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Investment firm ousted over SBOE gift dislosures
The real estate investment firm entangled in a dispute with State Board of Education members Rick Agosto and Rene Nunez over gift disclosures got the heave-ho from the board on Friday.
AEW Capital Management LP had qualified as one of the 68 firms that could be tapped for making future real estate investments for the $22 billion Permanent School Fund.
But on Friday, the board plucked AEW from the list and approved only 67 eligible firms.
“As a public fund, we needed someone who could be a little bit more accurate,” said Board Member David Bradley, chairman of the Permanent School Fund committee.
“At a minimum, it was sloppy,” Bradley said. “At the worst, it was intentional.”
Disclosure forms submitted as part of AEW’s application indicated the firm had given gifts to Agosto and Nunez gifts, including football tickets, golf games and meals. Agosto and Nunez disputed that they had received the gifts; AEW subsequently amended its gift report.
Several board members abstained from the AEW vote, including Geraldine Miller. Her family’s company, Henry S. Miller Realty Services LLC, has a direct business relationship with AEW, according to a document submitted to the Texas Education Agency.
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UPDATED: Shapiro to file for (state) Senate
UPDATED: In the latest fallout from U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison’s decision not to resign any time soon, state Sen. Florence Shapiro said Friday she will file for re-election to the Texas Senate post she has held since 1993.
Shapiro, R-Plano, had announced her campaign for U.S. Senate 16 months ago.
“I will adjust my U.S. Senate campaign based on the future resignation decision of Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison,” Shapiro said in a statement. “On July 15, 2008, I became the first candidate in Texas to announce for the U.S. Senate. I knew it would be a long road.
“Sixteen months later, I am very pleased with the statewide team of supporters we have assembled and to have raised over a million dollars. We are excited and ready for 2012 or sooner.”
Hutchison has announced she will not seek reelection in 2012, should she not resign first to run in the GOP gubernatorial primary against incumbent Rick Perry.
Earlier, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst — who had expressed an interest in running for U.S. Senate, announced he will also seek reelection to his current job. With Dewhurst staying put, at least for now, Attorney General Greg Abbott has put on hold his plans to run for lieutenant governor.
Before being elected to the Texas Senate in 1992, Shapiro was a public school teacher and owner of a small advertising company.
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Farouk Shami’s (Quaker) faith
Recent news reports have questioned whether Democrat Farouk Shami will face anti-Muslim discrimination in his quest to become governor.
But as we reported in today’s paper, he’s not Muslim — he’s Quaker.
Here’s some more information on his religious background, according to campaign spokesman Jason Stanford: Shami had a Muslim mother and father, a Catholic stepmother and a Jewish step-grandmother.
“He went to American Quaker schools in Palestine and identifies now as a Quaker,” Stanford said.
When asked whether he ever identified with another faith, Stanford said: “It’s not a big issue with him. I really think his religion is the American Dream.”
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The scene at Shami’s campaign launch
HOUSTON — At the official launch of businessman Democrat Farouk Shami’s gubernatorial campaign earlier today, attendees picked up T-shirts, shook hands with the candidate and viewed his TV ad that debuts Friday.
Maria Arredondo was among the attendees who is also one of Shami’s employees. Arredondo, a production supervisor, said it was optional for employees to attend and that she wanted to go to support her boss.
Houston resident Doris Cleveland said she’d heard about Shami through a friend who is helping with the campaign. And Anne Gillis, a member of the advisory committee for the Montgomery County Democratic Party (that’s the county where Shami, a resident of The Woodlands, lives), said she was familiar with Shami in part because she uses one of his products: a BioSilk hair de-frizzer.
Cleveland was among several attendees who said that if a candidate with a name like Barack Obama can be elected president, a candidate with the name Farouk Shami has a shot at being governor of Texas.
The video below shows the scene and features supporter Naser Alzer talking about how Shami might overcome his challenges.
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Farouk Shami launches gubernatorial campaign
HOUSTON — With hundreds of supporters watching, Democrat Farouk Shami this afternoon officially launched his gubernatorial bid outside CHI USA, part of his hair care business. It’s the same facility GOP Gov. Rick Perry visited earlier this year to celebrate Shami’s work bringing manufacturing jobs from Asia to Texas.
