By the InkDemon
The tea parties in North Texas two years ago were very dissatisfied with former Texas House Rep. Jerry Madden, 67th District.
Mr. Madden dropped of the race. Now it appears that one of the candidates in that race is Jerry Madden on steroids.
This is what Donna Garner has to say:
I am concerned about a mailer that Jeff Leach’s campaign has sent out across Collin County. Jeff Leach has accused his opponent, Jon Cole, of taking money from David Almeel, who recently ran in the Democrat Primary for Congress.
The problem is that the campaign donation that Jon took was way back in 2008 – not in this election cycle. Furthermore, in 2008, Almeel was then a Republican who gave generously to both Democrats and Republicans.
Jeff Leach is sending out mailers accusing Jon Cole of being “bankrolled by Democrats,” but Jeff Leach himself has taken money from very powerful lobbyists such as Bill Miller and Neal "Buddy" Jones of HillCo Partners who represent the all-Democrat Caucus and the Mexican American Legislative Leadership Caucus.
Remember that it was high-powered lobbyists Neal “Buddy” Jones (former Democrat House member) and Bill Miller who on June 22, 2011, at the request of Houston homebuilder Bill Perry and HEB/Central Market Charles Butt called all members of the Texas House State Affairs Committee and lobbied them to “sink” the Sanctuary Cities bill. Consequently, the bill was bottled up in committee and went down in defeat.
It disturbs me greatly that Jeff Leach has aligned himself with this particular group of power players.
Worst of all, Jeff Leach has taken money from Mike Toomey who represents gambling interests such as Sam Houston Race Park.
I find Jeff’s involvement with Mike Toomey to be especially troubling because it was Mike Toomey as Gov. Perry’s chief of staff who lobbied so hard for Gov. Perry to sign an executive order in 2008 which mandated that all sixth-grade girls entering public schools had to be vaccinated for HPV. At that time, Gardasil/Merck was the only supplier of the HPV vaccine, and we later learned that Mike Toomey was a high-paid lobbyist for Merck.
Jeff Leach has also taken large campaign donations from the optometrist lobby that is the leading medical group in Texas supporting ObamaCare.
In fact, Jeff Leach has taken over $50,000 in special interest money this campaign cycle.
Even though I am not a voter in HD 67, all of us as Texans are impacted when “weak” legislators get elected; and if Jeff Leach has taken large sums from the Austin lobbyist power machine by currying their favor just to get funds, there will come a day when they expect him to “pay them back.” That worries me considerably.
Here is the pledge that I as a concerned and conservative Texan want Jon Cole and Jeff Leach both to sign immediately:
“If the constituents of HD 67 deem me worthy to serve in the Texas House, I solemnly pledge to them that I will do my best to seek out and support an authentic conservative as the Speaker of the House for the 83rd Legislative Session.”
It was my pleasure to endorse Jon Cole back for HD 67 on 2.16.12, and I have seen nothing since then that would dissuade me from changing my mind: http://libertylinked.com/posts/9560/my-pleasure-to-endorse-jon/View.aspx
TEXAS ETHICS COMMISSION LINKS
TEC campaign donations information on Jonathan Cole: http://www.ethics.state.tx.us/php/filer.php?acct=00062117COH
TEC campaign donations information on Jeff Leach: http://www.ethics.state.tx.us/php/filer.php?acct=00067738COH
*To be able to access the TEC data, you will need to click on the column that says “Electronic PDF File.”
Donna Garner
What is interesting about this race is that some of the Tea Parties are supporting Leach. However, when you look deeper into these supporters, one finds that a big Southern Baptist mega-church is at least partially behind it. In fact, several Christian Evangelical groups have morphed into a number of “Tea Party” look-a-likes.
Leach is a member of this mega-church.
Leach’s minions cover and harass voters going into the polls. They hand out a yellow flyer with several columns of groups who have endorsed or “Tea Approved” Leach. It is clear that this tactic is to paint Leach as endorsed by virtually “everyone”. That’s not true. There are a number of conservatives groups such as the group represented by Donna Garner that find Leach to be the wrong candidate. Garner has endorsed Jon Cole.
Hey! There is nothing wrong with being a Christian or a member of a Southern Baptist mega-church.
The InkDemon questions whether these supporters are looking at the issues and the candidates or whether they are simply drinking the Kool-Aid.
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