TUE brief 1.4.22
Welcome to the brief if you were forwarded this email, be sure to sign up (hint: here’s the button).
Today’s Stories
KEN PAXTON has filed an emergency motion to have the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals rehear the case that resulted in gutting his office’s ability to prosecute voter fraud. The court should take the mulligan. If not, Texas will face a full-blown crisis.
The Office of the Texas Attorney General has had the authority to prosecute election law violations since the 1950’s. This authority exists because county prosecutors are often political allies with county officials who commit voter fraud. They can also benefit personally from such activity.
County District Attorneys have faced this perverse incentive for a long time. That George Soros has recently started pouring large sums into Texas DA races exacerbates this trend.
Paxton has suggested Democrats will benefit from this ruling in general elections during media appearances. He’s not wrong. But let’s probe the matter further.
Why would an all-Republican court issue this ruling shortly before the most contentious Republican primary in a decade?
Might this have anything to do with the fact that Paxton’s next major election integrity case involved alleged illegal acts done to benefit a Republican candidate?
The answers to those questions are unknown, but the timing makes it impossible to ignore.
Then there’s the insane degree to which the Court of Criminal Appeals expanded its authority. Whatever the appropriate constitutional role of the Texas Attorney General might or might not be to pursue these sorts of cases, the civil court system is the proper venue for these discussions.
This situation is dire. Keep in mind; Democrats have no authority in Texas that Republicans do not give them. To wit, the Judge who wrote this opinion was appointed by Greg Abbott.
That Don Huffines has yet to make this a campaign issue is surprising, especially since the matter could be addressed in a special session that needs to occur according to a growing list of House members and the public. (AC)
POTTER COUNTY (Amarillo) COMMISSIONERS COURT is backing away from a plan to use paper ballots in the 2022 primary. It’s difficult to know what to make of this from afar, but the likely answer is “nothing good.”
ROYAL ISD snuck a mask mandate through two days after Christmas. This shows that nobody takes Greg Abbott’s protestations on this subject seriously.
Thanks for reading
Push Junction grows through word of mouth. Please consider sharing this post with someone who might appreciate it.