Tag Archives: Texas Politics

Texas JP Under Suspicion of Participating in Lottery Fraud

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Fayette County Justice of the Peace Tommy Tipton may soon be at the center of an investigation into Lottery fraud involving his brother Eddie Tipton.  JP Tommy cashed a $568,990 on a Colorado Lotto ticket he purchased in November 2005 – which would not have been a problem except for the fact that brother Eddie was running a cheat the lottery operation.  Eddie Tipton used his position as an official for the Multi-State Lottery Association to install a self deleting computer program to create a winning ticket for himself.  Officials are now wondering if JP Tommy’s winning ticket was on the up and up or was a part of his brother’s scheme. The Austin American Statesman has more.

An audacious, movie-worthy lottery rigging scandal that has rocked Iowa is now spreading into other states — including Texas. The Hot Lotto mess does not involve the state-run Texas Lottery. But officials have begun to look closer at a $570,000 winning multi-state lotto ticket purchased a decade ago by a Central Texas judge.

No charges have been filed against Tommy Tipton, Fayette County Justice of the Peace for Precinct 3, based in Flatonia. Records from the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement show he has held a state peace officer license since 1986, and until two weeks ago worked as a reserve officer for the Flatonia Police Department.

Tommy is also the brother of a former official for the Multi-State Lottery Association named Eddie Tipton, who police say orchestrated a bold plan to rig lotto computers to select the numbers on jackpot tickets he’d purchased. Now, recently filed legal documents raise the question of whether Judge Tipton benefited from his brother’s scheme.

According to local media reports, Eddie Tipton’s scam began unraveling five years ago, when a New York lawyer tried to claim a $14.3 million Iowa jackpot only hours before it was set to expire. The attorney claimed to represent a Belize corporation, however, lotto officials refused to pay it out because state law requires a winning ticket’s purchaser and possessor to be identified. Later, others, including a Houston man who is a close friend of Eddie Tipton’s, also tried to collect on the ticket, which ultimately was never paid out.

A Texan Should be Speaker

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Considering the outsize influence Texas has in the current GOP domination of Congress, it only makes sense that a Texan should be Speaker of the House.  And at least three Texas Representatives seem willing to step forward if Paul Ryan (now allegedly too liberal – if you can believe that – to be Speaker) decides to decline to run.  The Texas Tribune indicates that Bill Flores (TP-Bryan), Michael McCaul (R-Gerrymanderland), and Mike Conaway (TP-Midland) are all interested in the job.  All would be midgets following in the Texas-sized footsteps of Congressional giants and former Texas Speakers Sam Rayburn, John Nance Garner and Jim Wright, but at least they would be Texas midgets.

 U.S. Rep. Bill Flores, R-Bryan, said Monday he intends to seek the gavel of the United States House of Representatives if his colleague, Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan, doesn’t.

Though GOP lawmakers have been urging Ryan to run as a consensus candidate, Flores said in an interview with The Texas Tribune that he spoke to Ryan on Sunday.

“I don’t want to share private conversations, but he was still a ‘no’ as of yesterday when I spoke to him,” Flores said. 

If Flores is to succeed, he will need the 25-member Texas House delegation behind him. That’s no certainty yet, given  possible home state competition. U.S. Rep. Mike Conaway, R-Midland, has said he will consider running for speaker if Ryan opts against a run. U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul is also mulling a run, a source close to him confirmed. 

Where we are now is, what we’ve agreed is that we’re going to hold our powder dry,” Flores said of his fellow Texans. “And then we’ll see which Texan gets the most traction, and the thinking is today that we’ll coalesce around one Texan eventually.” 

The race is complicated by the Gang of Forty ultra-right wingers who are making outsized demands as a condition of support for any candidate for Speaker.  So right now we have about 10% of the Congress who represent the most far-right lunatic fringe of what used to be a mainstream political party controlling who will hold the third most powerful position in American government.  If Ryan bails, Flores might just be the man.  First, he apparently doesn’t understand the meaning of a private conversation which positions him well to betray anyone who strays from the Tea Party line.  And second, he is apparently willing to kowtow to the Gang of Forty demands of ideological purity at the expense of actually governing.

This Has Bomb Written All Over It

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Former State Senator and miserably failed gubernatorial candidate Wendy Davis is developing a TV show based on her life story.  Really?  We didn’t get enough of that in 2014?  If Red wants to watch a bad TV show, he’ll stick to reruns of Reba or any of the upcoming GOP debates. The Dallas Morning News has more on this – oh, words just fail Red every now and then.  Why won’t politicians just go away when the voters tell them to?

Former Democratic gubernatorial candidate Wendy Davis confirmed Thursday night she is working on a pilot for NBC.  She said the series, about a female senator who goes to work for a law firm after losing the governor’s race, is loosely based on her life.

“It is loosely based on my personal experience,” Davis said Thursday night. “It is not an autobiographical tale.”

Davis cautioned the pilot was still in development and NBC was a “long way” from a decision about the series. She said she did not know yet who would play the character based on her.

