#TXLEGE: Lt. Dan Thinks You've Forgotten History

"Therefore by their fruits you will know them."
Matthew 7:20

Shot:

[Note: Due to formatting issues, we can't provide a link, but this was an e-mailed press release from the Lt. Governor's office yesterday afternoon.]

Chaser:

Some of the least-qualified graduates of the University of Texas School of Law in recent years have high-level connections in the Legislature, which may explain how they got into the prestigious law school in the first place.

A months-long Watchdog.org analysis of political influence on the admissions process at UT Law found there’s some truth, after all, to the old line about who you know mattering more than what you know. We found dozens of Longhorns who don’t know enough to be lawyers but know somebody important in the Legislature.

Two of those mediocre students are legislators themselves.

Some have connections to the leadership circle of House Speaker Joe Straus, others to powerful state Sen. Judith Zaffirini, who’s already been caught three times trying to pull end runs around the admissions process.

....

At least 12 of the students have roots in Laredo, home of state Sen. Judith Zaffirini, who is known to have pulled strings on behalf of other applicants. As Laredo has just 2 percent of the state’s population, it’s highly over represented in this sample.

....

Of the nearly 2,700 UT Law students to take the exam since 2006, only 29 have failed it three times or more. Thirteen made our list for closer inspection, and seven of those have ties to Laredo.

Among the 13 are Carlos Manuel Zaffirini Jr., the state senator’s only son, and Jeffrey Carona, the son of Republican state Sen. John Carona. Sen. Carona has donated some $31,043 to Zaffirini’s campaign in recent years, in addition to undisclosed sums his company paid her as a “communications consultant.”

....

Among the Laredo-connected bar failures are two brothers whose father is a top city health official who has worked with Zaffirini on state-funded projects. Another needed six tries to pass the bar and another passed on his fifth try.

Since this last graduate’s family has donated more than $52,000 during the years to Zaffirini, we asked the senator’s office whether the senator’s law school support was mercenary or a matter of family connections.

Zaffirini spokesman Will Krueger emailed us on March 7 to say the man’s “family and the senator’s family have been friends for at least three generations — on both his mother’s side of the family and his father’s side.”

Sounds like a great candidate for the higher ed. committee.

Eyeroll.

Bonus: To fully understand how far Patrick's fallen, see here.

Bottom Line: Scandal?!?  What scandal?!?  Lt. Dan don't see no scandal.  Besides, that was sooo five years ago.

#TXLEGE: Regardless of outcome, Frank Pomeroy will being needed perspective

"Every one of the builders had his sword girded at his side as he built. And the one who sounded the trumpet was beside me."
Nehemiah 4:18

Good:

Frank Pomeroy, the pastor of the Sutherland Springs church where the 2017 fatal shooting took place, announced Sunday he is running for Texas Senate.

Pomeroy said he will run as a Republican for District 21, currently held by Sen. Judith Zaffirini, D-Laredo. It will be a uphill battle: The district is solidly Democratic, and Zaffirini has served since 1987.

“If I can bring civility and godliness and help stymie the downward spiraling of the great state of Texas, that’s what I’m choosing to try to do, Pomeroy said Sunday afternoon at his church after the service there. “I feel as though that morality and integrity is disappearing rapidly and I feel as though the direction Texas goes — if Texas falls, the country falls.”

....

District 21 stretches from Austin down to the Rio Grande Valley, wrapping around San Antonio, jutting out to near Corpus Christi and taking in Laredo to the south.

Let's get one thing out of the way: This author stopped endorsing candidates a looooooooong time ago, but as a resident of and voter in Senate District 21, we fully intend to vote for Pomeroy.

That being said, we should be realistic: The odds of Frank Pomeroy winning this district, especially with Donald Trump at the top of the ticket, are minimal.

Nevertheless, Pomeroy can serve several useful functions.

Primarily: Southerland Springs was stopped by a good guy with a gun.  In an environment where everyone from the Governor on down is using El Paso as an excuse to attack lawful self defense, this point that cannot be stressed enough.  If Pomeroy's campaign accomplishes nothing else, keeping this fact front and center is a public service.

