The Texan Podcast - Daily Rundown - October 9, 2024

Starting point is 00:00:00 Howdy folks, today is Wednesday, October 9th, and you're listening to the Texans Daily Rundown. I'm the Texans Assistant Editor Rob Lausches, and here is the rundown of today's news in Texas politics. First up, with public safety and crime consistently polling as one of the top concerns for voters over the past few years, big donors in Texas are putting their campaign dollars into a battle for control of state courts that usually draw scant attention in a presidential election year. According to the latest campaign finance reports for the period ending September 26th, the Judicial Fairness Pack brought in a whopping $8.3 million, partially due to donations from Elon Musk, Ken Fisher, Ross Perot Jr., and Robert Rowling, all writing checks for $1 million each.

Starting point is 00:00:53 The Judicial Fairness Pack is associated with Texans for Lawsuit Reform and is focused this year on retaking seats on the state's appeals courts, which often have the final word on about 90% of all appealed court cases in Texas, since the state's two highest courts, the Supreme Court of Texas and the Court of Criminal Appeals, only take up a handful of appeals each year. Next, state representatives Morgan Meyer and Angie Chen Button both face difficult re-election challenges and are now toiling with fire from their right flank. A group of precinct chairs in the Dallas County GOP are circulating a draft resolution calling on Meyer and Button to

Starting point is 00:01:31 sign the contract with Texas, a list of commitments some Texas House members and GOP nominees have signed onto in choosing a speaker. The draft reads in part, quote, The Dallas County Republican Party Executive Committee calls upon Chairman Allen West to formally request all current Dallas County Republican candidates for the Texas House to indicate, by signature, prior to early voting for the general election 2024, whether they approve of and will adhere to the contract with Texas. The resolution is expected to be considered at next week's County Executive Committee meeting. In other news, a citizen journalist from Laredo is hoping that the

Starting point is 00:02:10 Supreme Court of the United States agrees to grant her appeal at its conference on October 11th. Priscilla Villarreal appealed her case in April, asking the court to resolve questions about First Amendment rights of journalists and qualified immunity granted to police. She is waiting on a decision by at least four justices of the U.S. Supreme Court this week to hear her case. Villarreal, who is described in her own court documents as a plucky citizen journalist, reports via Facebook with colorful commentary about local events like crime, missing persons, traffic, and other local issues. She was arrested in 2017 and charged with violating Section 39.06 of the Texas Penal Code,

Starting point is 00:02:53 which establishes a felony offense for, quote, soliciting or receiving from a public servant information that has not been made public. Also, the Texas House Committee on the Judiciary and Civil Jurisprudence held an interim hearing last week that revisited an ongoing disagreement over how to go about reforming a state law designed to prevent lawsuits from being used to burden free speech, with the goal of producing a bill for the next legislative session. The law, known as the Texas Citizen Participation Act, is designed to protect defendants in civil litigation against abusive litigation, known as the Texas Citizen Participation Act, is designed to protect defendants in civil litigation against abusive litigation, known as Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation, or SLAP, filed simply to bury a defendant in costly litigation.

Starting point is 00:03:37 The TCPA, which was enacted in 2011, is considered one of the strongest of the anti-SLAPP laws in the nation. However, one wing of the legal community is concerned the law was written in an overly broad manner that can be exploited to shut down legitimate litigation that has nothing to do with free speech, causing litigants years of delay and millions in court costs. Last but not least, officials from the Texas Secretary of State, the Office of the Attorney General, and Dallas County political parties witnessed the successful testing of the Dallas County Elections Department equipment on October 8th. Random equipment from the warehouse was selected for testing and each component passed the

Starting point is 00:04:19 hash testing that ensures the equipment is running software certified by the Election Assistance Commission and the Secretary of State, as required by law. The system's ballot tabulation was also tested with randomly marked ballots and found to be accurate, the press statement noted. Dallas County GOP Chairman Allen West had called on the Secretary of State to take action when he said a logic and accuracy test on September 18th demonstrated equipment issues with the central accumulator. Thanks for listening. To support The Texan, please be sure to visit thetexan.news and subscribe to get full access to all of our articles, newsletters, and podcasts.

The Texan Podcast - Daily Rundown - October 9, 2024

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