Red hopes a “long way” means never.  But if it doesn’t, Jenna Elfman is the obvious choice.

Why Vote?

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Seem like your vote just doesn’t matter anymore? You may be right.  Ross Ramsey of the Texas Tribune explains how your state representatives and senators have rigged the system to protect incumbency and secure themselves the benefits of office at the expense of any real electoral choice.  The chances of a Texas incumbent actually losing his or her office to a candidate of the opposing party are practically nil.  The only possible challenges are in the primaries which tend to skew further right or left and leave us represented by many politicians who cater to the fringe of their parties.  Look at the map above which shows how Texas Republicans chewed up Austin to prevent it from electing more than one Democrat from the bastion of Texas liberalism.

Not counting their U.S. senators, Texans elect 217 federal and state legislators, and all but 15 of those seats will be on the ballot next year.

Voters will dump some people. Other officeholders will hang it up — some already have. This, however, you can take to the bank no matter how many of the faces change: fewer than a dozen of those 217 positions will see a change of party. Probably not even that many. The maps are rigged to favor the parties that are in power in each district.

Start with the congressional maps. In the average competitive statewide race in Texas in the last two presidential years — 2008 and 2012 — the Republican candidate beat the Democratic candidate by 11.7 percentage points. The margins in congressional districts range from a Democratic high of 58.1 points to a Republican high of 52.4 percent. It’s safe to say that Dallas’ Eddie Bernice Johnson and Clarendon’s Mac Thornberry don’t have anything to worry about in next November’s elections. Their primaries could always be interesting, but you’re not going to beat either of them with a candidate from the opposing party.

Cruz Lines up Texas Tea Party Support – Big Whoop!

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The Houston Chronicle reports that Sen. Ted Cruz (TP-Texas) has lined up the support of numerous Tea Party denizens of the Texas Legislature.  Red is not sure how that is going to help him in Iowa where a decent showing is surely critical.  Cruz is currently staggering around in sixth place in most national polls, but ranges anywhere from third to sixth in Iowa.  Still, Red has to admit that even sixth place is an impressive feat for a politician that has NOT ACCOMPLISHED A SINGLE THING in his not quite TWO YEARS in actual elective office.  The Canadian-born Cruz talks a good game to his rabid base of right wing loonies, but he has yet to show much broader appeal.  Maybe that day will come now that Cruz has lined up the craziest of the inmates of the Texas Legislative Asylum.  With Tea Party favorites like Konni Burton, Matt Krause and Doug Miller backing him, Cruz is sure to rocket to the top.

But Cruz can’t match the endorsement chops of Ben Carson.  Carson, who looks more and more clueless with each passing minute, has snagged the coveted endorsements of Kid Rock, Roger McGuinn, Richard Petty and Mickey Rourke.  If that isn’t a lineup sure to sway the national consensus in Ben’s direction, Red doesn’t know what is.

John Cornyn Must Really Hate this Guy

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Sen. Ted Cruz (TP-Texas) continued his assault on Republican leadership yesterday before a nearly empty Senate chamber.  Cruz seemed desperate to vent on the GOP powers that be as part of his flagging “outsider” campaign for President.  The focus yesterday was the GOP’s failure to defund Planned Parenthood and block the Iran treaty. Cruz was practically frothing and at times, it was very hard to tell who Cruz hates more – Pres. Obama or the GOP leadership.  But that is so often the case with the professional Haters such as Cruz.  In contrast, Red thinks that it is becoming perfectly clear that Sen. John Cornyn and other stalwarts of the GOP in Congress likely hate Cruz with a white hot passion that far exceeds their loathing of Obama.  The Texas Tribune has the full story on Cruz’s latest diatribe.

In an hour-long speech on a nearly empty Senate floor that ended when he could not gain permission to continue, the state’s junior senator and presidential hopeful expanded his usual criticisms of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., to include outgoing House Speaker John Boehner. Cruz also lambasted fellow Texas U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, spoke of the recent lunar eclipse and boasted of a puzzling personal role in law enforcement.

“Speaker Boehner faced a conundrum,” Cruz said of Boehner’s abrupt decision to step down. “If he does what he and McConnell promised, which is funding all of Barack Obama’s priorities, he would have lost his job.” 

“And so what did he do?” Cruz asked. “He announced he’s resigning as speaker and resigning as a member of Congress.” 

He also took aim at his colleague from Texas, Majority Whip Cornyn. Dozens of times, he questioned the integrity of “Republican leadership,” a reference that includes Cornyn in his capacity as the second-ranking Senate Republican. 

He specifically called out Cornyn, along with a handful of other senior Republican senators, for voting down a Cruz amendment targeting funding for Planned Parenthood and the Iran nuclear weapons deal via voice vote. 

In contrast, Cruz cast himself and conservative senators and House members who frequently vote with him as the only elected members performing their jobs with the will of the American public in mind.  

The speech lasted until his colleagues refused to extend his allotted time. Along the way, Cruz made several pop culture references — the Sunday night lunar eclipse, the movie “The Terminator” and the novel “Brave New World” — not an altogether unimaginable departure from his marathon 2013 speech two years ago which included a reading of “Green Eggs and Ham.” 