Beyond that, however, Pomeroy could serve a longer-term purpose.

Senate District 21 covers territory that has hosted some of the most staggering corruption in the history of this state:

• Duval County -- Books have literally been written about the wretched politics in this obscure corner of South Texas.  Learn more about Archie Parr here.  Learn more about George Parr here.

• "Landslide Lyndon" -- The 1948 U.S. Senate election that Lyndon Johnson stole (with generous assistance from the Parrs) hinged on Jim Wells county.

• Zaffirini herself -- Let's not forget that the incumbent Senator from this district swindled her cousin out of $35 million.  That's before you consider her living large off of campaign contributions or the various funny business related to admissions at UT law.  At a minimum, there's plenty of material to make Zaffirini's re-election painful.

Bottom Line: You miss 100% of the shots you don't take.

Update on the original UT admissions Scandal

"He that hideth his sins, shall not prosper: but he that confesseth, and forsaketh them, shall have mercy."
Proverbs 28:13

All these years later, the indefatigable Jon Cassidy remains on top of the admissions scandal:

The University of Texas bestowed a Presidential Citation this week on an evidence-shredding administrator who was instrumental in the secret backdoor admissions program that cost former President Bill Powers his job.

Nancy Brazzil, the deputy to UT president Greg Fenves and Powers before him, was named as one of four winners of the award this year.

“The Presidential Citations are awarded to the most exceptional friends of our university — the people who invest their time, passion and resources into our students and faculty, so Longhorns can go out and change the world,” Fenves said in a statement.

Brazzil ran the backdoor admissions program for Powers. In the Kroll report on the admissions office scandal, her name is mentioned 84 times.

Brazzil was the one who placed “Q holds” on the applications of special candidates supported by lawmakers, regents, and wealthy donors. Each year, she placed up to 300 of these holds, which prevented the admissions office from rejecting an unqualified candidate.

“In sit-down meetings between the Admissions Director and Nancy Brazzil before the decision deadline each year, Admissions was essentially ‘forced to admit’ many of these applicants over the objection of Admissions, including some applicants who, in this former official’s opinion, clearly did not qualify for admission,” according to the Kroll report.

“Because written records or notes of meetings and discussions between the President’s Office and Admissions are not maintained and are typically shredded, it is not known in particular cases why some applicants with sub-par academic credentials were placed on a hold list and eventually admitted,” the report states.

....

In the report, the former dean of the law school, Larry Sager, says that he received 10 to 20 calls a year from Brazzil meant to sway his admissions decisions.

....

While Brazzil operated as Powers’ right hand, she also interacted directly with politicians such as former state Rep. Dan Branch and state Sen. Judith Zaffirini, whose influence over education budgets in the Legislature gave them special clout with Brazzil.

After Fenves replaced Powers, he chose to keep Brazzil on in a similar function. In the citation, he even touts how Brazzil “works closely with high-profile friends of the university, legislators and major donors, helping them find innovative ways to contribute to UT’s advancement.”

Bottom Line: Considering the escalating series of debacles over the past couple years, providing favorable admissions treatment to the unqualified children of powerful legislators and their donors seems almost quaint.  But it happened.  And they're still doubling down on the cover up.

#TXLEGE: House Leadership (predictably) dragging feet on pro-Life bills....

“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you;
Before you were born I sanctified you;
I ordained you a prophet to the nations.”
Jeremiah 1:5

Texas Right to Life held a press conference this morning; we didn't attend, but they posted the video:



The Statesman has more:

“Unfortunately, session after session, the Texas House of Representatives has not prioritized pro-life bills,” he said “We’ve prioritized the budget, CPS, education, an Uber bill — all things that are important, but none of which are as important as saving the lives of preborn babies.”

Rep. Matt Krause, R-Fort Worth, noted that the House had only nine voting days left to pass House bills, and legislation placed on the final days’ calendars rarely comes up for a vote, particularly if legislators begin delaying tactics to kill late-calendar bills they oppose.

“That’s why you sense the urgency in what we’re doing today,” Krause said.

