporters and advisors, his strategic direction was by far the most aggressive.

I asked Mr. Self if he'd like to respond, and here's what he said:

"No, I have no intention of engaging in a public debate through the media that endorsed my opponent. It is no secret that I supported my friend Corb Howard."

We did recommend John Muns. I stand by these words more than ever:

It's not what first-term Self is for that causes concern about his time in office. Rather, it's what he's been against and how he pursues his agenda. Self doesn't shy away from butting heads with people he disagrees with and, at times, seems to go out of his way for a collision. ... With GOP voters choosing between two fiscally conservative Republicans, they should go with Muns, a leader with experience building coalitions.

Read this article at The Dallas Morning News Opinion blog....

Texas House race starting to get ugly in Plano

Tuesday, February 23, 2010
By THEODORE KIM / The Dallas Morning News

Politically genteel Plano is witnessing a testier brand of politics this year.

The GOP campaign to represent West Plano in the Texas House of Representatives is emerging as one of the city's most cantankerous races in years. Candidates are trading barbs over everything from resume discrepancies to charges of tax evasion.

The first volley came Friday, when Mabrie Jackson sent out a mailer and put up a Web site entitled "Plano Resume Fraud." The mailer and site accused opponents Wayne Richard and Van Taylor of misrepresenting their records and other transgressions.

"Don't be tricked by resume fraud in the Plano State Representative Race," Jackson's Web site reads. The mailer blames Richard and Taylor for having "falsified their backgrounds to win votes" for the March 2 primary.

Richard and Taylor have fired back, accusing Jackson of spreading falsehoods and poisoning the political atmosphere.

Taylor charged Jackson, a former City Council member, of publishing "one of the most negative mail pieces in Collin County history." Richard characterized Jackson's allegations as "malicious and hateful."

Unusual

Such heated rhetoric is unusual in Plano, which has long revolved around a stable of powerful incumbents and has rarely played host to knockdown campaigns.

But the stakes are high. The prize is the Texas House seat representing District 66, which has not been open since 1991. Incumbent Republican Brian McCall? is not seeking re-election.

The turbulent campaign also reflects a deepening battle to court conservative primary voters as all three candidates tilt to the right.

On her Web site and mailings, Jackson accuses Richard of "cheating on his business taxes," hosting a "voyeurism video" Web site and receiving campaign help from "extremists."

She also charged Taylor with being a "political carpetbagger" who is "searching for a political office to run for" (Taylor ran unsuccessfully for Congress in the Waco area in 2006) and of bankrolling his entire campaign.

Jackson declined to comment about the Web site or mailing, which feature her photo and campaign logo. Her spokesman Judd Pritchard called the materials a "comparison between candidates."

"All this stuff is legitimate candidate resume material," he said.

Richard said the accusations are "inaccurate, untruthful, hateful and inappropriate."

Regarding the charge that he has cheated on his business taxes, Richard, who owns a small Web company, said the accusation is false and proof of what he called Jackson's "lack of expertise in business and how she would address legislative issues as a representative."

Richard also responded to questions about his political ties. One of his top campaign aides, Peter Morrison of Lumberton, Texas, keeps a Facebook page on which Morrison has blamed the "Third World" for the Fort Hood shootings and criticized Texas schools for advocating diversity.

"I'm happy to have their support," Richard said of his aides.

More response

Taylor, meantime, said Jackson's "attacks are negative and false." He did not dispute any of her claims when asked specifically about each of them. But he said he had been up front about his record.

"She is attempting to mislead voters that I'm trying to hide something," Taylor said.

Fundraising, like the rhetoric, has picked up in recent weeks.

Taylor, who works in real estate, has loaned his campaign $420,000, including nearly $200,000 since late January. He raised $41,000 from other sources during that period.

He gave more than $1 million in contributions and loans to his 2006 bid for Congress, federal records show.

Jackson has raised $64,000 in recent weeks, according to records. That includes more than $20,000 in cash from political action committees representing interests ranging from natural gas and liquor to finance.

She has more than $110,000 on hand.

Richard reported $47,000 in contributions, though that figure includes more than $37,000 in noncash campaign services.

He has spent $12,000 since late January and reported having no money left in his campaign account.

No Democrats are running for the seat.

read article at The Dallas Morning News....

Some early voters report problems in Collin County

by STEVE STOLER / WFAA-TV

Posted on February 23, 2010 at 9:11 PM
Updated today at 10:31 PM

Several Collin County voters are complaining about their early voting experiences. They say election workers just couldn't believe they wanted to vote Republican.

All of them are minorities, and they believe race is the reason they were questioned.

Three of the voters who had problems at a McKinney polling place have something in common: All are women; all are black; and all say they were questioned when they wanted to vote Republican.

Connie Evans explained what happened when she went to her polling place. “Before she gave me the card, she said, 'Now you're voting what?' 'I'm voting Republican.' And then after she gave me the card, she asked me again what I was voting, and I said, 'I'm voting Republican.'"

Tiffany Loera and Brittany Evans say they were asked the same question several times.

“It’s very offensive, because it's almost like we don't know what we're talking about," Loera said. "Why ask more than once?"

Four African-American candidates are running on the Republican ballot, the most ever in Collin County. Historically, African-Americans vote Democratic in the county.

The women believe that's why they were questioned.

“Most black people were supposed to vote Democrat, but we can change our mind just like anybody else," Evans said.

In response, Collin County Elections Administrator Sharon Rowe sent a message to all county poll workers, telling them to ask every single voter if they are voting in the Democratic or Republican primary, or allow the voter to declare their party affiliation. She warned them to never assume a party affiliation for any voter.

Connie Evans says reaction she received has upset her. “If I’m coming in and I say I'm voting Republican, that's what I'm voting; I don't need to be asked three times," she said.

The problem isn't’ limited to African-American voters at just one polling place.

Long-time Republican voter Fred Nasseri's had difficulty inside the voting booth.

“As soon as I put the card in, it says 'Democratic.' I was really upset, and I let them know this is a concern," Nasseri said.

The elections administrator wants to talk with all the voters who had problems at the polls, so she can address each issue to make sure it won't happen again.

read article and watch vidoe report at WFAA.com....

The Observer's notes from the campaign trail --

Visual and air pollution

Even to a political junkie like me, the mess of political signs on virtually every street corner has become tiresome. While most empty lots are not scenic Meccas, the ranks of yard signs, 4 X 4's and 4 X 8's constitute little more than visual pollution.

Now I really do sympathize with any judicial candidate running in this year's GOP primary. Good grief, how does a candidate get name recognition?

There are upwards 30 candidates vying for what appears to be a myriad of courts few have ever heard of, much less understand. Stuck down at the bottom of an endless ballot, these talented attorneys need to find any way they can to draw a voter's attention to their name.

Case in point, District Court Judge candidate Scott Becker sought to find a novel way to gain name recognition by hiring a mobile billboard to carry his ad on a route across Plano, McKinney and Frisco.

I hope this isn't the start of a trend. To this writer, there is something a little offensive in wasting energy and spewing smoke driving a truck around in great big circles in order to get votes.

Novel and non-polluting.

One way the candidates try to gain the voters' attention is by campaigning at the polling places. Depending on the location, voters may have to run a gauntlet of signs, candidates and their supporters.

One supporter of District Judge candidate Keith Gore is getting his candidate's name in front of the voters in a more novel way. Local lawyer Tony Vitz has been spotted riding his unicycle around at a McKinney polling place while exhorting citizens to "Vote for Gore".

On a related note, Court at Law #3 candidate Lance Baxter noted on his questionnaire that he was a juggler. If they teamed up, Vitz and Baxter could probably draw some real crowds to the polls.

Where is the shame?

The Observer was dismayed to see that Court at Law #4 Candidate Linda Wynn Drain sent out a mailer with an endorsement by former DA Tom O'Connell. A campaign press release carries a similar endorsement from him.

O'Connell was the former DA who engaged in a sexual affair with then District Judge Verla Sue Holland. Their affair only came to the public's attention last year after both were forced to testify under oath in an ongoing attempt by attorneys for Charles Dean Hood. Hood is on death row, convicted in a trial where Holland and O'Connell hid their extra-marital relationship from the defense.

Their tryst may now prompt a review of the Hood case by the United States Supreme Court.

Extracting confessions from these two secret lovers has already cost the citizens of Collin County tens of thousands of dollars. Both O'Connell and Holland violated their oath as officers of the law. Both destroyed their marriages. Both thought their dirty little secret more important than allowing a capital defendant a fair trial.

Instead of being contrite or ashamed, O'Connell is endorsing a new generation of judges. Where is the outrage? Where is the shame?

Grand Theft Auto

Most elections are marred by reports of folks stealing campaign signs. Sadly this is a common occurrence in Collin County.

But this year tops all. It's not only yard signs that are being stolen, but the candidates' cars and trucks.

A few weeks ago, a local blog reported that Democratic Party District Attorney candidate Raphael de la Garza had a truck sporting his campaign signs stolen from a Garland lot. The large panel truck had de la Garza's pitch for District Attorney prominently displayed.

And then last week, Court at Law #6 Candidate Don High had his wife's car stolen from their Plano driveway. The car was, according to High, emblazoned with his campaign message and loaded with yard signs.

Grand theft auto, another campaign trend I hope never takes hold.

