Dallas County Republicans will appeal a ruling that blocked efforts to remove scores of Democrats from the November election ballot.
A formal intent to appeal was filed Monday on behalf of Missy Shorey, the chairwoman of the Dallas County Republican Party, with the Fifth Court of Appeals in Dallas.
Shorey argues that Dallas County Democratic Party Chairwoman Carol Donovan did not properly certify candidate petitions and forward them to the Texas Secretary of State’s office. The lawsuit, originally filed in January, showed that Donovan did not sign 127 candidate petitions.
“The case was inappropriately dismissed,” local GOP lawyer Elizabeth Alvarez Bingham said in an email Tuesday night.
But Donovan said nothing had changed with the Dallas County Republican Party’s lawsuit.
“The trial court found the Republican Party’s lawsuit to be frivolous, and their appeal is frivolous as well,” Donovan said in a text message.
[…]
It’s unclear if the appeals court, which is majority Republican, will hear the case before the November general election.
“The case never had any merit,” said Buck Wood, a lawyer for about a dozen Democratic candidates that would be affected if the suit is successful. “It’s way too late to be doing anything. I don’t know why they filed an appeal.”
See here for the previous update. I can understand appealing the dismissal – as noted in the story, the judge did not elaborate on his reason for dismissing the case – but I don’t get waiting four months to file it. The lawsuit has always seemed to be tenuous at best, relying on a very strict reading of election law that nobody seems to adhere to at that level, with the penalty being quite extreme and falling on candidates who themselves did nothing wrong. I would also note that we are fast approaching a deadline for when absentee and overseas ballots have to be printed and mailed, so the court would have to act very quickly if it were going to take action (another reason why the delay in appealing puzzles me). I suspect nothing will come of this, but as always with courts you never can be sure.
Nothing but a hail mary last ditch effort to see if the all gop appeals court will over turn the district court. Should have been filed a few months ago if they were serious.
Between this issue and the fiasco with the Commissioner precinct 2 race, and the recent county judge candidate resigning, and the dcrp replacing him with a jp who couldn’t get enough verified petitions to get on the ballot, the once proudly led dcrp is nothing but a joke. There going to wake up losing every countywide race, cd32, possibly sd16, at least 3 state house seats, and possibly some 5th court of appeals seats.
Hopefully judge awards legal costs to Dems from the Reps.
Dallas county has soundly rejected the Republican Party and will knock out most of the holdouts in the northside come November.
@ asmith – Agreed. The notice of appeal was filed on the very last possible day.
@ penwyth – The judge did award attorney’s fees – the statue requires it.