Friday, August 31, 2012

Big Jolly's Take on the Oliver Ballot Debacle [UPDATED}

UPDATE:  I have heard that Lloyd Oliver's suit has been sent back to State Court.

While Big Jolly and I are still in post-Primary counseling after the D.A. election, he has written a very interesting (and alarming) take on what is going on with the battle between would-be HCDA Democratic Candidate Lloyd Oliver and the Democratic Party.  He also talks about the possible ramifications of what could happen in November.

Check it out by clicking here.

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

Clearly Big Jolly hasn't spent a lot of time in federal court. I'm sure everyone involved was thrilled to get Judge Rosenthal, who is always the smartest and fairest in the room. She doesn't issue half-baked rulings, she researches her rulings, and she wouldn't let important deadlines pass. She didn't make up that date, it's the date the officials said was the deadline. But Jolly knows better, I guess.

Paul Simpson said...

The usual rule in ballot contests like this is that, after a certain date before the election, it's too late to change ballots and the dispute becomes moot. So the status quo at that point becomes the final status, and the ballot can't be changed even if it's wrong. Or, as David Jennings suggests, it's conceivable a federal court would order a late change (anybody have thoughts on a legal basis for that possibility?), then his scenario would play out. Either way -- the Democrats benefit. The Dems had all months to remove Lloyd Oliver from their ballot, but waited until the last minute to do so. That was strategic delay. And that the Dems are even pulling this stunt shows they think they have a chance down ballot in November. Don't let that happen, GOPers.

Anonymous said...

You know you're in trouble when Don Hooper sort of agrees with you.

Murray Newman said...

Anon 8:32 a.m.,

Yeah. I know. The Donner actually had a point on his blog about all of this publicity that Lloyd was getting was something he wouldn't have gotten otherwise.

Anonymous said...

Funny. Y'all usually can't say enough about how stupid Democrats are, but now they're orchestrating some huge conspiracy to deprive elderly Republicans of their vote?

Come on now.

Rage

Murray Newman said...

Rage,

I don't think that it is a conspiracy. I think it is just a possible (not even necessarily probable) result. Lloyd wasn't going to spend any money on his campaign. He has gotten a lot of free press out of this and some sympathy that he normally wouldn't have generated.

Anonymous said...

Or the democrats have made sure to educate the public that their candidate for DA is incompetent whereas the republican hierarchy supported their incompetent DA during the primary.

Anonymous said...

That's not what Big Jolly focuses on though. He specifically whines about the elderly and mail-inballots.

Anonymous said...

"Hearing" isn't good enough. Get a Pacer account, mitherficker.

Anonymous said...

The fact that the GOP supported Lykos in the Primary despite knowing she was incompetent won't be forgotten in the future.
That means you Ed Emmett and Jared Woodfill. You've lost my support in any future elections.

Leif said...

Judge Rosenthal did, indeed, remand the case to the 133rd on Friday.
http://docs.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/texas/txsdce/4:2012cv02568/1004651/6/

Paul Simpson said...

Rage (7:46):
It's not much of a "conspiracy" for current & past Dem party chairs - lawyers among them - to know the most opportune time to kick their Inconvenient (but not legally disqualified) Candidate off the ballot. Waiting until the last minute made it more likely Oliver can't be ordered back onto the ballot before the judicial clock runs out.
Or -- maybe they were just slow on the uptake?

Anonymous said...

One thing I can say in defense of the Dems is at least they did something affirmatively about trying to keep an incompetent candidate from getting elected to a critical office. Whereas the Reps didn't have the cajones to get Lykos off the ticket.

Anonymous said...

It's not much of a "conspiracy" for current & past Dem party chairs - lawyers among them - to know the most opportune time to kick their Inconvenient (but not legally disqualified) Candidate off the ballot.

The most opportune time would be to deny him when he wanted to run on the D ticket in the primary.

Waiting until the last minute made it more likely Oliver can't be ordered back onto the ballot before the judicial clock runs out.

Actually, it was not certain they'd be able to kick him off the ticket at all, so waiting means if they were unsuccessful they would not have a chance to appeal. It was too big a gamble to have been timed that way on purpose.

Or -- maybe they were just slow on the uptake?

Yep. That's it, right there.

Rage

Episode Seven: The Voters Awaken - A One Act -Sci-Fi Play

SCENE:  The Death Star orbits over Downtown Houston. [INTERIOR] The Imperial Council Chambers. EMPRESS OGG sits at the head of a long table ...