A Terrible Obit/Will There Be A Special In 29?

[Loathe as I am to ever come to the defense of a Republican, I hope someone writes a terse letter to the editor of the Houston Chronicle in the coming days over this...]

Who knew that the TRMPAC scandal would follow people in death. I’m sure we all knew it would appear in the obituaries of of Tom DeLay and Ronnie Earle, but I was quite surprised to notice that the Chronicle had put (so prominently, nonetheless) in Glenda Dawson’s obit:

In her 2002 campaign, Dawson was one of seven Republican candidates who received money at the center of a scandal that led to criminal charges against former U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay. The scheme allegedly funneled $190,000 in restricted corporate donations to a DeLay-founded political action committee to the Republican National Committee to the seven Texas candidates. Texas bans the use of corporate donations for direct campaign spending.

The scheme helped the GOP win a majority in the Texas Legislature.

Dawson received $40,000 of the money, but she was never accused of wrongdoing. She went on to beat veteran Democratic lawmaker Tom Uher, of Bay City, who had served since 1967.

I am loathe to defend Republicans in almost all cases, but I can’t believe the Chron couldn’t actually throw in a bit more biographical data about Dawson so that, at least, this appeared at the bottom of a longer story. Heck, she spent half of her life as a teacher, was a distinguished professional in her field, and Pearland ISD named a teacher of the year award after her. That wasn’t even in the Chron’s obit.
As a journalist, I know it’s germane and, heck, once upon a time I was a journalist who would have probably enjoyed leading off a story (even an obit) with a TRMPAC reference, but I think the Chron’s obit was tasteless in this case. And, when I say that, it says a lot. In death, it is OK for politics to take a back seat. Most obituaries have a bit more of a conciliatory, reconciling, closuresque feel to them than that one did.
I never had the opportunity to meet Rep. Dawson, but in spite of the fact that DeLay and company poured money into one of her campaigns like water, I’ve never heard anything but nice things about the lady and her personality; she was not one of the House’s “Dragon Ladies In Waiting,”  in terms of personality, that’s for sure.  While her politics were no doubt too far to the right for my taste, she was not one of those House members you are constantly hearing negative things about.

Moving on to the second part of the post title after my little rant there, it seems as though, pursuant to Section 145.039 of the Texas Election Code, that Rep. Dawson’s name would stay on the ballot, as her passing ocurred after the 74th day prior to election day.

And any Republican who announces they are going to be a candidate for the position in whatever special election results in January had better wait at least two weeks before doing so, because to do otherwise would be as tasteless as the Chronicle’s coverage.

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