In a red-carpeted white tent where his employees and friends were served popcorn and cotton candy, Shami said he’s an example of the American dream and that he is inspired by President Barack Obama.
Obama “did not let his strange name or unconventional upbringing stand in his way,” said Shami, who was interrupted at times with chants of “Farouk! Farouk! Farouk!”
Shami said that as governor, he would bring jobs to Texas, encourage organic farming and ranching, improve public schools, and help more Texans have access to health insurance.
Shami told the ethnically diverse crowd his life story: The immigrant born in what was then Palestine arrived in the United States with $71 and went on to become a U.S. citizen and the founder of a company that he said is now worth more than $1 billion. His company, Farouk Systems, makes CHI flat irons and hair dryers and BioSilk shampoos and conditioners.
He has said he’ll spend $10 million of his own money in the Democratic primary.
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Perry refuses commutation, stop execution
Gov. Rick Perry just a few minutes ago refused to commute the death sentence of a convict condemned to die for his part in the 1996 fatal shooting of a Houston convenience store clerk.
Robert Lee Thompson was set to die at 6 p.m. Prison officials said final preparations were underway.
The decision came hours after the U.S. Supreme Court refused Thompson’s final appeals, and a day after the state Board of Parsons of Paroles voted 5-2 to recommend that Perry commute Thompson’s sentence to life.
In a statement, Perry rejected that advice:
“After reviewing all of the facts in the case of … Thompson, who had a murderous history and participated in the killing of Mansoor Bhai Rahim Mohammed, I have decided to uphold the jury’s capital murder conviction and capital punishment for this heinous crime.
“There is no reason to set aside the capital murder conviction handed down by a Texas jury and upheld by numerous state and federal courts,” Perry said.
The case had marked the second time in two years that the parole board had recommended a commutation for a murderer who was convicted under Texas’ controversial law of parties, which allows accomplices to face the death penalty even if they did not actually kill.
Thompson, 34, was convicted of being an accomplice when the store clerk, 29, was gunned down. Thompson’s partner in crime, Sammy Butler, was sentenced to life in prison.
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Hutchison to hit TV on Friday (updated)
U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison will start running television spots statewide on Friday, campaign spokeswoman Jennifer Baker said.
UPDATE: Baker said Hutchison will use the ad to discuss “how she’s fighting for Texas now in her efforts to defeat the goernment takeover of health care.”
These will be the first spots of the 2010 Republican primary for governor.
In the wake of her announcement that she will not resign her Senate seat before the March primary, Hutchison has placed robocalls to primary voters this week and launched a radio advertising campaign.
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Heritage Society of Austin: Thumbs down on mansion expansion
The Heritage Society of Austin, a leading proponent for rebuilding the fire-gutted Texas Governor’s Mansion, will not support recently revealed plans for a two-story addition to the 153-year-old building.
“How we as Texans treat the mansion sets a standard and sends a signal across our state regarding the inherent value of historic landmarks and preservation of our history,” said Mandy Dealey, society president. “The proposed addition would negatively impact the iconic and symbolic frontal view of the mansion.”
Dealey Herndon, project manager for the mansion restoration, called the group’s opposition regrettable but said she could not comment further until she sees an expected letter outlining the society’s position.
The addition is envisioned for the north side of the mansion, adding about 2,000 square feet of living space largely devoted to private quarters for the first family. Though final designs have not been completed, an enclosed walkway would connect the addition to the mansion.
The addition is sorely needed to address a shortage of living, office and storage space, Herndon said. A private fundraising campaign, which by last month had taken in more than $3.5 million, would pay for the addition.
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Podcast: Texas Political Parlor
Podcast
Fun with Dick and Kay … Where is Eliot Shapleigh? … The politics of beer sales and hair care products.
Join the Statesman’s Gardner Selby and Jason Embry, and KUT 90.5 FM’s Ian Crawford in the Texas Political Parlor this week.