Schaefer said he and others will ask Gov. Greg Abbott to call a special session if abortion-related regulations are not passed by session’s end on May 29.

While the Senate has passed a number of abortion regulations, “no legislation touching abortion has made its way through the Texas House of Representatives yet,” said Emily Cook, political director for Texas Right to Life. 

....

In particular, she said, Right to Life’s top priority — dubbed the “dismemberment abortion” ban, which would place limits on second-trimester “dilation and evacuation” abortions — has been given unsatisfactory treatment in the House, where a Senate-passed bill has not yet been referred to a committee to begin action. Another measure, which would ban abortion coverage in private insurance plans as well as plans offered to state employees and participants in the Affordable Care Act, has a House committee hearing Wednesday and must be voted out by Friday to meet House deadlines.

From Texas Right to Life:

While many bills are marketed as “Pro-Life,” only substantive Pro-Life bills will save lives. With merely 27 days remaining in the 85th Legislative Session, the Texas House has not passed any Pro-Life bills. The Texas Senate has passed multiple Pro-Life bills including Senate Bill 415, the Dismemberment Abortion Ban, and Senate Bill 20, Pro-Life Health Insurance Reform.

If life-saving bills are not passed in the final days of the legislative session, more than 100,000 lives will be lost to abortion before the Texas Legislature meets again. Only two of Texas Right to Life’s priority bills have been heard in House committees (House Bill 2063 and House Bill 1113). All House bills must be voted out of committee by Monday, May 8, and passed on the House floor by Thursday, May 11. As we have seen in previous sessions, leaving important Pro-Life legislation to the final days and hours allows anti-Life Democrats to chub, ensuring the clock runs out on life-saving reforms.

As John Seago, Legislative Director for Texas Right to Life, explained, “The concern over fetal tissue donation and research or the legislation that imposes burial and cremation regulations on abortion clinics fundamentally miss the mark. These policies merely debate what to do with the body of the child after he or she dies. The Pro-Life movement in Texas must prioritize legislation that will stop the injustice of elective abortion from occurring in the first place.”

Texas Right to Life joins other conservative groups in calling attention to the neglect of priority legislation by representatives who call themselves “Pro-Life.” The greatest priority this session is passing the Dismemberment Abortion Ban, which would outlaw the inhumane practice of killing a preborn child in the womb by tearing her limb from limb while her heart is still beating. Senate Bill 415 passed on March 20 winning bipartisan support with Democrat Senators Lucio and Zaffirini voting for the bill.

In addition to passage in the Senate, Texas Right to Life’s priority legislation has far-reaching support. The Dismemberment Abortion Ban received support from 95% of the voting delegates at the Republican Party of Texas convention (more than 8,000 activists voted for the policy), making the proposal the most popular Pro-Life policy plank in the 2016 Republican Party Platform. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton indicated support for the life-saving legislation in joining the amicus brief defending the constitutionality of Alabama’s Dismemberment Abortion Ban. Furthermore, the House version of the Dismemberment Abortion Ban, House Bill 844 by Representative Stephanie Klick, has 67 coauthors.

Texas Right to Life General Counsel Emily Cook stated, “Texas used to be within the top five of Pro-Life states in the nation; we are now ranked 17th. With 95 Republicans in the Texas House of Representatives, passing conservative legislation should not be this difficult.”

Read the full statesman report here; read the full Right to Life Press release here.

Bottom Line: We expect them to pass something they can call 'pro-life' on the campaign trail, but it's an open question whether what they pass will have any teeth.

#TXLEGE: Zaffirini votes FOR Dismemberment Abortion Ban!!!

"Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due,
When it is in the power of your hand to do so."
Proverbs 3:27

We don't bring it up often, but we are actually a resident of Judy Zaffirini's district and, as such, this tidbit from Texas Right to Life caught our eye:

Today, the Texas Senate passed Senate Bill 415, the Dismemberment Abortion Ban, on second reading. The bill was preliminarily approved by the Senate on a bipartisan 22-8 vote. In addition to every Republican of the Senate supporting the measure, two Democrats – Senators Eddie Lucio Jr. (D-Brownsville) and Judith Zaffirini (D-Laredo) – voted for the life-saving measure. Senate Bill 415 and House Bill 844, the Dismemberment Abortion Ban, outlaw the barbaric and inhumane procedure that ends the life of a living, conscious preborn child by tearing her limb from limb.

