The Twain Meeting Again At the Corner of Rose and Election

Perhaps it is merely unfortunate timing for Democrat Texas State Representative Patrick Rose; conversely, it may be a quite providential turn of the clock for those who have an opportunity to vote predicated on this, the latest bit of his questionable electoral activity.

In 2004, it was highly dubious claims Rose made regarding his taking, or not, campaign contributions from insurance companies.

Heading into this year’s time for candidate choosing, the Dripping Springs Flash (Rose hails from this quaint, peaceful locality) has seen both his closest confidant and one of his most frequent campaign contributors come under the watchful eye and multi-jurisdictional gun of both the Hays County District Attorney (a county which Rose represents) and the state Attorney General, as they thoroughly peruse their involvement with an Austin Community College (ACC) annexation petition drive gone egregiously wrong.

Thus far, sixty-nine people have signed sworn affidavits attesting that their signatures were forged, and hundreds of additional names are those of people who were, but are not currently, registered voters and are therefore ineligible. At least three deceased persons had also somehow managed to provide their John Hancocks.

They Are All Invalid, Ladies

ACC has to date purged nearly 1,000 names from the accrued list.

The scandal (a word we do not use lightly, but the pertinent facts on the ground merit its utilization) enmeshes two men vital to, and intrinsically involved with, Rose throughout his four-year public sector career.

One is Mark Littlefield, an Austin-based political consultant who has (until the very recent fall from grace) been Rose’s go-to guy, serving as his Campaign Manager and advisor since Rose first even thought of running for office on or about 2002. Littlefield’s wife, Jennifer, had worked as Rose’s campaign database manager until resigning at the same time Rose fired her husband after the ACC signatory fiasco began to come to light in April of this year.

The other major Rose player in this drama is Randall Morris. Morris owns, and with his son Carter operates, Randall Morris Real Estate, in (amongst other areas) Hays County. Between the two, they have contributed $14,330 ($13,500 from father, $830 from son) to Rose’s electoral efforts since April of 2002.

Carter, while less fiscally generous, has been a tremendous donor of his time and effort to the Elect Rose endeavors; he was an omnipresent fixture at campaign events throughout the 2002 cycle.

An Actual Copy of the Proposal for New Taxes

The aforementioned petition ugliness began in the summer of 2005. ACC is seeking to annex the San Marcos Consolidated Independent School District, so that it can add its residents to their tax base and thereby raise sufficient coin to finance the construction of a new campus to be built in their town (which serves as the Hays County Seat).

The thirty-eight acres upon which ACC desires to fabricate is owned by Randall Morris Real Estate, which Morris is offering to give outright to the school.

The resulting increase in the value of the surrounding properties, also owned by Morris, including his nearby planned Cottonwood Creek subdivision, would be substantial were the ACC complex to be erected.

In addition, this and all of his adjacent plots could be plugged into the water and sewage systems that would be built by the government to service the school, rather than his having to foot the bill for these utilities himself.

To earn its way onto the ballot, ACC began last summer the required push to collect sufficient petition signatures to be emplaced thereon. Their San Marcos Yes! Committee, funded almost exclusively by Morris, hired Rose’s consultant Littlefield to manage the project. For $3,600, Morris and ACC received from Littlefield the raft of forged and unqualified signatures, as well as the several from beyond the grave.

Just In Case

The offices of Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott and Hays County District Attorney Mike Wenk are prohibited from commenting on their ongoing investigations, but Wenk did say that they were awaiting the results of forensics tests, including handwriting analyses. The Hays Count Commissioners Court appropriated $50,000 to, prospectively, hire a special prosecutor to independently investigate.

Rose himself, operating under no such prohibitions, refused for weeks to comment on the situation, finally proffering that it was “sad” for something like this to occur with something so “important” for San Marcos, and that he had no role in the petition drive and no idea how bad it had gotten.

Hmmm

Jennifer Littlefield’s handling of Rose’s campaign database, and the purge of the large number of no longer registered voters from the ACC petition list, is a connection into which any or all of the pertinent exploratory entities may be looking.

Rose sits on the Higher Education Committee in the state House, and could still be very influential as to whether or not ACC, and Morris, ultimately get their way in San Marcos.

Perhaps. The various investigations will, unfortunately, probably not reach their conclusions prior to this year’s trip to the polls. But the proximity of Rose to the implosion, and his prolonged silence thereon broken finally and only with the most broad and inconclusive of comments, may very well be more than enough for voters to draw conclusions of their own.