On April 27, the Texas Supreme Court asked for a response from El Paso Mayor John F. Cook, in the case known as Tom Brown Ministries v Cook, 12-0224. The issue is whether a recall petition should be invalidated, even though it had enough valid signatures, because the church that helped collect the signatures is incorporated. The State Appeals Court had invalidated the petition based on the church’s status as a corporation. The Mayor’s response is due May 29.
The issues in this case are closely related to the same issues from 2010, when the Green Party petition was invalidated by a lower Texas state court because it was believed that the money donated to the party for its petition drive originated from a corporation. The Texas Supreme Court, in the Green Party case, put the party back on the ballot. No further proceedings were held in that case because, after the election was over, the Texas Democratic Party, which had originally filed the challenge to the Green Party petition, did not pursue the case.
The Green Party case was transferred to federal district court and settled (and sealed).
While the corporate contribution rule was cited, that wasn’t the basis for the ruling by the 8th Court of Appeals, which was based on technicalities of campaign reporting.
It appears that some folks in El Paso don’t like elections, including the Chief Justice of the 8th Court, who tried to intervene in the redistricting case to prevent candidates filing against her.