[Author's Note: Emphasis added.]

Bottom Line: It's not often we say this, but as a constituent of Judy Zaffirini's we commend her.

Wallace Hall speaks IN DAN FLYNN'S DISTRICT!!!

"And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart."
Galatians 6:9

Last night, Wallace Hall spoke in Dan Flynn's district to inform Flynn's constituents of his activities on behalf of Joe Straus' impeachment committee:



Highlights:

• All of his kids have been attending U.T. this entire time.

• "Rot...manifests itself in our political class."

• "I expect to disagree with people on the opposite side of issues, I don't expect to be misled by people on my side who tell us one thing and do another."

• "Texas is a red state, how in the world are we being governed by moderates?!?"

• Straus holds power: "by the unanimous support of the Democrats in the Texas House."

• "I consider a vote for Speaker Straus to be a vote for sanctuary cities."

• "I care deeply about education."

• Nobody criticizes what he's found.

• UT- Austin is the only system institution where he's had a problem, the other 13 system institutions have been fine.

• Flynn's Chief of Staff lied about impeachment committee finding forgivable loan program.

• Spring 2013: "I asked for two sets of data."

Highlights:

• "I had asked for all open records to be put online."
• "I've been working on this since February 2011."
• Still hasn't happened.

• "I made a request for communication between the President [Powers] and politicians."
• "When this happened, some of the most powerful politicians in the state came after me."
• Dewhurst, Jim Pitts, Dan Branch, Zaffirini, Seliger.
• "They trolled Dallas looking for dirt on me and my family."
• "I received some very aggressive e-mails."

• Paul Foster ambushed him and asked for his resignation.

• Straus instigated impeachment: "To protect his members."

• Flynn's impeachment committee: "I was denied the right to council" and other cross examination.

• Flynn refused to subpeona him, which would have allowed him to testify fully.

• "I call what Dan Flynn did a gross abuse of his power and a kick in the teeth to all Texans who are the rightful owners of our government."

• Flynn's committee mostly met in secret.

Highlights:

• Straus offered Perry a corrupt bargain and Perry declined.

• Straus sent the Travis County DA after him.

• Sharphorn found "a huge disparity" in admissions notes to prospective students with letters.

• "If indicted, at least I would have a public trial."

• Investigation only moved forward because a whistleblower came forward to Cigarroa.

• Powers is now the highest paid member of UT law school faculty.

• Vote Bryan Slaton.

Highlights:

• The House didn't have the nerve to impeach.

• Impeachment committee tried to bait him into committing crimes.

• "The fact that they didn't indict me is unbelievable."

• McRaven blew off the Kroll Report.

Wallace Hall at NE Tarrant Tea Party

"The wicked flee when no one pursues,
But the righteous are bold as a lion.?
Proverbs 28:1

Wallace Hall spoke to the NE Tarrant Tea Party last week; start with Hall's prepared remarks:



Highlights:

• "There hasn't been a lot to be optimistic about" in Texas govt. the past few years.

• "Being a Regent is a significant responsibility that should be taken very serious [sic]."

• "It is not sufficient to treat the role of regent as an honorary post."

• $15 billion annual budget, over 200k students in full UT system.

• "It is critical that the funding under our direction is not wasted."

• Insisted on following National Accounting Standards.
• UT restated their financials by over $200 million.
• Author's Note: Personally, out of all the UT scandals Wallace has uncovered, we think this one is the worst. 

• Blew the whistle on "forgivable loan" program.

• Sought "proper compliance with the Texas Public Information Act."
• "Incredibly, three years after this effort has begun, the project remains a work in progress."

• Procurement irregularities related to no-bid contracts.

• The admissions stuff.

