Good.
Houston tea party spinoff King Street Patriots will grant the Texas Democratic Party access to its financial records, forestalling an injunction hearing that had been set for Monday afternoon in Austin, according to TDP.
According to a TDP news release, review of the records will occur Tuesday at noon, with a hearing scheduled for Thursday in case TDP General Counsel Chad Dunn still has questions about what KSP has or has not disclosed.
TDP’s original information request was sent last Wednesday and demanded that KSP — as a registered Texas nonprofit corporation — turn over required records last Friday or today. On Friday, TDP announced it had scheduled the injunction hearing due to a lack of response from KSP, as the Texas Independent previously reported.
The Lone Star Project has started digging in, and this is what they’ve found so far:
King Street hiding source of $80,000
Though acknowledging the receipt of over $80,000, the King Street extremists refuse to disclose who contributed the money. Incredibly, the group contends that the funds were raised by “passing the hat” at their meetings. To put this outrageous claim into perspective, it would take 1,600 people contributing $50 each to raise $80,000 while a group of 400 people would have to contribute an average of $200 each. According to activist participants, the King Street extremists’ meeting space could barely hold 200 people, yet they claim to have raised as much as $15,000 at a single meeting simply by “passing the hat.”
Given their reluctance to come clean on their contributors, depositions taken under oath will likely be necessary to expose the actual sources and amounts of funds raised and spent by the King Street extremists.
Multiple Ties to Republican Party Activists and Party Officers
As expected, the documents show that the King Street activists operate more like an arm of the Republican Party than any non-profit organization:
- Office space provided by close supporters of Texas Republican Party Chair
- Online and communication services provided by key Swift Boat player
- Cash payments to a right-wing extremist website
There’s more, so check it out. I can’t wait to see what the depositions turn up. And kudos to the Independent, which has owned this story. I still haven’t seen any reporting on it in the Chron. On a related note, former City Council member Carroll Robinson has sent a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder asking for election monitors to be sent to Harris County to “ensure that the voting rights of all the residents of the county are protected”. We’ll see what happens with that.
Okay, take these three items that you chose to quote, presumably because you think that they are persuasive, perhaps even smoking guns:
— Office space provided by close supporters of Texas Republican Party Chair
— Online and communication services provided by key Swift Boat player
— Cash payments to a right-wing extremist website
Now, if these are “bad” for this group to do, then it would be “good” if another group, say Planned Parenthood or the NAACP, had these associations, right? And how likely do you think that is? Does the local Planned Parenthood office rent from George Strake? I don’t think so.
But what if Planned Parenthood rented from a close supporter of the Texas Dem Party chair? In fact, I’d be willing to bet the some PP office somewhere in Texas has exactly this relationship. It seems completely natural. And to whom would the NAACP turn for support for it’s “get out the vote” efforts on the web? Would they turn to a Swift Boat website builder? Or would they turn to someone who is also doing Sheila Jackson Lee’s campaign website?
The things you are citing are just plain weak. They have to cross a line like actually endorsing someone, having a Dewhurst call center in their office, having a stack of Rick Perry signs at their office for people to pick up, etc.
“passing the hat” is exactly what they do (actually its 3 or 4 and they are old and sweat stained), and given the number of times they have met they have had the numbers to get to the $80K.