Intersting Mailer In Travis County Constable’s Race
We at Capitol Annex are always pleased to get a peek at mailers circulating in races across the state–especially the hotly contested local races. In the race for Precinct 2 Constable down in Travis County, controversial candidate Adan Ballesteros, who is running against Paul Labuda, has issued a pretty bad mailer that has caught our attention. You can view the front and back here and here.
There are a couple of false and idiotic claims made in this mailer that we’d like to take issue with.
First, let’s address the claim that Paul Labuda doesn’t have a peace officer’s certification. That’s a huge lie. One call to the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement Officer Standards And Education (TCLEOSE) and Ballesteros would have known that he was about to mail a complete lie across Travis County Precinct 2.
Second, we find another statement in the mailer highly suspect:
“Develop flexible payment plans for misdemeanor warrant offenders, helping to reduce jail over-crowding”
We’ve got a little bit of news for Mr. Ballesteros: this is an impossibility for a constable.
Anyone who purports to be a peace officer should know that there is a fundamental difference between law enforcement and the judicial branch of government. The judicial branch is the of government given statutory and constitutional authority to take guilty pleas, assess fines, and set up payment plans as allowed by statute. This is not something a constable can do, unless Travis County Precinct 2 operates in a vacuum outside of the authority of Texas law and constables can be the citing officer, judge, jury, and court clerk.
Written by Vince Leibowitz
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