Bill

As part of our effort to reduce pollution, The Collin County Observer has posted for each judicial candidate:

• Videos of their 'stump speech'
• Campaign finance reports
• Questionnaires on judicial philosophy and temperament

Typing any candidates name or any court into the Observer's "SEARCH" box will yield, I hope, enough information for an interested voter to make an informed decision.

For example entering "Scott Becker" into the search box gets you his questionnaire, a video speech, a video interview, his campaign finance reports, a listing of major donors, and a bio.

Early voting for the March 2 Primary is underway with a week to go. Early voting ends on Friday.

After the first five days (through Saturday) 9,150 have voted in the Republican, and 926 in the Democratic Party Primary.

The heaviest turnout has been at the Collin County Elections Office in McKinney, at the Allen Municipal Courts Building and at Plano's Carpenter Park Recreation Center.

The total vote turnout by polling place from Feb. 16th - Feb. 20th is here.

Turnout is at historic highs for a Republican gubernatorial primary - over 3 times the number of voters in 2006. In 2006, after 5 days of early voting, about 2,800 Republicans and 300 Democrats had voted. In fact, the number of Republican voters is only slightly less than the 9,100 in the 2008 Presidential Primary. Democrats are not voting at anything like the level they did in 2008, when 13,800 had voted by the 5th day of early voting.

Early voting locations are:

• Collin County Elections office (Main Early Voting Location) 2010 Redbud Blvd, Suite 102, McKinney
• Allen Municipal Courts Facility 301 Century Pkwy, Allen
• Carpenter Park Recreation Ctr 6701 Coit Road, Plano
• CCCC-Central Park Campus 2200 W University Dr., McKinney
• CCCC-Preston Ridge Campus 9700 Wade Blvd., Frisco
• CCCC-Spring Creek Campus 2800 East Spring Creek, Plano
• Celina ISD Administration Building 205 S. Colorado, Celina
• Christopher A. Parr Library 6200 Windhaven Pkwy., Plano
• Farmersville City Hall 205 South Main, Farmersville
• Haggard Library 2501 Coit Rd., Plano
• Harrington Library 1501 18th Street, Plano
• Lucas City Hall 665 Country Club Road, Lucas
• McKinney Fire Station #7 861 S. Independence Pkwy, McKinney
• Murphy Municipal Complex 206 N Murphy Rd., Murphy
• Old Settlers Recreation Center 1201 E. Louisiana St., McKinney
• Plano ISD Administration Center 2700 West 15th Street, Plano
• Renner-Frankford Library 6400 Frankford Rd., Dallas
• Texas Star Bank 402 W. White, Anna
• Wylie Municipal Complex 2000 N. Hwy 78, Wylie

All polling locations will be open from 7 AM - 7 PM all week. Maps and sample ballots are available at the Collin County Elections website.

Election day is Tuesday, March 2.

Bill

House 66 race gets testy; Jackson attacks foes

February 19, 2010
The Dallas Morning News' Plano Blog
Theodore Kim / Reporter / The Dallas Morning News

....Candidate Mabrie Jackson has gone on the offensive today, publishing a website paid for by her campaign that attacks her foes, Wayne Richard and Van Taylor, on various fronts. The website is called PlanoResumeFraud.com.

It accuses Richard of a number of shortcomings ranging from cheating on his business property taxes and running fringe web businesses to cultivating ties with political extremists. The site also mentions how Richard voted for Democrat Hillary Clinton in 2008. (He has portrayed himself as an arch conservative.)

Meantime, Jackson's website attacks Taylor for being a "political carpetbagger" who abandoned the Waco area shortly after a failed bid for Congress there in 2006. Jackson also mentions how few of Taylor's campaign contributions come from Plano.

The publishing of the website coincided with a mailer that reiterates many of the same factoids. The headline on the mailer: "Stop Voter Fraud and Candidate Fraud."

Richard published a lengthy response in which he calls Jackson's criticisms "malicious and hateful" and "the work of a desperate opponent." Richard said he voted for Clinton in 2008 as part of "Operation Chaos" in which conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh encouraged his listeners to vote in the Democratic primary.

He also defended his business practices as legitimate. For his full statement, click here.

....UPDATE | 7:31 p.m. Candidate Van Taylor responded Friday to Mabrie Jackson's website, calling it "one of the most negative mail pieces in Collin County history."

"In a last-minute attempt to resurrect her failing campaign, Mabrie Jackson has subjected Plano residents to negative attacks, false charges and offensive mailers," Taylor said in a news release. To read his full statement, click here.

read the entire article at The Dallas Morning News' Plano blog....

-----------------------

The Observer comments:

After the DMN blog posting, there is a long comment conversation that is quite amusing. My favorite comment had to be,"I'm amused that somebody would use 'I did it because Rush Limbaugh told me to' as a defense".

Bill

In yesterday's Dallas Morning News' Plano Blog, reporter Theodore Kim posted a portion of the federal finance reports from Van Taylor's unsuccessful 2006 run against Democratic Congressman Chet Edwards in Waco.

According to the 2006 records, Taylor pumped almost $1 million of his own money into his 2006 Waco campaign.

This year, according to Kim, Taylor is once again self-financing - bankrolling his campaign with over $280,000 in personal loans, while only raising about $6,400 from Plano constituents.

One difference between 2006 and 2010 is that now Mr. Taylor describes himself as a real estate investor.

In 2006, according to a Fox News op-ed written by former Congressman Martin Frost, Nicholas Van Campen Taylor (aka Exxon Taylor) was a heir to an oil company fortune, living large on dividends from over $11 million in inherited Exxon Corp. stock and least $1 million in big pharma stock.

Bill

Collin County - County Court Q&A Answers

Posted on February 17, 2010 by Hunter Biederman
Frisco DWI Lawyer and Attorney Blog

Recently, a questionnaire was sent out to the candidates for Collin County Court at Law Judges along with the Justice of the Peace candidates. The questions were put together by myself, the Collin County Observer, and McKinneynews.net. Most candidates answered and below is their responses which all came in within the deadline we gave (one week). If others return their answers, I will update this post to add them at that time. I already know of one candidate, Shawn Ismail who we got mixed up with through email (sorry Shawn), and is planning on completing the questionnaire soon.

Collin County Courts at Law hear criminal and civil cases. A County Court at Law is court of general jurisdiction, hearing both civil and criminal law cases with a heavy emphasis on criminal cases. The criminal cases filed in a county court at law are misdemeanors -- those criminal offenses that carry a maximum punishment, upon conviction, of not more than 1 year confinement in jail.

Civil jurisdiction in a County Court at Law is generally invoked in lawsuits that involve controversies up to $100,000. A County Court at Law also has appellate jurisdiction over cases appealed from justice of the peace and municipal courts.

Justice of the Peace courts hear Class C Misdemeanors (traffic citations, toll violations, truancy cases, public intox, bad checks, etc),and civil cases with a maximum of $10,000 in controversy.

The questions posed are below:

1. What current or past judge do you most want to inspire your approach to judicial excellence, and why?

2. What has been the greatest accomplishment in your legal career? In your personal life?
3. What, if anything, would you change to improve the procedures and efficiency of the court you are seeking?

4. Do you feel that ALL citizens have equal and adequate access to justice in our county? How would you improve that access?

5. Collin County tracks indigent defense dollars ordered by each judge. What effect would that reporting have on your decisions to order that the county pay for a defendant’s defense?

6. What do you perceive as the greatest obstacles to justice in Collin County?

7. Incarceration is the most expensive criminal sanction available. How would that fact affect your sentencing decisions?

8. Without commenting on a specific case or type of cases, should Collin County explore more or different types of alternative sentencing? What do you think works? What would you like to try?

9. Recently a Dallas judge made the news when he replaced a white juror with a minority one in a capital trial where the jury was all white and the defendant was not. Do you believe it is important for a minority defendant to have a jury that contains minority members?

10. When a judge’s sense of justice appears to be at variance to the strict application of the law, what approach should an ethical judge take to resolve the conflict?

11. Do you believe that our system of partisan election of trial judges should be continued? How can it be improved?

12. Tell the voters one thing about yourself that isn’t on any website, nor discussed at any forum.

Below are the candidates answers:

County Court at Law #2
Jerry Lewis
Sharon Ramage

County Court at Law #3
Lance Baxter
Shajeel Khaleel
Stewart Matthews
Barnett Walker

County Court at Law #4
Chrysti Bryant
Linda Drain
Matthew Goeller
David Rippel

County Court at Law #6
Jay Bender
Terri Green
Don High
Shawn Ismail

Justice of the Peace, Prec. 3
Rey Flores
John Payton [did not respond]

Justice of the Peace, Prec. 4
Kelley Adley
Doug Reeves [did not respond]
Mike Yarbrough

-----------------

The Collin County Observer can't help but note that while a sitting District Court Judge and an incumbent Court at Law Judge answered the questions put to them, neither sitting Justice of the Peace found it worth their while to respond on time.

I guess they have their own priorities; one of them is not responding to voters questions.

Bill

Editorial: We recommend Hall in 4th Congressional District

Tuesday, February 16, 2010
The Dallas Morning News Editorial Board

The 4th Congressional District needs a new voice in Washington, but the five GOP challengers to incumbent Ralph Hall do not provide credible alternatives to the 15-term congressman. So, despite our substantial reservations about Hall's leadership in recent years, we recommend him in this GOP primary.

The 86-year-old Hall, who was first elected in 1980, served constituents well for many years. But more recently his stands have seemed ill-suited to this rapidly changing district's needs; this newspaper has not recommended him since 2004.

