A pair of developments over the weekend have all eyes on Texas Democrats. Just before midnight on Friday, the Dallas County GOP filed a lawsuit seeking to remove 128 Democratic candidates from the county ballot. Republicans say the candidates’ paperwork didn’t include an authentic signature of Democratic party chair, Carol Donovan.
Gromer Jeffers, a political writer for the Dallas Morning News, says there’s evidence that someone other than Donovan signed the candidates’ filing petitions.
“[She] may have gotten another person, say somebody in the office, to sign her name for her,” Jeffers says.
Democrats say the lawsuit amounts to “Republican shenanigans,” Jeffers says. They say Republicans filed suit because they are unable to compete with Democrats in Dallas County. Republicans say they’re simply abiding by the law.
“I can tell you up and down the ballot, there are people who are affected,” Jeffers says. They include State Sen. Royce West. “Technically, he’s at risk of being tossed off the ballot if Democrats don’t win in court against Republicans.”
On Saturday, the Texas AFL-CIO met to announce its list of candidate endorsements. Missing from the list is Congressman Beto O’Rourke, who’s challenging GOP Sen. Ted Cruz.
“They’re sending him a message,” Jeffers says. “They’re saying ‘look, we remember that you sided with the president on the Trans-Pacific Partnership – TPP – and some other issues that labor had some concerns about. And on top of that, you didn’t show up to the meeting in Austin.’ So they’re saying ‘don’t take us for granted.'”
Jeffers says losing support from the labor organization is a serious problem for O’Rourke, who needs all the support he can get from Democratic-leaning groups within the state.
“He needs to fix whatever problem he has with them, in order to get a united front against Ted Cruz,” Jeffers says.
Written by Shelly Brisbin.