Democracy For Sale Revisited : Lone Star Times

Democracy For Sale Revisited

by The Panda Man · 10/29/2006 4:29 pm

Last week we brought you news of questionable “votes for coupons” dealings in the Vo-Heflin race. A Vietnamese community group was accused of offering coupons for business discounts as an enticement for pro-Vo Democrat votes. The Heflin campaign has just announced that a judge has issued a restraining order to stop the practice.

ALIEF - Harris County District Judge John Coselli today issued a permanent emergency restraining order to stop the Vietnamese Community of Houston and Vicinity, Inc. from running ads and distributing coupons that clearly violate the Texas Bribery Statute (Penal Code 32.06).

The Talmadge Heflin Campaign with the Harris County Republican Party sought the restraining order after the organization reneged on a promise to voluntarily remove the ads.

“We are pleased with Judge Coselli’s decision to protect the integrity of the election process,” Court Koenning, Campaign Director for Talmadge Heflin said. “However, we are concerned about the harm that has already been inflicted against legitimate votes in every community in this district,” Koenning remarked.

Local authorities are also not the only ones involved in the investigation of the coupons.

In a related story, United States Justice Department officials were conducting interviews this week regarding possible violations of the Federal vote buying statute (42 USC 1973i). The Heflin Campaign turned over all the information they collected including translated radio scripts, tapes of programs and sworn affidavits from Vietnamese voters who were offered coupons in exchange for their vote.

If the Heflin-Vo race proves to be a close one, this incident could result in a contentious post-election battle over the results.

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Comments

26 Responses to “Democracy For Sale Revisited”

Dr Coverup on October 29th, 2006 at 4:38 pm

My My One thing about us Wankers, we hire great Moderators. Like ME

The Moderator
davewolfgang on October 29th, 2006 at 5:20 pm

Pfffft - like calling us names is going to get us to listen to you?

So did the administration come to your house with a gun pointed at you and make you vote/not vote? Did they take your money and make you vote/not vote? Did they sell you Amway or frozen meats?

Please explain your comments with facts and without calling anyone names….if you can.
southerntragedy on October 29th, 2006 at 5:38 pm

A wanker? Hmmmm, sounds vaguely familiar….Dr. Coverup….hmmmm…Interesting~
Rorschach on October 29th, 2006 at 5:59 pm

#1, If you are going to comment about American elections, shouldn’t you, like, be American? (yes I know where you are coming from, some of us can see the IP address. Wanker indeed!)
sunny on October 29th, 2006 at 6:15 pm

It really annoys and angers me when wankers from elsewhere comment on another country’s politics. Let them look after their own in their own country. I would never want to appear so arrogant or bad-mannered to comment in here, LST, about a lot of the issues you discuss. You may note, that I don’t. It is not my place to do so.
Dr Coverup on October 29th, 2006 at 7:05 pm

Deleted

By the Moderator of this here blog.
Dr Coverup on October 29th, 2006 at 7:07 pm

Hey Doc? Se Hable three stikes? You are out of here.

The Moderator
nz-texas on October 29th, 2006 at 7:16 pm

Really, does anyone have time for this jerk?
Rorschach on October 29th, 2006 at 7:23 pm

Somebody like who wanker? Somebody using an Argentinian IP and a email address from an austrailian ISP. How exactly do you plan to vote in an American election? You don’t live here, so you have no voice here. Beat it. Go play at the DU or Dialy Kos and stop trolling here.

Your childish remarks have no ability at all to change our minds, so what exactly do you think you are accomplishing here? You are just going to get your sorry arse banned, and what will you have accomplished? It is morons like yourself that give the tiny percentace of liberals that actually have something useful to add to the conversation a bad name. You have added nothing useful, You have not made a single logical point, you have nothing but vitriol and invective (find yourself a dictionary and look it up).
sunny on October 29th, 2006 at 7:32 pm

I apologise on behalf of Aus if ‘Dr Coverup’ is, indeed, from this country…please don’t think we are all like that…we are not!
TXAggie87 on October 29th, 2006 at 7:35 pm