While we respect his experience, we disagree with Hall on several important issues, including his opposition to an immigration pathway to citizenship and to cap-and-trade energy legislation. We also were dismayed by his intemperate suggestion in 2004 that the U.S. military should have leveled Baghdad to show the Iraqis they were whipped.

Unfortunately, Hall's opponents – all of them essentially protest candidates – don't inspire confidence. They are John Cooper, 70, a Baptist minister; Steve Clark, 56, a retired telecom executive; Lou Gigliotti, 60, a race car owner; Jerry Ray Hall, 58, a mediator; and Joshua Kowert, a 28-year-old economics professor.

In interviews and campaign materials, they spouted party platitudes that revealed a stunningly superficial knowledge of key issues, such as taxes, energy and immigration.

Hall isn't the leader this district deserves, but his challengers simply aren't ready for Washington. The GOP winner will face Democratic and Libertarian opposition in the fall.

link to this editorial at The Dallas Morning News....

--------------------

Bill Comments:

This is the, I believe, the fourth time in a row the Dallas Morning News has held its nose and either recommended Ralph Hall or refused to recommend anyone. Ralph needs to retire. Unfortunately, the GOP can't seem to recruit anyone who's not a total kook, and the Democrats haven't fielded a candidate who could raise the kind of money it takes to defeat a long term incumbent.

The 4th Congressional District has in the past been served by such political heavy weights such as "Mr. Sam" Sam Rayburn, and Ray Roberts. Now it's simply the fiefdom of an old man who has served long past his usefulness.

That's a shame.

Bill

HCCC Healthcare Candidate Forum
February 16, 2010
7:00 - 9:00 pm
Collin College Spring Creek Campus, Rm. C104

The Healthcare Committee of Collin County (HCCC) will hold its Healthcare Candidate Forum for the Collin County Commissioners Court at the Spring Creek Campus of Collin College Convention Center Room C104. The Candidate Forum will start at 7:00pm.

We encourage all members and friends to attend and get to know the perspective on Healthcare/Mental Healthcare issues of those that may be in leadership for the next four years. The County Commissioners are responsible for Indigent Healthcare and Mental Healthcare in Collin County.

The public is invited. Please invite your friends and associates. Questions will be healthcare related.

Invited Candidates:

Candidates for Collin County Judge
Keith Self (I) Republican
John Muns Republican
David M. Smith Democrat

Candidates for Collin County Commissioner, Precinct 2
Jerry Hoagland (I) Republican
Karl Voigtsberger Republican
Rick Koster Democrat
Cheryl Williams Republican

Candidates for Collin County Commissioner, Precinct 4
Kathy Ward (I) Republican
Duncan Webb Republican

About the Healthcare Committee of Collin County
Healthcare Committee of Collin County (HCCC) is a voluntary, non-profit, unincorporated committee of residents and healthcare service providers of Collin County, Texas and others, and is not affiliated with any political party.

The Committee is an independent, autonomous organization, and is not a branch or subsidiary of any national or other political action committee. It is focused on ensuring adequate, quality healthcare for all residents in Collin County.
www.collinhealthcare.org • E-mail: collinhealthcare@earthlink.net

Disclaimer: I am proud to serve on the Leadership Team of the HCCC.
Bill

From Collin County's website:

Early voting for the March 2 party primary elections begins on Tuesday, Feb. 16 and runs through Friday, Feb. 26 – and our Elections Office is ready to help you find a place to cast your ballot.

In Collin County, about 70 percent of those who cast ballots do so during the early voting stage, so we’ve set up some easy ways for you to find your way to the polls early, or on March 2.

Here’s a quick rundown of links and services available:

For starters, you can find a polling center in Collin County by simply plugging in a street address and zip code into our Early Voting Location Search, which will also give you driving directions to the nearest polling center. We also have an alphabetized listing on the same page if you’d like to scroll through the 19 locations. Voting traffic status on this list will also show how long a wait you might have at one location. Since in early voting you can cast your ballot at any location, if one spot is crowded you can locate another where the wait is shorter.

Also, be sure to check the times and dates for early voting. These vary slightly throughout the two-week stretch.

Of course, you’re also going to want to check the ballots for your precinct (plus, voting locations for March 2). In case you don’t know your voting precinct, you can perform a Voter Registration Card Search.

Finally, remember you can also view – or sign up to receive email versions of – elections results for Collin County.

The Collin County Observer, in a collaboration with the Frisco DWI Lawyer's Blog recently sent all four District Attorney candidates a 10 question form designed to give the voters an insight both into the plans each candidate has for operating the DAs office and their approach to criminal justice.

The Collin County District Attorney is responsible for prosecution of all criminal cases in the county. The DA runs a large operation, divided into ten divisions. These divisions are: Intake/Grand Jury, Misdemeanor Trial, Felony Trial, Family Justice (crimes against children section, domestic violence section), Special Crimes, Appellate, Hot Checks, Investigations, Operations and Victim/Witness Assistance. The DA also may represent the County in civil cases.

The DA's office has 116 employees and its 2010 budget is $10,775,827.

The questionnaire contained 10 questions. The first 5 involved the organization and operation of the department:

1. What do you think about the current structure/staffing of the ADAs? Would you shift attorneys around?

2. What do you think about the criminal special crimes section? Would you make changes in that section, and if so, specifically how?

3. Will you get in the courtroom and actually try cases? Why or Why Not?

4. In general, what changes would you be making if you became District Attorney?

5. Right now, only three people in the District Attorney’s office have authority to dismiss a case. The misdemeanor division chief for misdemeanor cases, the first assistant for felony cases, and of course, the elected District Attorney. What do you think of this policy? Would you allow misdemeanor court chiefs and or felony court chiefs to dismiss cases they feel should be dismissed?

The next question addressed the recent attempt by DA John Roach to arm a "Rapid Response Team" with automatic weapons and riot gear:

6. Current DA John Roach recently proposed using funds to purchase weapons and body armor for the Investigators in the office. What do you plan on doing with these weapons, and will your investigators continue to train to be a emergency security staff for the court?

And the last 4 questions with policies affecting the administration of justice:

7. Do you have any plans to expand or develop alternative/deferred sentencing programs? What programs have you seen or heard of that you would implement?

8. What lessons should the Collin County District Attorney learn (if any) from Dallas County’s experience with their Innocence Commission?

9. Do you believe our indigents are well served and fairly treated in our “Indigent Defense Plans”? What changes to the plans might you recommend to the Board of Judges?

10. Would you bar defendants from open pleas before a judge if a plea agreement can not be reached, or would you reserve the right to object if you thought the judge might be more lenient than your plea offer was? Which level of prosecutors in the office would be allowed to make this decision?

As of the deadline at midnight on Sunday 3 of the candidates had returned their completed questionnaires:

James Angelino's responses are here

Jeff Bray's responses are here

Raphael de la Garza's responses are here

Greg Willis' responses are here

The questions are specific and so the responses are long. The Observer offers this in-depth look at each of these candidates in the hope that the discerning voter will gain valuable insight into the plans and philosophy of each of these well qualified candidates.

The Observer thanks each of these gentlemen for taking the time to submit thoughtful answers to our questions. Our readers can look forward to further analysis and discussion of these issues in both The Collin County Observer and the Frisco DWI Lawyer's Blog.

Bill

UPDATE (2/15/10) I received Mr. De La Garza's response and posted it.

Candidates for West Plano seat in Texas House digging deep into their own pockets for campaign funds

Sunday, February 14, 2010
By THEODORE KIM / The Dallas Morning News

Contenders for West Plano's seat in the Texas House of Representatives are pouring lots of their own money into the fight.

With several weeks to go before the March 2 Republican primary, Mabrie Jackson and Van Taylor have between them invested more than $300,000 in the race, campaign finance reports show.

Fundraising records also have raised questions about the political ties of the third candidate, Wayne Richard, who has gained momentum among Tea Party activists.

The House District 66 seat opened in November when incumbent Brian McCall? said he would not seek re-election. No Democrats filed to run.

Money, of course, has always played a central role in politics. But with few differences separating the three candidates on the biggest issues – all have portrayed themselves as conservatives and said they support low tax rates and fewer state regulations – fundraising has emerged as perhaps the biggest point of contention.

Experts also say the campaign reports provide the latest evidence of how spending in Texas politics continues to escalate, driven largely by the growing role and cost of technology in campaigns.

"Certainly television matters and still has the most significant impact," said Brian Roberts, a professor of American politics at the University of Texas at Austin. "But look what else is going on: You have social media, Web ads. This is opening up a whole new avenue of expense."

The total money raised for state legislative races alone has almost doubled to $95 million since 2004, according to Texans for Public Justice, a nonprofit group that tracks money in state politics.

"The cost of elections continues to trend up, up, up," said Andrew Wheat, the group's research director.

That, in turn, has put even more pressure on candidates to dip into their own wallets.

Van Taylor

Taylor, who works in real estate, has bankrolled his campaign with $230,000 in personal loans, putting most of that money toward television ads and mailings.

He has collected far less, $21,700, from campaign supporters. A $10,000 check from Taylor's father constitutes nearly half that total, records show.

Of the rest, $6,450 represents contributions from Plano addresses.

Taylor has spent large sums on campaigns before. He put more than $300,000 of his own money into an unsuccessful 2006 bid for Congress in the Waco area.

Taylor said he has local donations "coming in every day" and has a Plano fundraiser scheduled this week.

