Some political advertisements just don’t seem quite right. If you have been on Twitter lately, it is likely that you’ve come across a number of advertisements from an account calling for the removal and replacement of current Texas Supreme Court Justices Nathan Hecht, Phil Johnson and Jeff Brown with the candidates Robert E. Talton, Sharon McCally, and Joe Pool Jr. respectively.
This relatively new Twitter account is that of Texans For Justice. Having 56 followers, as of this writing, the Texans For Justice Twitter page was created around the end of January. Of the many repetitive tweets are statements that strangely have little to do with a judicial election. For example, one tweet reads, “Vote NO to womb-to-tomb entitlement! We need REAL fiscal conservatives on the Texas Supreme Court. VOTE for Talton, McCally & Pool Jr on ¾[sic]” Some of these tweets seem like messages that would be contrived by a liberal, based on what they perceive appeals to conservatives. This is because liberals support the group Texans For Justice.
More specifically, they are trial lawyers. A quick glance at the website of Texans For Justice reveals that the funding source of the group is the Balance Political Action Committee (BalancePAC). A brief search of Balance PAC’s political contributions reveals that the PAC is predominantly supported by trial lawyers. Donation sources are based mainly in Houston and range from Planned Parenthood to multitudes of massive, multinational corporate law firms.
A look at BalancePAC’s vendors reveals that the PAC frequently employs services from prominent Democratic consultants and data firms based in the Washington, D.C. metro area and involved with progressive groups across America. Other PAC expenditures are also of interest. Specifically, the PAC has donated $24,000 to the group Texans for America’s Future as an in-kind donation in the form of polling data. According to the website of Texans for America’s Future, the group touts its political involvement in Texas: “With our aggressive door-to-door campaign, direct mail, and even television and radio ads, we worked to deliver hundreds of thousands of straight-ticket votes for President Obama, Sheriff Adrian Garcia, and every Democrat – from the courthouse to the White House – in Harris County.”
With this evidence, there is little doubt that Texans For Justice is an obvious snow job intent on deceiving conservative primary voters to back trial lawyer supported judges in Republican primaries. Surprisingly, even some in the Texas legal profession have recognized this tactic. Liberals will do anything to influence the political process in the Lone Star State. Conservatives must remain vigilant to leftist groups attempting to influence conservatives in Republican primaries.
