Think John McCain’s $520 Shoes Are Audacious? Try John Davis’ $1,500 Boots
By Vince Leibowitz on Jul 31, 2008 in 2008 Texas Elections
John McCain’s $520 Ferragamo shoes have been the buzz of the blogosphere this morning, but in Texas, a $520 pair of shoes for a lawmaker is nothing. After all, everything is bigger in Texas and one ethically-challenged State Representative, John Davis (R-Houston), recently spent a cool $1,537.15 on his foot ware.
Nobody in Texas can really begrudge anyone–especially a macho member of the Texas Legislature–a a nice of boots. But Davis didn’t pay for his boots out of his own pocket. He paid for his boots with money he collected from lobbyists, political action committees, and right-wing donors who filled his campaign coffers.
That’s right. Lobbyists and PACs for corporations like Reliant Energy, Dow Chemical, Accenture, British Petroleum, Cigna, Merck, and Phizer filled John Davis’ campaign warchest to the brim and he used the cash to buy a $1,500 pair of boots. Houstonian Bob Perry of “Swift Boat Veterans For Truth” fame is also a Davis campaign donor whose cash helped line Davis’ coffers to help him afford boots that cost three times as much as John McCain’s loafers.
Using campaign cash for personal expenses like foot ware is illegal under Texas law. That’s why Davis tried to disguise the expenditure in his campaign finance reports by misreporting the name and address of the boot shop where he bough the boots. The Texas Ethics Commission caught up with Davis’ free-wheeling spending and slapped him with a hefty financial penalty for his boot purchase.
This election cycle, Texans finally have the chance to give John Davis “the boot” once and for all. Longtime educator Sherrie Matula is running against Davis. Sherrie is endorsed by TexBlogPAC, and her campaign is on fire in every sense of the word.
Although much of the “bricks and mortar” Democratic establishment wasn’t paying attention to her race until she reported more cash-on-hand than her opponent this month, the Texas Netroots was, which is why they’ve named Davis “The Most Endangered Texas Republican You Don’t Know” (see videos here, here, and here.) The GOP establishment has already taken notice of Davis’ precarious position–none other than Mr. Contempt of Congress himself, Karl Rove, is coming to Houston to raise money for Davis in a couple of weeks.
Help the Texas Netroots give corrupt, ethically challenged John Davis the boot. Drop some change Sherrie Matula’s way. Texas Democrats only need five seats to reclaim the Texas House this November, and the Netroots aims to make Sherrie Matula one of the five.
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