He also claimed the mantle of the badge: 

“I’m an alumnus of the U.S.  Department of Justice,” he said. “I was an associate deputy attorney general. I spent much of my adult life working in law enforcement.” 

Cruz served in that position for six months, according to his online LinkedIn.

Red will sleep more soundly at night now that he knows Chief Assistant Deputy Constable Trainee, Part-time Dog Catcher and Self-Proclaimed Piece Officer Ted Cruz is on the job.  Canada’s loss is our gain. And Red knows how to spell Peace, just in case you were wondering.

One Thing the Bushes Know How to Do, Cont.

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The Houston Chronicle reports that Land Commissioner and Bush family scion George P. doesn’t seem very interested in following the law when it comes to hiring for the General Land Office.  Either that, or the latest Texas Bush is more interested in rewarding Bush family friends and sycophants.  The Houston Chronicle reports that Bush has failed to follow Texas law in remaking the agency in the Bush family image.

Less than a year after being elected to lead the oldest state agency in Texas, Land Commissioner George P. Bush has dramatically remade the General Land Office by ousting a majority of its longtime leaders and replacing many of them with people with ties to his campaign and family. 

Eleven of the top 18 officials on the agency’s organizational chart a year ago have been fired, forced out or quit, and more could leave soon under an ongoing overhaul that Bush has described as a “reboot.”

In their place, Bush has given top jobs to two of his law school classmates, two relatives of members of two Bush presidential administrations and at least three others with ties to the family or other political leaders.

In all, Bush has hired at least 29 people who worked on his campaign or have political connections, according to a review of thousands of pages of personnel records. The agency did not advertise any of the openings publicly.

State law requires all agencies considering external candidates for a job to post the opening with the Texas Workforce Commission. Newly elected statewide officials often ignore the requirement for some core positions – Attorney General Ken Paxton and Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller already have been publicly criticized for doing it a handful of times this year – but Bush’s hiring differs because of how far-reaching it has been, with the hires ranging from a temporary transition director to five campaign veterans hired permanently for the new position of “regional outreach coordinator.”

Another Bush ignoring the law is no big deal, but it seems especially blatant in the case of George P.

Chapter 656 of Title 6B of the Texas Government Code prohibits appointments from outside of the agency except in cases of reorganization ordered by the Legislature.

“Any agency, board, bureau, commission, committee, council, court, department, institution, or office in the executive or judicial branch of state government that has an employment opening for which persons from outside the agency will be considered shall list the opening with the Texas Workforce Commission,” the law states.

Workforce Commission spokeswoman Lisa Givens said she did not know who was responsible for enforcing that law. The commission does not check to ensure that jobs are posted, she said.

The Attorney General’s Office referred questions about the law to the Workforce Commission.

Personnel records show that Bush has directed at least 40 external hires between November 2014 and July 2015 but listed only four of those with the Workforce Commission.

One Thing the Bushes Do Know How to Do

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The Bushes clearly know how to reward friends and punish anyone not swearing fealty to all things Bush.  George P. is clearing if not cleaning house at the Land Office and installing friends and Bush family cohorts.  Former Commissioner Jerry Patterson laments the loss of institutional knowledge while others question where this important agency is headed under the latest Bush name.

At least 111 state workers have been fired, retired or have quit the Texas General Land Office — about 17 percent of the agency’s workforce — under the leadership of George P. Bush, whose so-called reboot has drawn criticism from his predecessor, who says the agency is suffering under “a purge.”

Bush’s house-cleaning invokes the conservative belt-tightening mantra that pervades Texas politics, but the size of the exodus and the tenor with which it was announced has raised questions.

This whole idea is all about looking good,” former Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson, also a Republican, told the Statesman.

Despite recent audits that were critical of “significant weaknesses” in the way the agency managed contracts under Patterson, the former commissioner called Bush’s shake-up “a purge of the best agency in Texas government and a purge of people who have done wonderful things.”

“It’s all about ‘I’m going to show that I can cut the size of government,’” he said. “I think it’s some serious ignorance. You’ve been hired to do a job. They’re all on the street now, and they haven’t got new jobs.”

When he announced the reboot in June, Bush and his No. 2, Anne Idsal, suggested the agency was hampered by entitled workers and other “threats.”

Threats? What threats?  Please tell us.

Rick Perry Speaks – Cue the Violins

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Off the Kuff details Rick Perry’s attempt to blame his campaign going down in flames, swirling the drain, crashing and burning, taking a 10 foot walk off a 6 foot pier, biting the big one, taking a dirt nap, sleeping with the fishes, kicking the bucket, falling off the table, chucking up a duck farm, eating leaden death, licking on a cyanide pop, jumping with a brick parachute, batting .000, shanking it into the water hazard, booking a cruise on the Titanic and generally setting a new standard for ineptitude and failure on – wait for it – EVERYONE ELSE BUT HIMSELF!

To paraphrase Homer Simpson, “I’ve seen campaigns suck before, but they were the suckiest bunch of sucks who ever sucked.”