Back on the Texas Ballot: GOP should get out of the bullying business

Dallas Morning News | Editorials:

“The Supreme Court of Texas nailed the state Republican Party on some ballot chicanery yesterday involving a state House district in the Panhandle. Two reasons people as far away as Dallas should care: (1) GOP leaders got caught meddling in a local election, and (2) the court has revived the candidacy of an education-friendly challenger [Amarillo school board member Anette Carlisle], to the status quo. ... Her campaign against Mr. Swinford, one of House Speaker Tom Craddick's lieutenants, was a challenge as well to one of the most powerful Republicans in Texas. Perhaps that was why the state GOP tried to use a bizarre interpretation of the Texas Constitution to jettison Ms. Carlisle. The official rationale was the state's ban on legislative service for those already holding ‘lucrative office.’ Strange, but Ms. Carlisle's service on the school board is not rewarded with pay.”

Ed Cognoski responds:

Oh, the irony of the Republican Party claiming with a straight face that serving on a school board amounts to ‘lucrative office’. Given the current Abramoff/Delay scandals swirling around Washington, you'd think Republicans, of all people, would know what lucrative is. If they think school board service is lucrative, no wonder they see no need to put additional, badly needed funding into the public school system of Texas.

This was nothing but a naked power play by the Republican Party of Texas. It was done in the open, with brazen confidence that it would make no difference to the voters of Texas. It was (another) abuse of the courts to win an election. This is a sign of a political party with too much power, too much arrogance, too little regard for basic fair play in a democracy.

The education-friendly slate of challengers should be elected because of their proposals to fix the mess the current power brokers in Austin have made of education in this state. The latest shenanigans by the Republican Party furnish us another reason to turn their leaders out of office.