Happy Thanksgiving, Republican Aristocratic Hubris edition.

Guest poster upyernose one of the guest posters subbing for Atrios while he is away enjoying Barcelona, points us in the direction of a Texas State Race in which the incumbant lost both the original tally and a recount, and now has decided to take it to the TX lege. I guess this guy is gonn have to have his cold dead ass pryed out of his seat, as it would appear that the will of the people are of little concern if you are a Republican. As Yoda might say, " the stink of entitlement is strong in this one".

Heflin wants House seat back or a new election
By JOE STINEBAKER
Copyright 2004 Houston Chronicle

State Rep. Talmadge Heflin asked the state House of Representatives today to overturn the results of his failed re-election bid and either order him returned to the Legislature or call for a new election.

Heflin's attorney, Andy Taylor, said the election results in state House District 149 in southwest Harris County were fraught with voting irregularities and potential fraud, most of which occurred in predominantly Democratic precincts.

Ooooh the dual boogeymen of irregularities and Fraud, where have I heard that before, and what was the response to questions? Oh, yeah that's right. "Get Over It". I'm thinking, and I might be wrong, but since the republicans are in controll in TX which included the running of the elections, and I might be going out on a limb here, but that the local board of election officials are republican, one might conclude that if there were any funny business it would benefit our multi term "Real American" Heflin, rather than his opponent a former Vietnamese boat person. Just sayin'.

"The true outcome of this election was stolen from the voters in House District 149," Taylor said Tuesday. "We will prove that Representative Talmadge Heflin was re-elected."

Heflin, a Republican member of the House since 1983 and chairman of its Appropriations Committee, lost to Democratic businessman Hubert Vo by 32 votes earlier this month. But Heflin's campaign alleges that those election results include at least 248 irregularities that could have altered the outcome.

Hell it worked in 2000, in Florida, why the fuck not re run that playbook, and call everything into question. now that he brings it up, one wonders if those 248 "irregularities" may have had any impact on the other races in the district.

Taylor said he will file notice today that the Heflin campaign intends to contest the election in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives. That will require that House Speaker Tom Craddick order a House committee to investigate Heflin's allegations.

After the committee reports its findings, the full House will decide whether to seat Vo or Heflin or call for a new election. The House's decision will be binding, said a spokesman for the Texas secretary of state's office.
...............
Although there have been several election contests in the Texas House in recent years, none has reversed an election result, and most were withdrawn after they were filed.

Officials with the Vo campaign have said they are confident that their candidate won a fair election and have called on Heflin to concede.
...............
Heflin's decision to contest the election is part of a two-pronged effort to return him to the Legislature. On Monday, Heflin requested a manual recount of all ballots cast in the election.

His best chance for recapturing his House seat probably lies with the election contest because the recount is not allowed to go into the issues of voting irregularities but must focus exclusively on the ballots cast in the election.

Good luck with that buddy. I know mr Heflin,I know, you have been in that seat since 1983. I understand why you feel it should be yours again, if not in perpetuity and I certainly respect that you could not envision having your seat taken by a gook, probably a dirty one at that. meanwhile lets see what the elections officer has to say about the situation.

Harris County Tax Assessor-Collector Paul Bettencourt, the county's voter registrar, said Tuesday that he was somewhat familiar with the Heflin campaign's allegations.

Bettencourt, a Republican, agreed that many of the allegations raised by the campaign would involve illegal votes, but he said such votes are not uncommon in large elections.

Bettencourt said that in the heat of conducting an election, precinct judges often mistakenly allow ineligible voters to cast their ballots or reject ballots from eligible voters.

The number of such complaints is usually too small to affect an election's outcome, he said, although it could have an impact in an election as close as the Heflin-Vo race.

I won't be suprised if they ultimately decide in Heflins favor, cause, you know IOKIYAR. but it would be interesting if they chose to hold another election, and see how the voters of Harris county respond to these tactics. The county voter registrar is indeed a republican. I wonder how powerfull the Vietnamese Mafia is in Harris county?