Bay Area Houston

There are two real good reasons for campaign finance reform in CCISD. Misty Dawson and Scott Bowen.

In Texas there are no limits on donations and it’s pretty obvious here in the CCISD area. State Representative Money Mayes Middleton spent $2.5 Million of his own money to win a state house seat here in Galveston County and CNN aired a segment called “Deep in the Pockets of Texas” highlighting 2 billionaires donations to candidates.

And now that money is coming to CCISD. It is unlimited. It is unstoppable. These billionaires can donate unlimited amounts of money to put unqualified, extreme white wing, candidates on our ballot for CCISD. They could finance legal challenges after these candidates lose causing chaos and discouraging qualified candidates from running. This is happening right now in CCISD.

Bowen spent over $20,000 on his latest at-large campaign, five times more than his opponent. This does not include the donation by the Harris County Republican Party in the form of a mailer. Dawson spent about $8000 on her campaign in her district only. Most candidates spend a couple of thousand dollars for a school district campaign.

For those who do not know here is what Bowen and his extreme white wing candidates can do in CCISD in the next upcoming election:

• Candidates can accept unlimited amounts of donations
• Candidates can accept donations from outside of the district, even out of state
• Candidates can accept donations from political parties (Bowen and Dawson)
• Candidates can accept PAC money from billionaires like the ones in the CNN report
• Wealthy Candidates can loan themselves unlimited amounts of donations

CCISD is not alone in this problem. For decades school boards across Texas did not have the problem of unlimited donations. Unlimited money started to affect our schools about 6 years ago. For the sake of all qualified candidates CCISD needs to do something to curb this abuse for instance:

• Limit donations from inside the district only
• Ban PAC donations
• Curb the amount of personal loans
• Limit donation amounts to $500

CNN recently aired a show, Deep in the Pockets of Texas, which highlighted the unlimited money donated to republican causes by just two billionaires. I’m wondering if that money is coming to influence CCISD elections.

Misty Dawson, who is “Morally Minded and Not Politically Divided” and who lost the CCISD school board election and has sued her opponent has closed out her campaign account after filing her last campaign finance report in June. In July she amended the report to keep it open. Her report did not disclose any payments for legal services to Eric Opiela, her attorney. According to the Texas Ethics Commission no payment from any organization has been made to Opiela for these services. Even if Opiela is providing the services free of charge Dawson must record the fair market value as an “in-kind” donation. As of today she has not.So, who is paying for Dawson’s attorney? It could be a number of people including State Representative Money Mayes Middleton the oligarch of Galveston County, or the Texas Republican Party or Harris County Republican Party although neither have reported this expenditure on their latest reports. It could also be Kathleen Wall who spent $6 Million of her own money in a losing Congressional effort. It could be State Representative Little Baby Briscoe Cain.

Well that was interesting.

CCISD had a special board meeting last night to vote on a couple of issues, funding the legal response to the Dawson election lawsuit and appointing an individual to lead the grievance hearing against Trustee Scott Bowen.

The board voted to fund the defense of the lawsuit filed by the loser, in the CCISD election Misty Dawson, specifically in reference to a CCISD employee who was named in the suit. Since the lawsuit named a CCISD employee the board now has authority to fund the defense and voted to do so, unanimously with Cejka abstaining. According to Trustee Larson once the suit focuses on Cejka specifically the funding can come to a stop. I can’t see that happening since Cejka did not run the elections, is not being accused of rigging the election, and did nothing but run in the election. Even if the lawsuit is successful Cejka cannot void the election, cannot order a new election, and can’t run a new election. Why Dawson and Bowen thought suing Cejka was legally sound is beyond me.

In the other vote, the board voted to appoint someone to hear the formal grievance filed against Trustee Scott Bowen concerning his conflict of interest in the Dawson v Cejka lawsuit. That has been covered before and the vote was also unamimous with Bowen abstaining.

This is what happens when CCISD is flooded with outside, unlimited, partisan money.

An official grievance has been filed against CCISD Trustee Scott Bowen for his conflict of interest in the past election resulting in a lawsuit by the loser against the winner, Jessica Cejka. For background:

After the election for CCISD the loser, Misty Dawson, filed a lawsuit against Jessica Cejka demanding that she voids the election, conduct a new one, and give her $100,000. The suit was NOT against CCISD who actually conducted the election. Since the suit has been filed Scott Bowen has been running point on behalf of Dawson. Based upon his comments during the last Board meeting it is clear Bowen is compromised and should recuse himself from all further discussion concerning the issue.

Bowen should recuse himself for a number of reasons including:

1. Based upon his comments during the last CCISD board meeting it is clear he is coordinating with the attorney for Misty Dawson and should never be involved in closed door discussions concerning this lawsuit
2. This attorney for Dawson was the former general counsel of the Texas Republican Party
3. The TRP endorsed Bowen
4. Bowen is the lead for candidate recruitment for the Harris County Republican Party
5. Bowen recruited Dawson
6. Bowen campaigned for Dawson
7. The HCRP listed on their campaign finance report that they supported both Dawson and Bowen
8. The HCRP paid for a mailer for the campaign
9. Bowen has a clear interest in this case in order to have a 4th vote for him to become the President of the board, a vote he lost by one vote
10. Just the appearance of a conflict of interest should be enough for Bowen to recuse himself from participating in any discussion, vote, or decision concerning Dawson v Cejka

Below is the email sent to the legal office of CCISD concerning the grievance.