"I'm getting a great response and running a hard-hitting, grass-roots campaign," he said.

Mabrie Jackson

Jackson, a former Plano City Council member and Microsoft account manager, has invested $80,000 in her campaign. She has supplemented that with help from supporters and from interests ranging from real estate to liquor, records show.

Including her cash, Jackson had raised more than $148,000 through late January.

That total takes into account more than $16,000 from at least 20 political action committees that, in the past, had supported McCall?. Among them: the Texas Association of Realtors ($2,500), the Texas Energy Association ($2,500) and the Licensed Beverage Distributors ($1,000).

Jackson made no apologies for receiving PAC money.

"These associations represent industries that create jobs," she said. "They have confidence in my abilities to represent House District 66."

The biggest individual donors so far in the race include construction materials magnate John V. Lattimore, Jr., who donated $5,000 each to Taylor and Jackson; and Fehmi Karahan, the developer behind The Shops at Legacy, who gave $2,500 to Jackson.

Wayne Richard

Financial reports reveal that Richard, who runs a small Web company, had raised less than $10,000 in cash through January.

More significantly, the records raise questions about his political ties.

Richard has leaned heavily on campaign help from Peter Morrison, a local school board member in Lumberton, Texas.

Records show that Morrison has donated tens of thousands of dollars' worth of signs, mailers, supplies and time to Richard's campaign.

In posts on Facebook, Morrison argues that Texas schools teach a "radical left-wing agenda" and that Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor is a "radical racist."

Another lengthy post blames "immigration from Third World countries" for the mass shootings at Fort Hood in November.

"The Fort Hood massacre was the predictable result of decades of massive immigration from third world countries, affirmative action, enforcement of political correctness and 'celebration' of diversity and multiculturalism," Morrison wrote Nov. 17.

When asked about his aide's Fort Hood essay, Richard said, "Commanders would agree it was a political correctness situation that allowed the mass shooting to take place."

Asked whether he thinks schools should encourage diversity, Richard said, "I don't believe there's enough American history and positive representations of democracy and liberty that our country provides our citizens in our schools."

link to article at The Dallas Morning News, including candidate profile data....

The Collin County Observer, in collaboration with McKinneyNews.net and the Frisco DWI Lawyer's blog has sent all Collin County local judicial candidates, from District Court to Justice of the Peace, a questionnaire designed to give the voters a real opportunity to understand the character, motivation and philosophy of all those who ask us to elect them as our judges.

The questionnaires will be completed by Tuesday night, and we hope to start publishing them very shortly thereafter.

Bill

Keith Self, who is never at a loss for words when it comes to branding his opponents as commissars, socialists or liberals has moved even further right, now invoking the specter of Nazism against his primary opponent John Muns. From Keith Self's Facebook page:

Let's try Some Truth

"If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. ...truth is the mortal enemy of the lie."
Joseph Goebbels, Nazi Germany Propaganda Minister

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.
Edmund Burke

Friends,
Our opponent is using the Goebbels method of telling big lies often. Let's do something, let's try some truth.

I will not spend much time refuting lies because I want to stay on positive message, but I do want to give you a sentence or two on each of the big lies by my opponent.

Auditor lawsuit: The auditor requested an AG’s opinion that basically asked that he be given control, not audit ability, but control over all computer systems in the county by way of access to the deepest programming codes. We sued to stop him from even having the chance to acquire that control - we defended state law and the authorities of all elected officials. If he had prevailed, he would have overturned state law for the entire state and usurped elected officials authorities. The status quo prevailed and we stopped a very dangerous possibility. We welcomed his independent auditing function, we fought his control over all computer systems. He resigned soon after.

SH121 Toll road: Please read my blogs from March 16, 22, and 30, 2007. You will see that I did not advocate for foreign companies, I advocated first of all for the state to build the road with gas tax funds, then to make a decision and get it built.

March 16, 2007 “My position has not changed since before I was elected - I do not believe that we should establish additional taxes in the form of tolls, but for years the legislature has abdicated its responsibility to build the state transportation network and we in Collin County need SH121 built in order to continue our growth.”
March 30, 2007 “I ask that our legislature fund transportation as a top priority of the state.”

Transportation Bond: My opposition was no secret. The program did not address the congestion on our major roads and it contained improvements on roads that will carry little traffic in 2030. Once the citizens voted, I committed to carrying out their vote. My vision for highway funding is now in place with the $1.1 Billion in the bank. US75 has some $500 Million committed to it, and our congestion on major roads across the county will be relieved.

We have already dealt with the personal slander of the Florida trip lie.

By the way, my other old blogs provide some original writings that may continue to protect against this type of slander.

Sincerely,
Keith

Keith Self sent the identical message as an email to his list today.

Now Self's quixotic opposition to all things transportation (with the exception of the creation of the Collin County Toll Road Authority, which he voted for) is well known enough not be repeated here.

However, the Observer does wish to set the matter straight about the Auditor. Point by point:

Self - "The auditor requested an AG’s opinion that basically asked that he be given control, not audit ability, but control over all computer systems in the county by way of access to the deepest programming codes."
Observer - Big Lie. The Auditor's request is here. What he asked for was 'read only access'. He also wanted to examine the permissions and structure of the data tables in order to detect fraud.

Self - "We sued to stop him from even having the chance to acquire that control - we defended state law and the authorities of all elected officials."
Observer - Big Lie. Judge Self and the Commissioners Court first sued to stop the Auditor from simply ASKING the Texas Attorney General to rule on the question. The auditor's request to the Attorney General, had it been answered, would have been the simple, cost effective way to resolve any dispute between Self, the Commissioners Court and the Auditor. Instead the County Commissioners court began $300,000 of legal battles just to stop their Auditor from asking the questions. Judge Self and the Commissioners Court then filed a second suit asking for a jury to answer the questions posed to the Attorney General by their Auditor. Their intent was to protect their investment in multi-million dollar software packages that did not contain the minimum necessary auditing portals required by accepted auditing standards and current law.

Self - "If he had prevailed, he would have overturned state law for the entire state and usurped elected officials authorities."
Observer - Big Lie. The Auditor merely wanted the current law to be enforced. The Self and the Commissioners Court were refusing him access granted to him by the law... and granted to every other Auditor in the State of Texas. This is demonstrated by the fact that BOTH times the court ruled, it ruled in Summary Judgments against the Commissioners. In other words, the court granted a full and complete victory to the Auditor stating that the Commissioners suit was totally without basis in law. The court then ordered the County Commissioners Court to pay the Auditor's legal bills.

Self - "The status quo prevailed and we stopped a very dangerous possibility. We welcomed his independent auditing function, we fought his control over all computer systems."
Observer - Big Lie. The Auditor won on all points. It's that simple.

Self - "He resigned soon after."
Observer - Big Lie. Donald Cozad did not resign, he retired. And Judge Self and the Commissioners should be ashamed that they threatened a dedicated public servant with personal financial ruin over a power struggle. After winning his fight and forcing the county to pay his expenses for their suit, Mr. Cozad retired from the field victorious.

And finally -

Self - "protect against this type of slander."
Observer - "And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?"

The Collin County Observer would like to ask why Judge Self feels the need to rant about candy canes, bibles, socialism and Nazism when there are real issues begging to be debated in this election?

The Observer does not support or endorse Mr. Muns. However, The Collin County Observer deplores and will protest the use of campaign tactics that even Judge Self has described as, "the politics of personal destruction."

Bill

Editorial: We recommend Muns for Collin County judge

Wednesday, February 10, 2010
The Dallas Morning News Editorial Board

Collin County Judge Keith Self is strong on open government and has delivered on promises for improvement. Some commissioners meetings are now held at places and times more convenient to the public. The county's checkbook has gone online for anyone to inspect. All good moves.

It's not what first-term Self is for that causes concern about his time in office. Rather, it's what he's been against and how he pursues his agenda.

Self doesn't shy away from butting heads with people he disagrees with and, at times, seems to go out of his way for a collision. The most spectacular example was his opposition to a countywide bond package for roads in 2007. The projects were vetted by a citizen review panel based on community input, yet Self squared off against supporters, called the package "pork" and unsuccessfully campaigned against it.

Then there was his work to unseat two fellow GOP members of the commissioners court, one of whom voters tossed out of office. And there was his combativeness while testifying in Austin before Dallas Sen. John Carona's transportation committee.

While there's something to be said for a public official who sticks to principles, there's a time when it goes overboard. Self reaches that point too often.

That's partly why we recommend his opponent, John Muns, in the March 2 GOP primary for county judge. Muns' background of civic involvement and public service, including 15 years on the Plano school board, gives him the grounding needed to preside effectively over the commissioners court.

Muns, 50, a developer, would concentrate on ensuring that infrastructure keeps pace with the county's torrid growth. He supports the concept of a local-option proposal that lawmakers in Austin have proposed to give local voters the right to raise money for transportation. Self opposes it.

Like Self, 56, a retired Army officer and McKinney resident, Muns says he would hold the line on taxes and spending.

The winner will face Democrat David M. Smith in November. With GOP voters choosing between two fiscally conservative Republicans, they should go with Muns, a leader with experience building coalitions.

link to this editorial at The Dallas Morning News....