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Listen to Hutchison’s radio ad
Here it is, the first radio ad in the Republican primary for governor:
Perry’s campaign was quick to find fault.
The ad says, “She wrote the Texas sales tax deduction saving families $500 a year.” The sales-tax deduction (an effort to help states that don’t have state income taxes and thus can’t deduct those from their federal income taxes) was something that Hutchison worked on and advocated for years. She wrote a bill in 2003 to deduct sales taxes and worked on the issue with Texas Republicans in the U.S. House, who got it into legislation that was signed into law in 2004.
Perry spokesman Mark Miner notes that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid authored an amendment earlier this year to make the deduction permanent. Hutchison had a similar plan but put it aside to support Reid’s.
The legislation that Miner references has not made it into law. But the exemption that Hutchison pushed for has been law for several years.
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Shami hires Stanford, Coon
Farouk Shami, who will formally announce in Houston today that he’s seeking the Democratic nomination for governor, has signed up some experienced hands to help him.
The always-clever Jason Stanford will be handling press for Shami. Stanford managed Chris Bell’s campaign for governor in 2006 — a campaign that gave us lines such as, “Rick Perry couldn’t lead a silent prayer” and the “Bell on Wheels” bus tour.
Joel Coon will be Shami’s campaign manager. Coon managed the 2008 campaign of U.S. Rep. Travis Childers, who won a Mississippi seat in the U.S. House that was previously held by Republicans.
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Jerry Jeff Walker singing in Austin to help Democrat Bill White’s Senate campaign
Jerry Jeff Walker is putting on an exclusive $500-a-head-and-up show in his Austin home Friday night to raise money for Houston Mayor Bill White’s U.S. Senate campaign after two no-cost opportunities to hear White (but not Walker) during the day.
Walker said through White’s campaign that his wife, Susan, “and I have been long-time Democrats. Whenever we feel there is a chance to elect someone who shares our values we lend our support.”
Walker continued:
We met Bill White in Washington D.C. during Obama’s inauguration. We talked on various topics and decided that if he ran we would help. Texas needs good, honorable people in Congress. We also need good Democrats. Bill White is both.
Walker fans should forget about swaggering in on the concert because the gathering was limited to 50 people, White spokeswoman Katy Bacon said. An invitation posted here states that it costs $500, at minimum, to attend. The show’s hosts include Roy Spence, one of the founders of advertising giant GSD&M.
Kelly Fero, an adviser to Democratic U.S. Senate aspirant John Sharp, doesn’t sound like he’ll be eavesdropping. Fero said: “Jerry Jeff is an interesting choice for a campaign that keeps trying to persuade folks that their candidate represents the future.”
Otherwise Friday, White plans to attend a coffee at IBM in Austin before doing a noon interview with Evan Smith, ceo and editor in chief of The Texas Tribune, on the University of Texas campus; fetch details here.
White also plans to attend a 3 p.m meet-and-greet open to the public hosted by state Rep. Dawnna Dukes, D-Austin, at the Nuevo Leon restaurant on East Sixth Street.
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Frustration over dearth of Latinos in social studies standards
State Rep. Norma Chavez, D-El Paso, ticked off the number of Latino historical figures who will be required learning under the new social studies curriculum standards.
In kindergarten: none. In grade 1: none. In U.S. government: none.
“You are truly not looking at the entire history of this state and accurately reflecting individuals who should be included,” Chavez told the State Board of Education. “Your government section has none, as if we don’t exist.”
In total, there are only 16 Latinos among the more than 160 historical figures who must be taught, she said, yet Latinos represent over 40 percent of the state’s population.
“This is no longer just about Cesar Chavez. This is about an entire community,” Norma Chavez said.
But Board Member Pat Hardy, a former social studies teacher herself, said aiming for a certain number of Latinos in the standards to mirror the size of the population would be arbitrary and not necessarily historically accurate.
“I contend that that is revisionist,” Hardy said.
Chavez retorted that the historical revisionism is on the other side by “neglecting the true reflection of our great state.”
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Hutchison uses robo-call to explain decision
U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison is using automated calls to explain to voters why she decided not to resign her Senate post until after her March primary challenge to Gov. Rick Perry.