• "The most prominent attempt to stop me was in the form of a campaign by House speaker Joe Straus to impeach me."
• Assisted by (the disgraced) Jim Pitts and Dan Branch.

• Bill Powers created "a phalanx of defenders."

• For the past 10 years, UT Austin has "languished."

• "Regents are either too intimidated or disinterested to perform their regental duties, this is made worse when board members see it as their duty to block honest inquiry because they fear exposing friends and/or politicians."

• "It is one thing for board members to sit by while others ask uncomfortable questions (or, in other words, perform their duties), it is something else for board members to encourage opposition to other board members who ask uncomfortable questions."
• "Unfortunately, that is what is taking place on our board."
• "Our board leadership consistently has pushed for more and more rule changes that restrict, if not make impossible, efforts by Regents to obtain information."

• Only gets: "Spoon-fed, redacted, information."

• "Opacity is our enemy."

• Runs through Criminalization of Politics
• Stickland
• MQS
• Perry
• Paxton
• Literally the next day, Jane Nelson was added to the list.
• ALL INITIATED BY STRAUS OR HIS ALLIES.

Q&A with Jonathan Stickland:

Highlights:

• Perry was very insistent that costs were too high.

• No idea he would find what he found heading in.

• "The big pink building" was when he couldn't function as a fiduciary.

• Stickland: "They knew the message, they just reject conservative principles."

• Gene Powell "was terrific."

• Cranberg, Pejovich also "terrific."

• "Senator Zaffirini would make some condescending comment to the press."

• Stickland: UT gave an "incredible" spread to legislators.
• "Amazing to me" how many people this was the only issue they cared about.
• They kept impeachment "completely away from Jonathan Stickland."

• Value of a discretionary seat at UT-Austin has increased tremendously over the past two decades.

• UT-Austin: 24,000 employees for 50,000 students.
• "I still don't know the answer for that."

• Straus' offer: Walked over to Gov's [Perry] office and said 7 reasons to impeach.
• Jessie Ancira called Perry's Chief of Staff and said the whole thing would go away if Wallace resigned.

• Wallace: "Governor Perry has been a stalwart."
• Stickland: "On this issue."

• "Our board never got to speak to the [Kroll] investigators."

• The Board has never discussed admissions or the Kroll report.

• Gets anonymous calls and e-mails "frequently."

• Stickland plugs Bo French.

• Stickland: UT still stonewalling the Lege.

• Stickland: Establishment tries to make examples out of ringleaders.

• "If they don't do what they said somehow there's this really complicated explanation...."

• "There's no use trying to persuade people once they've gone down that path, all you can do is replace them."

• Tenure reform something else the Board hasn't discussed.

Meet the AWFUL Higher Ed Bill the 84th #TXLEGE Passed

"And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God."
Romans 12:2

SB 24, aka. the "Brainwash University Regents" bill:

SB2484th#TXLEGE

Bottom Line: On a practical level, this law probably won't have much impact, but it's still VERY revealing that they're so afraid of transparency that they're going to force future regents to sit through mandatory brainwashing sessions.

First Amendment Tuesday: Week 16

"and for me, that utterance may be given to me, that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel,"
Ephesians 6:19

Fun times this morning.

Jim Graham (Texas Right to Life) (Partial):



Highlights:

• Just because we made concessions 15 years ago doesn't mean we'd make them today.

• SB 575 by Taylor on Senate floor today.
• Author's Note: This video was recorded around 9AM, the bill passed around noon.

• Bills have to be done by May 14th.

Mary Lynn Gerstenschlager (Texas Eagle Forum):

Highlights:

• Byron Cook playing much bigger shenanigans with witness registration than Stickland ever did.

• Troy Fraser left during American Laws for American Courts hearing.

• Judy Zaffirini gave Donna Campbell the pre-K bill to give it a "conservative" face.

• Don Huffines: "At what point do you want children to go into pre-K?!?"
• Proved liberals want to do this at birth.

Jonathan Saenz (Texas Values):

Highlights:

• Pastor Protection bill moving surprisingly quickly.
• "There will be no more changes to this bill."
• ACLU amendment language would have added another layer of bureaucratic B.S.