Primary Color: HD-66

February 10, 2010
by Reeve Hamilton / The Texas Tribune

If you're not tuned into the three-way GOP primary to replace retiring 10-term state Rep. Brian McCall of Plano, you'll be sorry. The race has it all: the high price of political ambition, reruns of a classic campaign ad and a bikini-clad beauty — plus a fight over ideological bonafides that's very much of the moment. Affluent and highly educated, Plano is one of the state's most reliably Republican areas; there isn't even a Democrat running for the seat in November. Yet the district and surrounding Collin County are "ground zero" for the battle between "real conservatives and the philosophically pliable," says Michael Openshaw, the North Texas Tea Party's self-styled Blog Warrior.

“It’s going to be very close to get into a runoff,” says candidate Mabrie Jackson, a former Microsoft account manager and member of the Plano City Council. “I think we’re all evenly split right now.” ­

In November, when McCall decided to step down, he called Jackson, who'd told him six years earlier that she'd be interested in succeeding him. But the news couldn’t have come at a more inconvenient time — Jackson was just a year and a half into her first term on the Council. “Can you wait two years?” she asked.

Wayne Richard, who had been running against McCall since August, was even more surprised to hear about his retirement. Richard never intended to vie for elective office — until recently, he didn't even pay much attention to state or local politics. But in 2008, his politically charged e-mails to friends morphed into a newsletter under the auspices of a group Richard christened "The National Coalition for Defense of American Sovereignty." He enjoyed his newfound notoriety; one thing led to another, and suddenly he found himself involved with the area’s first-ever tax day Tea Party protest. Collin County Tea Party leader Diane Nusbaum saw in Richard the candidate she had been looking for to retaliate against McCall for helping to oust conservative House Speaker Tom Craddick, R-Midland, at the start of the 2009 legislative session. She temporarily left the Tea Party to run Richard’s campaign.

Rounding out the primary field is businessman and Iraq War veteran Van Taylor, who bought a house in Plano in 2007, just a mile away from his great grandfather’s farm, after a failed campaign to unseat U.S. Rep. Chet Edwards, D-Waco. With a battle shaping up between Jackson and Richard, Taylor says, “So many conservatives reached out to me and said, 'Van, we have to have a conservative representing Plano in the Texas House. You have to run.'” He threw his hat in on Dec. 7.

Jackson, the granddaughter of a former Port Arthur mayor, caught the political bug early in life. She's the only of the three who has served in public office and is intimately familiar with the issues Plano faces: She cites, for example, the need for more roads and a viable water plan. “She is the only candidate who has been involved in the community at all levels,” says McCall, who endorsed Jackson after she resigned her Council seat on Nov. 16. Jackson has also been endorsed by the Greater Dallas Restaurant Association, the Texas Hospital Association, the Texas State Teachers Association and The Dallas Morning News.

Of the Tea Party movement that has been less enthusiastic about her establishment-friendly candidacy, Jackson says, “For the most part, they’re great people who are just concerned about what’s going on at the national level. I share that concern, and I lose sleep over it, too. But this race is about representing Plano in Austin. It’s not about Plano in Washington."

Richard’s approach is the epitome of grassroots. Running with very little money, his campaign is almost entirely manned by energized volunteers — many of them Tea Partiers — and fueled by in-kind donations, some of the biggest coming from outside the district. “I’ve never seen so many yard signs in my whole life,” Richard says. “Nothing like this has ever happened in Collin County before.”

Richard announced his candidacy in August and began block-walking. By early February, he or someone from his campaign had knocked on the door of every registered area voter at least twice. “Opponents have come and gone,” he says, “but I think a lot of people recognize the political courage it took to get into it from the very beginning to take McCall? on like that. Now we have people trying to jump in at the last minute. For us it’s been like a marathon, but for them it’s been like a sprint.”

Taylor, meanwhile, has a resume. The self-described “lifelong committed Republican” started a GOP club as an undergraduate at Harvard University. As a Marine, he gained experience with illegal immigration issues while serving on the Texas-Mexico border. He serves as state chairman of the National Defense Committee and is the North Texas vice captain of Vets for Freedom, and he touts endorsements from Young Conservatives of Texas, the Texans for Fiscal Responsibility PAC and Republican U.S. Rep. Jeb Hensarling. Like Richard, he has been “Tea Approved” by the North Texas Tea Party.

The candidates all have hurdles to overcome. Richard's is his bio, which doesn’t read like he grew up with a political career in his sights. For starters, there’s FUBIOV — “Forget U Buddy I’m On Vacation” — which he says was the name of a boat he owned decades ago, a name he tried to turn into a brand with “FUBIOV!” t-shirts and www.fubiov.com, a now-defunct travel website. A web video advertising the site features a girl in a bikini walking near a pool, unaware that she’s being filmed.

"If that’s the best thing they think they can come after me with," Richard says, "then to heck with 'em. I’m trying to stay above board." He claims to be an innocent bystander. “Somebody put a bikini video out there?” he asks. “I can’t control what’s out there.” But YouTube seems to think otherwise. The video was posted on the site in Jan. 2007 by “fubiov,” who claims to be a 55-year-old named Wayne. The user who posted the same video on dailymotion.com, once again using the “fubiov” moniker, also posted a video parodying Hillary Clinton. That video was produced by ICglobal.net, Richard's advertising technology firm.

“If you elect someone who has that,” critiques Jackson, “you don’t want that to come to light later and embarrass your city. And that will be an embarrassment to our city.”

Jackson’s finding out that it might be possible to love her city so much it hurts. When she vacated her seat on the City Council, she believed it could be filled by a 10-day appointment per the city charter. It turned out that state law called for a special election, an event that set Plano back $80,000 — and that was before it ended up being pushed into a runoff. “That’s the price of democracy. We are blessed to live in a democracy where anybody can run,” she says. “I believe that my serving Plano will save the city a whole lot more money in the long run than whatever a special election costs.”

Mention the independently wealthy Taylor in Plano and the conversation will likely turn to the money he’s spent on television advertisements. The ads highlight his conservative bonafides and the military service that took him to Iraq and the Texas Border. But one of them is just a minimally tweaked rehash of an ad he ran in Waco, when he was gunning for a totally different seat. “Pictures of me in Iraq are still pictures of me in Iraq,” Taylor says. “I have the same values and the same beliefs that I’ve held for decades.”

Taylor’s latest ad, called “Only One,” points out the Taxpayer Protection Pledge he signed committing to fighting all tax increases. It claims that Taylor, the "only true conservative” in the race, is the “only one” to sign such a document. Jackson says she signed one on Dec. 17 — but votes count more than pledges do. On the morning after primary day, all that will matter is who's the "only one" left out of the runoff.

link to this article at The Texas Tribune....

------------------------

Bill asks:

FU = "forget you"? Yea right!

also

The D Magazine's Front Burner blog notes that the fubiov videos have been pulled off of YouTube and Daily Motion.

Bill

We recommend Jackson in House District 66

Tuesday, February 9, 2010
The Dallas Morning News Editorial Board

Plano voters will see something in the voting booth March 2 that they haven't seen in 19 years: a Republican ballot without Brian McCall's name as a candidate for state representative. With McCall not seeking re-election, the three-person GOP race in House District 66 is being closely watched to see who will replace his lawmaking and leadership abilities.

Mabrie Jackson, 45, former Plano City Council member, is the best choice of the three, based on her experience in decision-making, involvement in civic affairs and deep roots in the community. Moreover, Jackson appears best positioned to continue the brand of coalition-building McCall practiced to get things done in Austin.

Jackson has a clearly enunciated list of priorities, which includes economic development, public education, health care and transportation and water improvements. Formerly in marketing for EDS and a manager for Microsoft, she now concentrates on her family.

There are many similarities between Jackson and her opponents, Wayne Richard, 55, a technology company owner, and Van Taylor, 37, an investment manager. All would hold the line on taxes and stress efficiencies to deal with the coming state budget gap.

Taylor would go further and scrap the business tax, and Richard would scrap or reduce it. But neither offered a workable solution to fill that revenue void.

In his first run for office, Richard says he wants to offer fresh ideas, and he points out he was the only candidate to enter the race before McCall's announcement on re-election. Richard says that McCall has been in Austin too long and that his voting record is not business-friendly. Richard says he is relying on grass-roots support, in contrast to his well-financed adversaries.

Taylor lost a race for Congress from Waco in 2006 and since moved to Plano. A Marine Corps veteran who would "starve state government," he says he offers more conservative views than McCall's.

The winner of the race will face no Democratic opponent in the fall.

link to this editorial at The Dallas Morning News....

The County Observer and The Frisco DWI Lawyer blogs have teamed up to prepare a 10 question Q & A with the 4 candidates for Collin County District Attorney.

The questions have been sent to each of the candidates. We have promised to post their unedited responses (or lack of) and we hope their answers will give voters a better understanding of the approach each one of these gentlemen plan to bring to the DAs office.

Bill

[Note: This completes the series of articles introducing each of the primary candidates, posting their campaign finance information as well as a video of each when possible]

Complete copies of these and other January, 2010 Semi-annual form C/OH campaign finance reports are available on-line here.

