Thought the House District 48 race was settled? Oh, you optimist. Republican Dan Neil has filed a challenge with the Texas House of Representatives over his 12-vote loss to Rep. Donna Howard, D-Austin, arguing that there were problems with how the ballots were handled.
In his statement explaining the filing, Neil goes for a scattershot attack on the Nov. 2 elections, claiming that his people have found everything from mail ballots that should have been counted to missing ballots to “1,900 felons who may have been ineligible to vote.” Note the “may” in there, because this quest to, as Neil put it, “make sure that every legal vote has been counted” may end up with the air of a fishing expedition.
It’s up to the House to decide whether it wants to pick this up. Even if it does, Texas Democratic Party Chair Boyd Richie said he was “confident” that Howard would maintain her seat after the challenge. Howard herself was a little more direct, saying in a statement, “Dan Neil’s decision today to file an election challenge in House District 48 speaks more about his political ambition than the accuracy of the final vote count.”
When we spoke to Howard’s attorney Buck Wood recently, he argued that Neil would be walking out on a very shaky branch if he lodged this kind of challenge. So why take this dramatic and near-unprecedented step?
One: Neil thinks he really has a case.
Two: The GOP needs 102 seats because it has to be absolutely sure of having 100 votes for something big it has in store.
Three: The GOP just really hates the idea of having any Democrats at all in the House, especially white Democratic women.
Four: This is nothing to do with Howard, but simply another part of the Travis County Republican Party‘s concerted campaign against Travis County Clerk Dana DeBeauvoir and the elections division.
All through the election cycle, the Travis County GOP has accused DeBeauvoir of a mix of incompetence and malfeasance. On Oct. 29, Dave Nalle (author of the famous “Failures of Travis County Clerk Put Election in Jeoparty [Sic]” press release) publicly called for her resignation when DeBeauvoir asked for extra election day workers. After the Dec. 2 recount, he came back under the guise of Austin Vote Action to accuse her office of “secretiveness, hostility and obstructionism.”
And who is Dave Nalle? Only the chair of the Republican Liberty Caucus and a failed House candidate (he mounted a suicide run as a Libertarian against Austin Democrat Rep. Dawnna Dukes in 2002, picking up only 12% of the vote.)
This article appears in December 17 • 2010.