• "This bill is not about consensus."

• Senate could move on SB 2065 this week.

• No movement on bill to smackdown local "Non-discrimination" ordinances.

Texas Homeschool Coalition:



Highlights:

• College admission bill has been voted out of Senate.

• Tebow bill passed Senate Ed committee two weeks ago with bi-partisan support.

• Parental rights bill has the most hurdles to climb.

• Sticklan has bill to allow foster parents to homeschool.

Ann Hettinger (Concerned Women for America):

Highlights:

• ALAC only pertains to divorce and child custody.

Abbott kneecaps U.T. reform effort

"In the morning it happened that David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it by the hand of Uriah.  And he wrote in the letter, saying, “Set Uriah in the forefront of the hottest battle, and retreat from him, that he may be struck down and die.”  So it was, while Joab besieged the city, that he assigned Uriah to a place where he knew there were valiant men.  Then the men of the city came out and fought with Joab. And some of the people of the servants of David fell; and Uriah the Hittite died also."
2 Samuel 11:14-17

Well, THAT didn't take long:

Gov. Greg Abbott announced his nominees to fill upcoming vacancies on the University of Texas System board on Thursday, and in doing so, sent clear signals about his vision for those boards.

In an interview with the Tribune last week, Abbott was asked about two regents whose terms on the UT System board are almost over: Would his appointees more resemble Gene Powell, who served as the board's chairman during a particularly tumultuous time marked by tension with the University of Texas at Austin administration, or Steve Hicks, who was a vocal advocate of ceasing investigations into the flagship university that were contributing to that rift?

"I want people who are dedicated to the job who will focus on bringing excellence to the organization," Abbott responded. "I will give them marching orders about what I want them to achieve, and I expect them to achieve it without micromanaging."

That he was referring to the Hicks model became crystal clear on Thursday when Abbott re-appointed Hicks to the board. Powell and Bobby Stillwell, who was an ally of Hicks, will cycle off the board.

....

Abbott also appointed Sara Martinez Tucker and David Beck to the UT board.

First things first, Sarah Martinez Tucker served in the U.S. Department of Education during the administration of George W. Bush, which by itself tells you everything you need to know.

Next, Steve Hicks is the biggest apologist for Bill Powers on the current board.

But David Beck's nomination takes the cake:

In the last 14 years, he’s given to Texas Democrats, including Kirk Watson, Trey Martinez Fischer and Rodney Ellis

[Emphasis added]

That would be the same Trey Martinez Ferdinand Frank Fischer who was Joe Straus' designated hatchet man on the Wallace Hall impeachment committee.

Beck is also on the board of "Friends of the University" PAC, whose self description includes this gem:

The only criterion for receiving a donation from Friends of The University has been that the recipient shares our commitment to UT. In the early years the PAC supported staunch UT advocates such as Bob Bullock, John Montford, Bill Ratliff and David Sibley. More recently, it has supported top UT Austin allies like Joe Straus, Judith Zaffirini and Greg Abbott.

Because nothing screams Republican like Bob Bullock and Judy Zaffarini!!!

It gets better; from Page 10 of Abbott's own report issued in one of his final acts as A.G.:

In late 2000 or early 2001, the [U.T. Law School] Foundation President, David Beck appears to have sent or e-mailed a “proposal” to UT-Austin suggesting [former Law School] Dean [and current University President Bill] Powers receive a deferred compensation.

Bottom Line: The Texas Senate needs to kill these nominations.

-----

Update: It gets better, turns out Beck and Tucker both supported U.T.'s Affirmative Education program in 2013.

-----

Update II: Turns out Tucker is also a Common Core supporter.

-----

Update III: Again, even better; praise from Kirk Watson....

Post by Kirk Watson.

UT admits the unqualified but politically connected

"Dishonest scales are an abomination to the Lord,
But a just weight is His delight."
Proverbs 11:1

A bombshell report from Watchdog.org about UT Law School admissions:

HOUSTON — Some of the least-qualified graduates of the University of Texas School of Law in recent years have high-level connections in the Legislature, which may explain how they got into the prestigious law school in the first place.