I’m still tryin’ to figure out his logic . . . if we follow the instructions per the t-shirt and send them all radioactively to see Allibabah and his 72 psuedo-virgins, how the heck are they going to come over here and bomb us?
Rorschach on October 29th, 2006 at 7:37 pm

Sunny I would NEVER judge all aussies by this idjit. some of my best friends are from Austrailia.
sunny on October 29th, 2006 at 7:44 pm

Thanks for that, Rorschach…we do have our fair share of idiots here too, unfortunately!
Squawkbox Noise on October 29th, 2006 at 7:49 pm

Sunny
It is Halloween around here so the moonbats are flying.
sunny on October 29th, 2006 at 8:27 pm

lol…just as well Halloween hasn’t fallen on full moon…or things could get much worse! lol
Neocon on October 29th, 2006 at 8:31 pm

Darn it! I missed all the fun! It never fails! What wuz happenin’?
Neocon on October 29th, 2006 at 8:37 pm

Sunny and nz,

Although I missed the food fight, you certainly do not need to apologize for whatever this idiot did!!! Dang, maybe someone will email me!
Rorschach on October 29th, 2006 at 8:44 pm

#17 we had some idjit libtard with an aussie email and either an argentinian or uroguayan IP address going off on how corrupt and evil the bush administration is and how if we bomb Iran back to the cretaceous they’ll just come over here and bomb us. yada yada. he wasn’t even american from what I could tell. He was calling us wankers and I don’t know too many americans that use the term of endearment.

Nothing to see here, move along…..=D
Neocon on October 29th, 2006 at 8:49 pm

Thanks, Ror

I just hate missing something!

I thought it may have had something to do with the topic of this tread. Remember Heflin lost to Vo by just 16 votes during the last election. I wonder how many of Vo’s votes were “paid for” by these organizations last election. This should get rather interesting.
sunny on October 29th, 2006 at 8:49 pm

Yes…good advice, Rorschach…the wanker isn’t worthy of your time, Neocon…he’s best ignored if he comes in again. These types just want the recognition and are stirrers…very little grey matter up there in their heads!
southerntragedy on October 29th, 2006 at 9:17 pm

Now Back to Our Sponsor:

Uhhh: If the Heflin-Vo race proves to be a close one, this incident could result in a contentious post-election battle over the results.

Battle? What kind of battle? A COUPON battle? Tell me when and where, ’cause I’m the coupon clippin’ queen. My kids know that coupons are “FREE MONEY”….I want my coupon!!!
Neocon on October 29th, 2006 at 11:08 pm

I’m sorry, but this really, really bugs me. Have any of the local media shined a light on this? If not, why not (other than the obvious liberal/demicrap slant that most have). This should be making big news — not just a campaign press release.
Wino on October 30th, 2006 at 5:33 am

Democrats cheating during an election? This isn’t news; it’s the status quo.

They know they can’t win honestly, so they lie and cheat and steal.

We’ve taught them how to do this by giving them too much for too little. We are reaping what our “leaders” have sown.
Rorschach on October 30th, 2006 at 7:27 am

Neo, believe it or not, the Chronicle has been doing a pretty good job covering this as far as I can tell.
jacampbell on October 30th, 2006 at 7:44 am

I am not in the Ho/Heflin district and have not followed the action that much but I remember the count/re-count last election.

I always wonder why folks that finally lose an election have to come back again. They did their stint and after voters vote them out they should move on to another office (if you must be a career politician) or just be “productive” in a regular job. I am not very sympathetic or supportive of these politicians who try to get back in, good or bad. He was voted out for a reason in his district. The change was what was needed more than the past voting record apparently. When Heflin got booted that probably shook up a few congressmen…..Good.
GopBob on October 30th, 2006 at 11:33 am

The Chronicle has covered the story but not highlighting it in more visible links like they did with the Sekula-Gibbs story about campaigning in a polling place. I get it though, it’s just their normal bias. Local news KPRC channel 2 and KTRK channel 13 have covered it. There are links to their stories on the Heflin campaign website at http://www.talmadgeheflin.com

As for why someone who loses an election and wants to come back: Only losing by 16 votes isn’t exactly a mandate and especially when most voters in the district don’t agree with the votes of their new representative, I can see where a shot at coming back is warranted.