Talmadge Round-Up
August 1st, 2007 at 9:37 am
The Republican Party of Texas announced a few days ago that it was handing over the reins to former state rep. Talmadge Heflin. Democrats around the state rejoiced. Heflin, it seems many think, will be as effective as the GOP’s executive director as he was in his former district, where in 2004 he became one of the earliest Craddick lieutenants to fall despite his chairmanship of the House Appropriations Committee at the time.
Sadly, Paul Burka reports that it’s likely a temporary appointment for Heflin. His sources say that the party wanted former executive director Jeff Fisher out of there pronto, and Heflin is just holding down the fort until a permanent replacement takes over.
But while we’re here, it’s a good opportunity to revisit some of Heflin’s past achievements.
— He presided over one of the most destructive budgets in state history.
— He lost his reelection bid in 2004 by only a few dozen votes, a defeat he and his lawyer went to absurd lengths to attribute to voter fraud. As with nearly every claim of the sort by Republicans, it was nothing but political hokum.
— He tried and failed to muscle Craddick into making him the Speaker’s budget director.
— And, of course, there was the bizarre, disturbing attempt by Heflin and his family to, well, steal a baby. The mother, an Ugandan who was working for the Heflins (and getting paid a tiny wage under the table since she didn’t have a green card), had to fight in court to retain custody of her child while the Heflins tried all kinds of dirty tricks to keep the child away from its mother. The episode included this disturbing self-justifcation from Heflin for taking the child: “We all know the terrible problem that black male children have growing up into manhood without being in prison.” Weird, disturbing, and wild stuff.
We’re not likely to see anything so wild this go-round, after which Heflin can quietly return to his sinecure at the conservative Texas Public Policy Foundation.