JERRY HOAGLAND

www.jerryhoagland.com

Contributions July - Dec. $20,354
Expenditures July - Dec. $14,346
Campaign account balance Dec. 31 - $26,908
Loans - $9,019

Major contributors (+- $1,000):
John Aughinbaugh - $1,000
Texas Association of Realtors PAC - $1,000
Carter & Burgess PAC - $1,000
Bill Carmickle - $2,000
Rich Family Partners, LTD - $1,000
C.P. & Y. Inc. PAC - $1,000
CH2M Hill PAC - $1,000
Rodney J. Vilhauer - $1,000
Anthony Jeffrey - $1,000
David Andrews - $1,000
Halff Assoc. PAC - $1,000

RICK KOSTER

www.rickkoster.org

Contributions July - Dec. $0
Expenditures July - Dec. $0
Campaign account balance Dec. 31 - $0
Loans - $0

Major contributors (+- $1,000):
none

KARL VOIGTSBERGER

www.electkarl.org/

Contributions July - Dec. $2,889
Expenditures July - Dec. $2,794
Campaign account balance Dec. 31 - $1,309
Loans - $10,000

Major contributors (+- $1,000):
none

CHERYL WILLIAMS

www.votecherylwilliams.com

Contributions July - Dec. $14,465
Expenditures July - Dec. $8,445
Campaign account balance Dec. 31 - $6,020
Loans - $0

Major contributors (+- $1,000):
C.W. Kendall - $2,000
Carla McPeters - $1,000
William Grant - $1,000
Jerry McPeters - $1,000

Bill

Complete copies of these and other January, 2010 Semi-annual form C/OH campaign finance reports are available on-line here.

KATHY WARD

www.kathyward.org

Contributions July - Dec. $10,250
Expenditures July - Dec. $3,903
Campaign account balance Dec. 31 - $10,296
Loans - $0

Major contributors (+- $1,000):
HNTB Holdings LTD. PAC - $1,000
James D. Dannenbaum - $1,000
LAN-PAC - $1,000
CH2M Hill Texas PAC - $1,000
TREPAC/Texas Association of Realtors PAC - $1,000

DUNCAN WEBB

www.duncanwebb.org

Contributions July - Dec. $17,804
Expenditures July - Dec. $6,372
Campaign account balance Dec. 31 - $11,276
Loans - $0

Major contributors (+- $1,000):
Case, Jordan - $1,000
Joyner, Richard - $1,000
Smith, Joan - $1,000
Wohlers, Craig - $1,000

Bill

The Collin County Observer has posted the "30 Day" campaign finance report required of all local candidates who face an opposed primary race.

This report details contributions and expenditures from January 1, 2010 to January 27. It is the second of three reports due during the primary season.

The reports, along with the "January Semi-Annual" report (details from July 1, 2009 - December 31, 2009) are linked here.

The Collin County Observer is only publishing the reports from "local, county filers". For a detailed explanation of who files where and how you can see the reports of state and national filers, see out previous post, Observer posts all county campaign finance reports on-line

The County Judge candidates appear to be building large war chests for the final 3 weeks of the campaign. Judge Self has amassed $51,869, while Mr. Muns has $64,155 in his campaign account. Keith self entered the season with over $50,000 in his campaign fund - since July, Self has recieved over $48,000 in contributions and Mr. Muns has recieved over $60,000. John Muns has also loaned his campaign $30,000 of his own money.

However, Keith Self has far outspent Mr. Muns. Self has so far spent almost $45,000 to Muns' $27,000. The winner of the the primary will then face Democrat and former Plano city councilman David Smith in the November election.

For the 3 weeks or so covered by the reports, the top fund raisers were Keith Self ($16,535), Greg Willis ($16,055) and John Muns ($15,550).

By far the worst campaign finance report was filed by Doug Reeves, a candidate for the GOP nomination to the Justice of the Peace Court #4 in Frisco. His report was late, is missing critical and required information and like his first "Semi-Annual" report covers a period of time at variance to what the law requires.

The report is basically incomprehensible and shows either indifference to the law or a gross ignorance of it. And this from a guy who wants to be a judge and mentor kids! During my campaign for commissioner, I accidentally left a few boxes "reason for expenditure" blank and was fined $100 for it. I hope Mr. Reeves has saved lots of nickles - he'll need then if a complaint is filed with the TEC.

A pair of Democratic clubs, while not having any candidates in contested primary races that require a 30 day report, have nevertheless run afoul of campaign finance laws. Conservative blogger Curtis Rath, writing in the McKinneyNews.net discovered that two local Democratic PACs had their treasurers fined recently by the Texas Ethics Commission.

The Texas Democratic Women of Collin County PAC's treasurer, June Perdue Jenkins filed two reports late and then appeared to ignore notices from both the TEC and the Texas Attorney General. She was fined $11,400. Barbara Walters, the President of the TDWCC told the Observer that the group has appointed a new treasurer. Ms. Walters also stressed that the violation and the fines were not against the Texas Democratic Women or their PAC, but against the treasurer, who under Texas law is personally culpable and liable.

The Stonewall Democrats of Collin County's PAC also filed a report lase. Its treasurer was fined $500. Mike Agan, the president of the group has noted that the Stonewall Democrats have appointed a new PAC treasurer.

Bill

Editorial: We recommend Ratliff for SBOE District 9

Tuesday, February 2, 2010
The Dallas Morning News Editorial Board

We recommend Thomas Ratliff over incumbent Don McLeroy in the Republican primary for the State Board of Education's District 9 for several reasons. Most important is the fact that the Mount Pleasant resident could move this board beyond its culture-war conflicts.

Unfortunately, since being appointed as chairman in 2007, the 63-year-old McLeroy has helped lead the board into skirmishes involving evolution, reading standards and social studies content. The panel even got bogged down debating hip-hop versus country music. The rancor grew so routine that the Texas Senate last year refused to confirm the Bryan dentist as chairman.

McLeroy, a board member since 1999, undoubtedly cares about education. But this panel could use Ratliff's more practical approach to keep its work focused on essential issues. He's not an ideological brawler and could develop consensus.

Ratliff has had experience doing just that while serving on boards at his children's public schools in East Texas. And he says he would listen to teachers and superintendents in determining what students should know. Setting standards is a key function of this board, and Ratliff, 42, would be more in touch with educators than McLeroy. While Ratliff shouldn't become their captive, Texans are better served by someone who takes teachers' points of view seriously in crafting curriculum.

We also prefer Ratliff's emphasis on depoliticizing appointments of outside advisers, including those who handle the state's sizable education funds. The board has run into problems in selecting investment advisers.

A lobbyist himself, Ratliff swears he will disassociate himself from decisions that could involve a client. He certainly kept his lobbying business at arm's length from his father, Bill Ratliff, when the Republican served as lieutenant governor in 2001.

The winner of this primary will be unopposed in the November election. Voters in this district, which runs through parts of East Texas and Collin County, would benefit from Ratliff's sensible style and approach.

link to this editorial at The Dallas Morning News.....

One of the oddest bits of the Texas Constitution requires the election of a District Clerk. The District Clerk serves as clerk to all the 9 District Courts in Collin County. It also runs a passport office on Park Ln. in Plano.

When veteran District clerk Hannah Kunkle announced that she would not seek re-election, three Republican ladies filed to secure the GOP nomination to replace her.

Why it is an elective office is beyond me. The District Clerk does not make policy or make decisions that affect taxes or the lives of ordinary citizens. The District Judges and attorney's who use the clerk's office daily are interested in the outcome of this race, they want a friendly, efficient clerk's office. Other than them and the candidates' family and friends ( and a few party stalwarts), I know of no one who really has an opinion. So here is your chance to listen to and decide who you think will lead an efficient clerk's office.

Bill

Here are their opening remarks before the Collin County Conservative Club:

Patricia Crigger

Terrye Evans

Alma Hays

When Judge Curt Henderson announced his retirement, a three person race to replace him on the 219th District Court was underway. The 219th is a court of general jurisdiction, meaning it handles felony criminal trials as well as family law and civil cases.

The three candidates or the Republican nomination appeared at a forum held last night and sponsored by the Collin County Conservative Club. Here are their opening statements.

Bill

Scott Becker

Wendy McMillon

Angela Tucker

The Collin County Observer believes that the District Attorney's race is one of the most important election contests in recent county history.

I have tried on several occasions to record speeches by the three Republican candidates, but unfortunately I have not been able to get a good recording because these guys wander all over the stage and auditorium - delivering their talks "on the hoof". It's impossible to film them with a hand-held camera.

I am grateful to the Collin County Conservative Republican Club who super glued these gentlemen's shoes to the floor long enough for me to record their opening remarks. I hope you find the effort worthwhile and are able to learn something about these contenders who want to be your next District Attorney.

