Details emerge on Toomey's pro-Greens push

New direct expenditure reports on the Texas Ethics Commission website show that Gov. Rick Perry's former chief of staff, lobbyist Mike Toomey (right, AP photo), spent about $10,500 last winter and spring on an abortive effort to help the Green Party win a spot on Texas' general election ballot next month.
http://dallasne.ws/bBx5Y1

Arizona GOPs recruit Green Party candidates. Sound like Texas?

Slater:
Where have we seen this before? Republicans in Arizona have recruited Green Party candidates in hopes of shaving votes from Democrats in the fall. The Arizona Democratic Party has cried foul - much as the Texas Democratic Party did after a similar effort in the Lone Star State. In Texas, a GOP operative from Arizona engineered a petition drive that put Green Party candidates on the ballot in November. Democrats say the effort is designed to help GOP Gov. Rick Perry by drawing votes away from Democrat Bill White. Perry's campaign denies involvement. But operatives involved in the Green Party petition effort in Texas have ties to Perry's chief consultant, Dave Carney.
http://dallasne.ws/ah3uo2

Man who helped put Green Party on Texas ballot was working at same time for Perry camp

Slater: AUSTIN – A local Republican operative who helped put the Green Party on the Texas ballot was working at the time for Gov. Rick Perry's re-election campaign. Perry spokesman Mark Miner said Tuesday, as he has before, that the governor's campaign was not involved in the Green Party petition drive. But finance reports show that the campaign paid Stuart Moss for mileage while he was doing political research for the Perry camp in November, the same time he was helping the Green Party field candidates.
http://dallasne.ws/aeEnD7

District Attorney investigating GOP/Green Party scandal

Slater:
The Travis County District Attorney's Office is investigating a GOP-backed petition drive that put the Green Party on the November ballot.
http://dallasne.ws/aODq7n
Dems say quit, Greens:
Democrats lost their bid to keep the Texas Green Party off the fall ballot. So while the lawsuit goes on in district court to get to the bottom of who bankrolled a GOP-backed petition drive for the Greens, Democrats are trying to shame Green Party candidates into quitting the race - even if they don't have to.
http://dallasne.ws/azoRty

No candidate's an island: But Perry allies in Green Party case own one

Slater takes us to Lake Winnipesaukee!
Democratic lawyers are trying to serve former Rick Perry chief of staff Mike Toomey with a subpoena to find out what he knows about the Green Party petition case. Word is that Toomey is on vacation, possibly on an island that he owns with the governor's chief political strategist Dave Carney.
http://dallasne.ws/co0upk

Rick Perry denies knowledge of the Green Party petition effort

Slater:
Gov. Rick Perry made his first public comments on the Green Party petition scandal. Democrats say a GOP-backed effort to put the Greens on the November ballot is aimed at helping Perry by siphoning votes from Democratic challenger Bill White. Asked about the petition drive -- in which several Perry associates have been linked -- the Republican governor pleaded ignorance. "I have no knowledge of that at all," he told reporters.
http://dallasne.ws/9JN26l

Another GOP operative's name comes up in Texas Green Party ballot case

Slater:
AUSTIN — A Republican consultant with ties to Gov. Rick Perry is the latest in a growing number of GOP operatives described in court documents as helping the Green Party get on the Texas ballot.

Anthony Holm, whose political-consulting firm represents Gov. Rick Perry’s campaign and the state GOP, said Tuesday that he talked with Green Party officials numerous times in recent months about fielding candidates.
http://dallasne.ws/dyCAwj

Texas Supreme Court clears way for Green Party while it reviews case

Slater clarifies:
AUSTIN – The Texas Supreme Court kept the Green Party's hopes alive Friday, allowing the party to certify candidates while it reviews whether illegal corporate money was behind a petition drive to get on the ballot.
http://dallasne.ws/a9cuTX

UPDATED: TX Supreme Court keeps Green Party hopes alive for fall ballot

Slater:
The Texas Supreme Court says it wants to hear more about the Democrats' claim that the Green Party used an illegal corporate contribution to get on the state ballot. In the meantime, the Green Party moved ahead this afternoon and certified its candidates to the secretary of state for the fall election.
http://dallasne.ws/bMJzhD

