In the world of marketing, its not unusual to pay celebrities to endorse your product. Does anyone think Tiger Woods is advertising those razors for free? Apparently marketing-exec-turn-state-rep-candidate Angie Chen Button decided to try it in her election bid. So she quietly put a Garland City Councilman, Larry Jeffus, on her campaign payroll, and has him wander HD 112 criticizing her opponent, Randy Dunning… Larry neglects to mention his fiduciary relationship with Angie. He’s received nearly $40,000 for four months of “work” — not a bad gig. But wait, there’s more.
Angie Chen Button is the “taxpayer representative” on the board of the Dallas Area Rapid Transit. Not just on the board, but on the audit committee. Under her careful eye, DART managed to lose a billion dollars. Just vanished. When Chen came before the city council to address the issue, her employee, Mr. Jeffus, stepped up front. Did he ask difficult questions? Did he demand an accounting of the taxpayers’ dollars?
Said Jeffus, “Angie, I appreciate your leadership in this very difficult time. I appreciate your coming here and being honest and candid with us about the difficulty. That’s really important… I don’t know how many councils have had the privilege of being briefed on this. But, I know from what I’ve heard, that you have a handle on it.”
Watch him fawn over Angie at the 12:50 mark in this video.
What “difficulty” was Jeffus referencing? Her falling asleep at the switch? And she has a handle on what? If as a member of the audit committee she had had a handle on DART, maybe they wouldn’t have lost a billion dollars.
Is it me, or is unseemly that councilman Jeffus would be tossing happy-puff at the person who’s giving him $10,000 a month? Shouldn’t he have stepped aside, given the conflict of interest?
But then, that’s apparently what Angie is paying him to do.
For what it’s worth, Randy Dunning hasn’t been buying his endorsement roster. He’s a conservative, which is why we endorsed him.