Bill

Jimmy Angelino

Jeff Bray

Greg Willis

JAMES "JIMMY" ANGELINO

www.angelino4da.com

Contributions July - Dec. $18,690
Expenditures July - Dec. $7,429
Campaign account balance Dec. 31 - $10,421
Loans - $5,000

Major contributors (+- $1,000):
Timothy Powers - $5,000
Frank Perez - $1,000
Mike Pinchinson - $1,000
Dallas Police Assoc. PAC - $1,500

K. JEFFERSON "JEFF" BRAY

http://www.brayforda.com/

Contributions July - Dec. $15,011
Expenditures July - Dec. $20,779
Campaign account balance Dec. 31 - $6,011
Loans - $46,000

Major contributors (+- $1,000):
William Bray - $6,000 (in-kind)
Clark Kennington - $3,000
Clark Kennington - $2,000 (pledged)
Harold Simmons - $1,000
Michelle Buckolow - $3,000 (in-kind)
Jeff Bray - $20,780

RAPHAEL DE LA GARZA

www.delagarzaforda.com/

Contributions July - Dec. $6,325
Expenditures July - Dec. $4,893
Campaign account balance Dec. 31 - $6,325
Loans - $

Major contributors (+- $1,000):
Bernardo De La Garza - $1,000
Gloria Trevino - $2,500

GREG WILLIS

www.gregwillis.org

Contributions July - Dec. $61,618
Expenditures July - Dec. $30,108
Campaign account balance Dec. 31 - $33,837
Loans - $

Major contributors (+- $1,000):
ABC Pediatrics McKinney PA - $1,000
Barbieri, Heather - $1,000
Barrett, Peter - $2,500
Baxter, Sam - $3,000
Burnham, Jim - $1,000
Crowder, Darlina - $1,000
Dean, Shan - $2,500
Finkelstein, Jeff - $1,500 (in-kind)
Franklin, Richard - $1,000
Gomez, David - $1,000
Herblin, Dana - $1,000
Howard Shapiro Attorney-at-Law PC - $1,250
Key, Paul - $1,000
Martin, EX III - $2,500
May, Jennie - $5,000
McCall, David III - $1,000
McKool, Mike Jr, - $2,000
Mitchell, Tandy - $1,000
Parker, George - $2,500
Renfro, John - $9,000
Waddill Skinner LLP - $1,000
Warmbrodt, Michelle - $2,500

Bill

As a service to the Collin County voters, the Collin County Observer has posted a link to all county filed campaign finance reports beginning with the January 2010 Semi-annual Report.

In Texas candidates file two different types of reports. The Campaign Finance Report (form C/OH) lists campaign contributions, expenditures and loans. Candidates are required to file this report several times during the election season. All Texas candidates and Office holders are also required to file a Personal Financial Statement (form PFS) annually. The PFS lists the assets, holdings, liabilities and debt of the filer and spouse.

The January C/OH report covers contributions and expenditures from July 31, 2009 to December 31, 2010.

There are four kind of campaign finance filers. Only"County filers form C/OH are posted by the Observer:

1. Federal - Officeholders and candidates for Congress and the Presidency file with the Federal Elections Commission. The reports are publicly available through an on-line database here.

2. State - Texas state filers include candidates for Governor, Texas State offices, Legislator, State Senate, all Appeals Courts, District Judge, and County Party Chair. These office holders and candidates file with the Texas Ethics Commission. The reports are publicly available through an on-line database here.

3. County - County officials and candidates file with the Collin County Elections Department. County filers include, County Judge, County Commissioner, District Clerk, District Attorney, County Court at Law justices, Justices of the Peace and constables.

   The Collin County elections Department has told the Observer that it is their goal to post all campaign finance reports on-line, but they do not have a real time frame approved to do so. It is these local county reports that the Collin County Observer has posted.

4. Local - Office holders and candidates for local offices file with their respective local authority. School Board candidates file with their ISD, City Council candidates file with their city, etc. Most local filings, except in large cities, are not on-line and can only be obtained by request from the filing authority.

Personal Financial Statements for State filers are kept at the Texas Ethics Commission, but are not on-line. They can only be accessed by requesting them with an Open Records request. A copy fee is assessed for each request.

County PFS reports are kept by the Collin County Clerk, and are available by request in a personal appearance. The Observer will be requesting all local form PFS and will make them available on-line.

While campaign finance reports are kept for several years, Personal Financial Statements are destroyed annually.

The Observer tips its hat to and thanks Sharon Rowe, the Collin County Elections Administrator, and Elections Department staffer Sandy Braswell for their cooperation and assistance in helping gather all the reports as electronic files.

Bill

JAY BENDER

www.benderforjudge.com

Contributions July - Dec. $3,900
Expenditures July - Dec. $2,340
Campaign account balance Dec. 31 - $2,763
Loans - $500

Major contributors (+- $1,000):
none

TERRI GREEN

www.terrigreenforjudge.com

Contributions July - Dec. $12,509
Expenditures July - Dec. $8,179
Campaign account balance Dec. 31 - $4,934
Loans - $0

Major contributors (+- $1,000):
James W. McCartney? - $2,000
John Hinson - $1,479 (in-kind)
Terri Green - $2,065

DON H. HIGH

www.donhigh.com

Contributions July - Dec. $9,600
Expenditures July - Dec. $7,116
Campaign account balance Dec. 31 - $9,725
Loans - $0

Major contributors (+- $1,000):
Anderson, Amy - $1,000
Kramer, Charles and Britt - $1,000
Mathis, Joel and Ellen - $1,000
Don H. High - $4,452

SHAWN ISMAIL

www.ismailforjudge.com

Contributions July - Dec. $6,411
Expenditures July - Dec. $3,849
Campaign account balance Dec. 31 - $2,562
Loans - $0

Major contributors (+- $1,000):
Salim Kassan - $1,000

Bill

The Court at Law #6 bench became vacant when Judge Greg Willis stepped down to pursue a run for Collin County District Attorney. There are 4 candidates who have filed for the Republican Primary to replace Judge Willis.

JAY BENDER

TERRI GREEN

DON H. HIGH

SHAWN ISMAIL

Bill

CHRYSTI BRYANT

www.chrystibryantforjudge.com

Contributions July - Dec. $1,340
Expenditures July - Dec. $3,036
Campaign account balance Dec. 31 - $969
Loans - $50

Major contributors (+- $1,000):
none

LINDA WYNN DRAIN

www.lindawynndrainforjudge.com

Contributions July - Dec. $7,597
Expenditures July - Dec. $10,040
Campaign account balance Dec. 31 - $0
Loans - $1,621

Major contributors (+- $1,000):
Susan Plonka - $1,250 (in-kind)
Linda Drain - $1,450 (loan)

MATTHEW GOELLER

www.mattforjudge.com

Contributions July - Dec. $4,200
Expenditures July - Dec. $4,973
Campaign account balance Dec. 31 - $2,992
Loans - $0

Major contributors (+- $1,000):
Michael Curran - $1,000
Wynn Dillard - $1,000
Matthew Goeller - $4,972

DAVID RIPPEL

www.rippelforjudge.com

Contributions July - Dec. $3,050
Expenditures July - Dec. $7,551
Campaign account balance Dec. 31 - $0
Loans - $0

Major contributors (+- $1,000):
Dr. James Rippel - $2,500
Gail A Rippel - $2,500
David Rippel - $4,051

Bill

The elected Judge of the Court at Law #4, Ray Wheless was appointed to the 366th District Court by Governor Perry, leaving an open bench. A 4 way race has ensued for the Republican nomination.

CHRYSTI BRYANT

LINDA WYNN DRAIN

MATTHEW GOELLER

DAVID RIPPEL

Bill

The final election results are in, and Plano voters will have to return to the polls to decide who will sit on the Place 3 City Council seat.

With 100% of the precincts reporting, Andre Davidson is leading, but fell 261 votes short of the 2,080 votes needed for a majority win.

The results are:

Andre Davidson 1819 (43.74%)
Cathy Fang 1517 (36.48%)
Doug Shockey 823 (19.79%)

This special election, called after Mabrie Jackson resigned her council seat to seek the nomination for State Legislature, failed to excite the vast majority of Plano's voters. Turnout was very low, with only 2.9% of the registered voters casting a ballot.

The run-of will be held on March 20.

Bill

LANCE S. BAXTER

www.baxterforjudge.com

Contributions July - Dec. $15,199
Expenditures July - Dec. $10,600
Campaign account balance Dec. 31 - $8,065
Loans - $0

Major contributors (+- $1,000):
Baxter, Dorothy - $2,500
Curran, Michael - $1,000
Dillard, Wynn - $1,000
Gibbs, Gregg - $2,500
Rich, Jack - $2,500

STEWART MATTHEWS

www.stewartmatthewsforjudge.com

Contributions July - Dec. $0
Expenditures July - Dec. $7,403
Campaign account balance Dec. 31 - $0
Loans - $10,000

Major contributors (+- $1,000):
Stewart Matthews - $10,000 (loan)

BARNETT WALKER

www.walkerforjudge.com

Contributions July - Dec. $12,300
Expenditures July - Dec. $0
Campaign account balance Dec. 31 - $12,268
Loans - $0

Major contributors (+- $1,000):
Troy Burleson - $2,500
Hunter Biederman - $1,500
Kyle Shaw - $1,000
Roger & Judy Jahnel - $1,000
John & Joyce Webb - $1,000
Sharon Curtis - $2,000
Tyler Stewart - $1,200 (in-kind)
Barnett Walker - $7,437

SAJEEL KHALEEL

www.khaleelforjudge.com/

Contributions July - Dec. $169
Expenditures July - Dec. $0
Campaign account balance Dec. 31 - $863
Loans - $0

Major contributors (+- $1,000):
none

Bill

Judge John Barry, who presides over Collin County Court at Law #3, has announced that he will not seek re-election. This soon to be open bench has sparked a 3 way race in the Republican Primary. Here are the candidates opening remarks at the judicial forum held on January 26:

LANCE S. BAXTER

STEWART MATTHEWS

BARNETT WALKER

Bill

7:05 PM

The polls are closed.

Early voting totals are in:

Andre Davidson 1097 (43.12%)
Cathy Fang 947 (37.22%)
Doug Shockey 500 (19.65%)

Bill

UPDATE 8:45 PM

There will be a run-off.

With 63% of the precincts reporting:

Andre Davidson 1496 (43.67%)
Cathy Fang 1246 (36.37%)
Doug Shockey 684 (19.96%)

Yes folks, it's an election year. That means it is time for the Collin County Commissioners' Court to hold its bi-annual "we're going to do something about illegal immigration" meeting.