Take a listen here:
Hutchison spokesman Joe Pounder said the call was sent to Republican primary voters.
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Bradley calls SBOE gift reports “grossly inaccurate”
The sting of the criticism has yet to subside for two State Board of Education members who say they were unfairly slapped by media reports in October that they received gifts from a firm vying for Permanent School Fund work.
The lingering effects were evident Tuesday when the committee that oversees the school fund approved a pool of 68 qualified real estate investment managers, including the firm that claimed it provided gifts of meals, football tickets, golf games and more to Rick Agosto, D-San Antonio, and Rene Nunez, D-El Paso.
Committee Chairman David Bradley, R-Beaumont, said the gift reports from AEW Capital Management were “grossly inaccurate” and he offered an apology to Agosto and Nunez because the disclosure had cast them in a bad light.
“We can’t fix stupid,” Bradley said.
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Lottery commission eyes approving Powerball in Texas
The Texas Lottery Commission today voted unanimously to publish rules for the Powerball game, taking a large step in expanding the state’s gambling options, the Houston Chronicle reported.
Previously, states had to choose between participating in Powerball or Mega Millions, which Texans have been able to play since 2003. But the games recently reached an agreement that would allow states to participate in both.
According to the Chronicle:
If the panel gives final approval to the rules early next year, the first Powerball ticket could be sold in Texas on Jan. 31.
The largest Mega Millions jackpot has been $370 million, while the largest Powerball jackpot has been $365 million.
Powerball could bring to Texas another $35 million a year in revenue toward public education.
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Hutchison will appear with Cheney, but later than scheduled
U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison’s appearance in Houston today with former Vice President Dick Cheney will take place a couple of hours later than expected.
There was some question about whether Hutchison’s Senate schedule would let her be there, but she is going to be able to attend.
Why the delay? Today the Senate is voting on a spending bill for military construction and veterans’ programs. Hutchison is the leading Republican on the subcommittee working on that bill, so she has to be there to help manage it on the floor, a campaign spokeswoman said.
There were earlier concerns that a procedural vote on health care would cause her to miss the event, but that vote isn’t happening today.
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Americans see country headed in wrong direction, poll says, but closer look shows strong partisan divide on nation’s direction
Results from a recent University of Texas poll released today suggest a majority of U.S. adults believes the country is on the wrong track, though a closer look shows it’s primarily Republicans and self-identified Independents who have worries.
Broadly, 51 percent of the respondents to the survey taken Oct. 13-22 said the country is off on the wrong track with 31 percent saying it’s headed in the right direction and 18 percent answering they don’t know or otherwise.
But it looks like party alignment explains the results.
Specifically, 61 percent of self-identified Democrats participating in the online poll said the country is headed in the right direction with 23 percent saying it’s off track. In contrast, 82 percent of Republicans and 55 percent of Independents said the country is on the wrong track.
Daron Shaw, a University of Texas government professor who helped helm the poll, reacted: “The Republicans are (basically) more pessimistic than the Democrats are optimistic.”
A separate wrinkle: Respondents widely rated jobs and unemployment as an extremely important issue with education and schools also widely rated highly.
Gay marriage ranked least important, on average, among 13 issues participants were asked to gauge. Some 26 percent of respondents rated gay marriage as not important at all with 14 percent saying gay marriage is extremely important.
Shaw noted that the 26-percent “not important” subgroup represented the largest not-important subgroup for any of the issues. “It’s something of a political statement (for anyone) to say gay marriage is not important at all,” Shaw said.
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Only 1 in 5 U.S. adults correctly name chief justice of U.S. Supreme Court in poll
As part of a recent national poll being chewed over at a University of Texas conference today, only one in five adult respondents correctly named John Roberts as the chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.
But 71 percent correctly named Joe Biden when asked to specify the vice president.
Eighty-five percent of the 2,100 respondents described themselves as registered to vote. Thirty-three percent said they were Democrats, 24 percent identified themselves as Republicans. All of the respondents were reached over the Internet. The poll — partly fetchable by clicking here — had a margin of error of plus or minus 2.1 percentage points.
