Dallas Co. GOP Seeks To Remove 128 Democratic Candidates From Ballot
DALLAS (CBS11) - Dallas County Republican Party Chair Missy Shorey said she filed suit to remove 128 Dallas County Democratic candidates off the ballot after discovering their applications didn't have the required signature from that party's chair.
Instead, Shorey said it looks like someone else's signature. "We were shocked when we saw it. We started seeing dozens of signatures that just didn't add up and Jack, that's not right. It needs to stop, and the Democrats need to recognize, you cannot forge your way into elections. It's horrible."
Shorey pointed out that the Democratic Party Chair, Carol Donovan did sign about two dozen other candidate applications, including those for veteran Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson and Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins.
Donovan declined an interview, but said in a news release the Democrats are fighting back and that the Republicans' lawsuit isn't supported by Texas law.
Among the candidates the GOP says shouldn't appear on the ballot include interim Dallas County Sheriff Marian Brown, State Senator Royce West, State Representatives Victoria Neave and Eric Johnson all of Dallas.
Johnson isn't happy and says he worries minority candidates and voters will be hurt politically. "They've resorted now to basically, honestly the most under-handed tactic I've ever seen a political party pull, which is to try to interfere in the other party's primary and have their entire slate of candidates eliminated over nothing."
He said Republicans don't care about the law, only about winning. "This is more of the same type of voter suppression activity we've seen in Austin. It's now just being transferred to the local level."
But Shorey responded, "Absolutely not, absolutely not, again, if those laws weren't on the books, that would be one thing. These laws are clear as day."
No word how quickly the lawsuit will move through the courts.
The March 6 Texas primary is six weeks away.