A months-long Watchdog.org analysis of political influence on the admissions process at UT Law found there’s some truth, after all, to the old line about who you know mattering more than what you know. We found dozens of Longhorns who don’t know enough to be lawyers but know somebody important in the Legislature.

Two of those mediocre students are legislators themselves.

Some have connections to the leadership circle of House Speaker Joe Straus, others to powerful state Sen. Judith Zaffirini, who’s already been caught three times trying to pull end runs around the admissions process.

....

Watchdog.org found a pattern of overlapping political influence and underwhelming performance on the bar exam. Any single one of the cases we describe could have an alternate explanation, such as personal problems that derailed studies.

Taken as a whole, however, they offer clear evidence that political influence is the reason dozens of students who are unable to pass the bar are getting into the state’s top law school.

....

Normally, almost nobody who gets into UT Law fails the bar. Watchdog.org found 90 students who had failed it twice or more. That should be reason enough for university officials to double-check their grades and Law School Admission Test — or LSAT — scores to see which students actually earned admission, and who benefited from a political favor.

We found additional reasons to scrutinize 24 names on that list:

• At least 15 of the students are politically connected, either through office, personal relationships, or campaign donations to officeholders who have figured in the fight over UT’s leadership. 

• At least 12 of the students have roots in Laredo, home of state Sen. Judith Zaffirini, who is known to have pulled strings on behalf of other applicants. As Laredo has just 2 percent of the state’s population, it’s highly over represented in this sample. 

• A half-dozen of the students have connections to state Rep. Joe Straus, his close allies, or a lobby shop that rose to prominence with Straus’s ascendance to speaker in 2009. 

• Two of the students are known to have LSAT scores well below UT standards. James Ryan Pitts, son of House Appropriations Committee Chairman Jim Pitts, has now failed the bar exam three times since graduation after scoring a 155 and a 147 on the LSAT, which is scored on a scale of 120 to 180. Those scores rank in the 64th percentile and 33rd percentile nationwide, and are well below the scores in the mid-160s that UT usually requires. 

• Another 2012 graduate with three LSAT scores in the 140s failed the bar exam twice, but because we don’t yet have scores for most of these students, we’re not singling her out and naming her.

....

Two recent UT Law grads already were elected officials when they were admitted.

State Rep. Richard Peña Raymond, like Zaffirini a Democrat from Laredo, who was first elected in 1992, failed the bar exam in 2007 and 2008, and is not a member of the Texas bar.

State Rep. Eddie Rodriguez, D-Austin, first elected in 2002, failed the bar three times between 2010 and 2012, and is not a member of the bar, either. One of Rodriguez’s senior staffers, also a UT Law grad, failed the bar three times between 2009 and 2010.

Rodriguez works for the law firm of Brown McCarroll, which dove deep into lobbying during the 2008 election cycle. When Straus led a post-election coup to unseat Republican Speaker Tom Craddick with his “Gang of 11” Republicans and the support of the Democratic caucus, Brown McCarroll was one of the biggest beneficiaries, according to Capitol Inside.

Thanks to the former Straus staffers and the Democratic officeholders it employed, Brown McCarroll was suddenly the second most influential law firm lobby shop in town. Among its employees were state Sen. Kirk Watson, a critic of Regent Hall, and former state Rep. Pete Gallego, now a congressman.

....

Of the nearly 2,700 UT Law students to take the exam since 2006, only 29 have failed it three times or more. Thirteen made our list for closer inspection, and seven of those have ties to Laredo.

Among the 13 are Carlos Manuel Zaffirini Jr., the state senator’s only son, and Jeffrey Carona, the son of Republican state Sen. John Carona. Sen. Carona has donated some $31,043 to Zaffirini’s campaign in recent years, in addition to undisclosed sums his company paid her as a “communications consultant.”

As of the February 2014 exam, Ryan Pitts, son of the outgoing Appropriations Committee chairman and one of Straus’ Gang of 11, has failed the bar three times.

Read the whole thing here.