Environmental group blasts Green Party in GOP-petition scandal

Slater reports:
A leading state environmental group says it can't support Green Party candidates because the Greens used out-of-state corporate money to get on the Texas ballot.
http://dallasne.ws/a1mueN

Democrats urge Texas Supreme Court to block Greens from ballot

Slater:
Democrats told the Texas Supreme Court today that the Green Party shouldn't be allowed to field candidates in the fall because it knew it was being helped by Republicans with $532,000 in illegal corporate money. The Green Party contends the corporate contribution that bankrolled its petition drive was legal. But Democrats argued that it's not -- and said in its motion to the Supreme Court today that allowing the Greens to be on the ballot would reward the party for bad behavior.
http://dallasne.ws/dp1GPh

Texas Green Party files appeal to get candidates on November ballot

AP:
AUSTIN, Texas – The Texas Green Party is asking the state Supreme Court to allow its candidates to be on the November statewide ballot.


The state Democratic Party sued to block the Green Party. A state district judge ruled last week that restricted corporate money was used to support a Green Party signature drive and did not comply with state election law.
http://tinyurl.com/2777s4l

Circle of Perry associates grows in the Green Party scandal

Slater: The circle of Republicans close to Rick Perry who are involved in the Green Party petition scandal continues to grow.
http://tinyurl.com/26awm7t

GOP-linked firm paid $532,000 for Greens petition drive, files say

Slater reports:
AUSTIN – A petition drive to put a Green Party candidate for governor on the Texas ballot cost $532,000 and was bankrolled through an out-of-state corporation with Republican ties, according to court documents.

Democrats say the drive was a disguised effort to help Republican Rick Perry by fielding a candidate who would take votes from Democrat Bill White in November.
http://tinyurl.com/25mdxph

Green Party cochair says she's paying GOP attorney in petition case

Slater follows the green to the Greens:
Green Party cochair Christine Morshedi of Houston says she hired a top Republican lawyer to represent her in the Democrats' lawsuit against the party.
http://tinyurl.com/23jungn

Top GOP lawyer to represent Texas Green Party in Democrats' lawsuit

Slater reports:
http://tinyurl.com/233p3zu
A top Republican lawyer has been hired to represent the Green Party in a lawsuit in which Democrats want to know who bankrolled a petition drive to put the party on the ballot.

Wayne broke it earlier in our Trail Blazers blog -- interesting to see the rewrite process:
http://tinyurl.com/233p3zu

AUSTIN — A top Republican lawyer has been hired to represent the Texas Green Party against efforts to identify a mystery donor who paid to put the party on the fall ballot.




 

TX Democrats file suit: Who funded Green Party petition drive?

Slater reports:

The Texas Democratic Party has gone to court to force the Green Party to identify who funded a petition drive to put them on the November ballot.
http://tinyurl.com/2338uca

Mystery money and Texas politics

Slater offers a little historical perspective:

The story of an out-of-state political operative steering secret money through a corporation to put the Green Party on the Texas ballot has a certain familar ring to it.
http://tinyurl.com/26zokl9

Bid to put a Green in Texas governor race may be illegal, expert says

Slater reports:

AUSTIN – One of the state's leading election experts says a petition drive funded through an out-of-state group to put the Green Party on the ballot this fall might have violated state law.


Party officials say the group, a nonprofit corporation, collected 92,000 signatures and delivered them as "a gift" so that the Green Party could field candidates in the November election. The arrangement for the petitions, set up by an Arizona Republican consultant, was revealed Sunday by The Dallas Morning News.
http://tinyurl.com/2e6xysh

GOP consultant in Arizona pulls strings to get Green Party on Texas ballot

Slater puts it together:

AUSTIN – The liberal Green Party's uphill battle to get on the Texas ballot this fall has been fueled by a surprising benefactor: an out-of-state Republican consultant with a history of helping conservative causes and GOP candidates.
http://tinyurl.com/27sqlhv