Texas Creationist Makes for a Poor Loser
The Texas Ethics Commission fined State Board of Education member Mary Helen Berlanga $150 for minor issues with campaign finance reports but ruled that more serious allegations were unfounded.
Jim Doyle, 67, of Conroe, filed a complaint against Berlanga, a Corpus Christi Democrat, in April 2009 alleging various infractions.
[…]
On one report, Berlanga failed to name the position she was running for, according to the order. On another, she misreported the time period the report was supposed to cover. She also failed to list $25 in non-itemized contributions that would have brought a report total from $1,000 to $1,025. And she reported $1,325 in contributions maintained, when she had $1,067.
Doyle’s most serious allegation against Berlanga — that she took political contributions from the Texas State Teacher’s Association, a corporation — could have resulted in a third degree felony charge against the state board member, but the commission ruled it was unfounded.
The ethics commission found that Berlanga noted on her reports that she took contributions from the teacher’s association, but the money came from the association’s political action committee, which was legal, according to the commission’s order.
During the time period in question, Berlanga’s husband David was ill and eventually died. She said she has since corrected the errors.
“I went through and looked at it and some of it was pretty silly stuff,” she said. “I guess it was just a real trying time. Any mistakes I made, I am willing to pay for and get it behind me.”
Berlanga came to Doyle’s attention after she opposed changes to state science curricula that called for teaching creationism in the schools, among other more conservative teaching tools, Doyle said.
“I would have hoped the fine would have been more,” he said.[…]
Truly trivial errors and I suspect the Ethics Commission would not have even bothered with them if they were not obliged to do so since the complaint was filed.
Who is this Jim Doyle, of Conroe (Texastan) I wonder? Most likely the same Jim Doyle of Conroe who wrote the following letter:
Children need truth to choose life, freedom
To the editor:Thank God for the Texas State Board of Education. Its staunch defense of conservative values in education will preserve liberty and the principles of freedom well into the next generation.
My wish for the future would be to restore Christian civilization and the ideals of American freedom as the founding fathers would have it.
Children need to be taught the real truth about how we got where we are today, the good, the bad, the ugly as well as the beauty of our American liberty. They need to know that the Second Amendment protects all the rest. They need to know that lower taxes and less government is the key to prosperity and that too much government is as corrosive to human prosperity and liberty as sulfuric acid is to a human eye.
Children need to know how to be able to tell the difference between liberal brainwashing and conservative truth so we can, in future times, expand freedom beyond anything we have previously experienced; not only in Texas and the rest of the country, but all over the world. Give the kids the truth so they can choose life and freedom.
Jim Doyle
Conroe
Yes, pretty standard theocratic worldview.
That such a “Christian” would hound this woman (who was guilty for only trivial clerical errors, made while her husband was dying) is disgusting.