Only 49 percent named Nancy Pelosi as the current U.S. House speaker (though 83 percent correctly said Democrats hold majority control of the Senate).
Daron Shaw, the UT government professor who helped oversee the poll, suggested the big punch line is that people lean in favor of limiting the roles of corporations, unions and special-interest groups in elections, though they’re not inclined to favor limits on individual donors.
Sixty-seven percent of the respondents believe corruption is most widespread at the national level of government; 12 percent said it’s most widespread at the state level.
A similar 67 percent of the adults said the average member of Congress has ethics that are not so good or poor, though that beef was less prevalent when respondents rated their own House representative; 33 percent said their own member had ethics that aren’t so good or poor.
Asked where they get their political information, 61 percent said they get information from the Internet every day or a few times a week. Twenty-two percent said they got such information from a mainstream newspaper every day or a few times a week. On the partial results I saw, there was no attempt to break out how much of that Internet information originated with newspapers.
More poll results are to be rolled out later today. There are plenty of seats available at the conference, which is free and open to the public; its agenda appears here.
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Clearing up what Hutchison decision means
There has been a lot of confusion today — some of it created in this space — about what the Hutchison resignation means. After talking to numerous folks about what the election code says, let me try to clarify.
U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison has said she will resign her seat after the March primary. Her campaign says she will resign regardless of whether she wins or loses the primary. Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst is running for re-election.
But if Gov. Rick Perry appoints Dewhurst to replace Hutchison, or if he wins a special election before November 2010, the state Republican Executive Committee can choose another GOP nominee for lieutenant governor. And that could trigger other openings on the statewide Republican ballot.
The question is: Will Perry be less likely to appoint Dewhurst because he does not want to disrupt the rest of the GOP ticket and kick the task of nominating to the SREC? Perhaps he will find it easier to just appoint someone who isn’t currently in office or who isn’t up for re-election to a high-profile spot in 2010.
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Hutchison unsure whether she’ll make Cheney event
U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison said in Galveston today that she hasn’t yet determined whether she’ll be able to make a Tuesday appearance and fundraiser in Houston with former Vice President Dick Cheney.
The full Senate’s first major procedural vote on health-care legislation could come Tuesday.
Hutchison has made the fight against health care the main rationale behind her decision not to resign from the Senate before her March primary against Gov. Rick Perry. At the same time, the Cheney appearance is one of the most important events of her campaign.
“We’re working on it,” Hutchison said this morning in her first interview since her campaign announced she would not resign the Senate seat before the primary. “That’s going to be a tough situation. But again, I’ll make the judgment call.”
If Hutchison cannot make it to Houston on Tuesday, Cheney will appear at the events without her, a campaign spokesman said.
Hutchison said she knows she will miss some votes in Washington leading up to the primary.
“I’m not going to miss important votes,” she said. “I’m not going to miss votes where it can make a difference. But clearly I cannot be there 100 percent every single time.”
In a speech to the Texas Federation of Republican Women, Hutchison stressed her Senate record, saying she protected Texas military bases, fought for a sales-tax deduction so Texas is not penalized for not having a state income tax and pushed for women who stay home to have the same retirement-savings options as those who work.
“You elected me to the Senate to fight for Texas,” she said. “And that fight has meant billions in tax relief, more money in your pocket, more investments in our economy and more jobs in our communities.”
She also aired some of her familiar criticisms at Perry, calling the Texas Department of Transportation arrogant and reminding the audience that he sought to vaccinate school girls from the human papillomavirus.
Perry spoke to the group on Friday. He did not mention Hutchison, but focused much of his speech on criticizing Washington — a word that he has at times used as a substitute for Hutchison’s name.
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I have known people who were from Iran (they called it Persia) who had lived here but identified themselves Christians instead of Middle Eastern religion. They had some elder family members who lived in Iran but they themselves were Westernized. They were
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Ok I agree Thompson deserves to die no doubt I worked TX Death Row he is scum but why didn’t his partner get the death penalty as well? and my main question I have is this, One of my fellow firefighter’s was killed 2 years ago as he pulled up
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