On Monday's agenda is a discussion requested by Commissioner Jerry ("When are we going to have to hire A-rabs? When are we going to have to hire Indians, and everything else?") Hoagland to require the county's vendors to use the Federal government's E-Verify system to check out the immigration status of all their workers.

The E-Verify system looks up social security numbers to see if they are valid. It really works great. If you don't believe it, ask Swift. They used E-Verify, and then when in a single day immigration police busted 1,200 Swift workers with false ID's, Swift got off with a slap on the wrist. In 2008 Howard Industries lost almost 700 illegal workers in a raid by ICE, once again, the company's use of E-Verify protected it from federal prosecution.

E-Verify, which checks information from I-9 forms against Department of Homeland Security and Social Security Administration databases, cannot tell if a worker is submitting a stolen Social Security number. Critics of the system claim it actually encourages identity theft. But it will protect an employer, if not from ICE raids, at least from prosecution.

Presently, four states require contractors to use E-Verify. It doesn't work, but the federal government is pushing the system on its contractors too.

No, it doesn't work, but it allows politicians, like our county commissioners, to tell the voters that Washington may not be doing anything about illegal immigration, but here in Collin County, we are. Yup.

Bill

Saturday is election day in a special election to fill the vacancy in the Plano City Council caused by the resignation of Mabrie Jackson.

There are 3 candidates for the Place 3 seat. Election watchers tell the Observer that a run-off is very possible, even likely.

On election day, voters must vote in the neighborhood polling location for their precinct. Your precinct number is on your Voter Registration Certificate, or you can call the elections office at 972-547-1990 to find their correct polling place. Additional voter information can be found at the Collin County Elections Office web site.

VOTING LOCATIONS

Precincts: 52, 61, 68, 103, 141 - Armstrong Middle School, 3805 Timberline Drive, Plano
Precincts: 34, 107, 119, 121, 135, 139 - Bethany Elementary School, 2418 Micarta Drive, Plano
Precincts: 23, 46, 47, 50, 51, 152, 158 - Bowman Middle School, 2501 Jupiter Road, Plano
Precincts: 90, 116, 137, 176 - Brinker Elementary School, 3800 John Clark Parkway, Plano
Precincts: 21, 54, 62, 66 - Carpenter Middle School, 1501 Cross Bend Road, Plano
Precincts: 109, 123 and Denton County 226 - Christopher A. Parr Library, 6200 Windhaven Parkway, Plano
Precincts: 15, 19, 53, 65, 70, 71 - Haggard Middle School, 2401 Westside Drive, Plano
Precincts: 58, 77, 91 - Hendrick Middle School, 7400 Red River Drive, Plano
Precincts: 31, 32, 63, 76 - Hughston Elementary School, 2601 Cross Bend Road, Plano
Precincts: 14, 81, 86, 89, 108, 112, 124, 167 - Robinson Middle School, 6701 Preston Meadow Drive, Plano
Precincts: 64, 69 - Schimelpfenig Middle School, 2400 Maumelle Drive, Plano
Precincts: 28, 75, 105, 143 - Shepton High School, 5505 Plano Pkwy., Plano
Precincts: 39, 85 - Thomas Elementary School, 6537 Blue Ridge Trail, Plano
Precincts: 26, 49, 67, 72, 138 - Wilson Middle School, 1001 Custer Road, Plano

THE CANDIDATES:

André Davidson
Age: 64
Occupation: Volunteer
Family: Husband and two adult children
Education: Bachelor of arts degree in general studies, University of Texas at Dallas; attended University of Southwestern Louisiana
Community highlights: Served numerous local volunteer groups ranging from Meals on Wheels to the Plano ISD Education Foundation; named Chamber of Commerce's Citizen of the Year in 2005
Campaign Website
Collin County Observer coverage

Kathy Fang
Age: 63
Occupation: Accountant
Family: Single
Education: Master's degree in business administration, University of North Texas; bachelor's degree in business administration, Soochow University in Taiwan
Community highlights: Leadership Plano graduate; founder of a local group for Chinese-American businesswomen
Campaign Website
Collin County Observer coverage

Doug Shockey
Age: 42
Occupation: Real estate investor
Family: Wife and two children
Education: Bachelor's degree in business administration and master's degree in taxation, Baylor University
Community highlights: Real estate consultant
Campaign Website
Collin County Observer coverage

biographical details from the Plano Blog, Dallas Morning News

Bill

Candidates spar over conservative credentials in Collin County judge race

Thursday, January 28, 2010
By ED HOUSEWRIGHT / The Dallas Morning News

John Muns is running for the top office in Collin County government, so don't call him a moderate.

"I am a conservative Republican," Muns said at a candidate forum Thursday. "I've always been a conservative Republican. I believe in low taxes, fiscal responsibility, transparency and limited government."

Muns is trying to unseat Collin County Judge Keith Self, who says he's the real conservative in the March 2 Republican primary.

"There's a stark difference," Self said at the forum, sponsored by several local Tea Party chapters.

Self and Muns, political veterans with die-hard supporters, are each trying to win over party loyalists by touting their conservative credentials.

Self, a retired Army officer who is seeking a second term, said he's shown he's a fiscal conservative by helping to lower the county tax rate and slow the growth of county spending.

"Four years ago, I said I would stand with the taxpayers, and I did," said Self, who as county judge heads the Commissioners Court that approves the county budget and tax rate.

Muns, who has served on the Plano school board for 17 years, counters that the county budget has "been cut to the bone."

He said spending has been slowed at the expense of adding courts and sheriff's deputies, which he said are desperately needed.

"We must be proactive in keeping up with resources for law enforcement and the courts to keep our neighborhoods safe," Muns said.

The winner faces Democrat David Smith in the November general election. But a Democrat hasn't held Collin County office in more than 20 years, so the stakes are elevated in the March primary.

Both of the Republican candidates have lined up heavyweight endorsements. Self is being backed by local state Reps. Jodie Laubenberg, Jerry Madden and Ken Paxton. He also has the endorsement of the Collin County Association of Realtors.

Muns, by comparison, has been endorsed by the Real Estate Council, which represents Dallas-area commercial real estate companies. He also is supported by former Collin County Commissioner Phyllis Cole and former Plano Mayor Pat Evans.

Ties to Plano

Muns, a real estate developer, has strong ties to Plano. He graduated from Plano Senior High School in 1978 and has served on the Plano Economic Development Board and the Plano Symphony Orchestra board.

Muns' father, James Muns, was Plano mayor from 1992 to 1996. His mother, Betty Muns, serves on the Arts of Collin County Commission.

Muns said he would work more closely with local mayors. Some were angered by Self's opposition to a 2007 county bond proposal that included money for city projects, he said. Voters overwhelmingly approved the $328.9 million bond program.

"We must be better partners with city, regional and state leaders," Muns said.

He said the county should work with cities to attract businesses to the area.

"We have to be proactive and give businesses incentives to come to Collin County," Muns said.

Self, however, said keeping the county tax rate low is the best way to draw and keep businesses.

"It's been proven again and again and again that business goes where it is welcome and stays where it is welcome," he said.

Self lives in McKinney. He moved to the county in 2000 after retiring from a 25-year career in the Army. He's a graduate of the United States Military Academy and was a Green Beret and a Ranger.

He serves on the boards of the Samaritan Inn homeless shelter and the Prestonwood Pregnancy Center.

read the rest of the article at The Dallas Morning News....

The opening remarks of incumbent County Judge Keith Self and his challenger, John Muns at the candidates' forum held on January 27 in Plano.

County Judge Keith Self

Plano ISD Trustee John Muns

Bill

KEITH SELF

www.keithself.com

Contributions July - Dec. $32,205
Expenditures July - Dec. $31,698
Campaign account balance Dec. 31 - $50,080
Loans - $0

Major contributors (+- $1,000):
William Mills - $1,000
TREPAC - $1,500
T.N. / N.K. Chalin - $1,000
James / Jennie Daley - $2,500
William / Catherine Hogsett - $1,000
Patrick Fallon - $4,300 (in-kind)
Patrick Fallon - $1,250 (pledge)
Tye Williams - $1,000 (pledge)

JOHN MUNS

www.johnmuns.org

Contributions July - Dec. - $45,175
Expenditures July - Dec. - $14,998
Campaign account balance Dec. 31 - $58,086
Loans - $30,000

Major contributors (+- $1,000):
Greg Samuel - $1,000
C. Michael Brodie - $1,000
Alpha-Barnes Real Estate Services - $1,000
Walter O. Hill - $1,000
Dr. Ritchie. D. Beougher - $1,000
Beverly D. Lancaster - $1,000
Ronald J. Pegram - $1,000
C. Schenkel - $1,000
William J. Hibbitt - $1,000
James D. Shelton - $1,500
Richard M. Abernathy - $1,000
David M. Doll - $1,000
Robert E. Beaudine - $1,000
Mark Cashman - $5,000
D. Michelle Brennan Hall - $1,000
Ben~am~n J. Biller - $1,000
Leslie M. Duke - $1,000
Marilyn James - $1,000
George & Wanda Farr - $1,000
Jim & Deanne May - $1,000
Michael & Marla Boone - $1,000

DAVID M SMITH

www.DMS4CollinCounty.com

Contributions July - Dec. $1,449
Expenditures July - Dec. $289
Campaign account balance Dec. 31 - $1,160
Loans - $0