Slick Rick's Sick Shtick is Latest Trick

Another GOP operative's name comes up in Texas Green Party ballot case

By WAYNE SLATER / The Dallas Morning News
wslater@dallasnews.com

AUSTIN — A Republican consultant with ties to Gov. Rick Perry is the latest in a growing number of GOP operatives described in court documents as helping the Green Party get on the Texas ballot. Anthony Holm, whose political-consulting firm represents Gov. Rick Perry’s campaign and the state GOP, said Tuesday that he talked with Green Party officials numerous times in recent months about fielding candidates.

But Holm disputed an e-mail suggesting he could provide funding for a petition drive to put the party on the November ballot.

Democrats contend that the liberal Green candidate for governor would help Perry by siphoning votes from Democrat Bill White. The Perry campaign denies involvement.

The Democratic Party contends the petition drive was illegally financed with corporate money. The Texas Supreme Court has cleared the way for the Green Party to certify candidates while it reviews the case.

At issue is the legality of a GOP-backed signature-gathering effort bankrolled with $532,000 from an out-of-state nonprofit corporation. The source of the money remains a mystery.

In March, when the Green Party was struggling to get signatures, state coordinator Kat Swift told party officials in an e-mail that big Republican money was coming to the rescue.

“I just got a call that a Republican in Texas wants to give us 40 percent of the cost of petitioning,” Swift wrote. “I got his name! Anthony Holm.”

Holm says he told Swift he couldn’t provide any money. But he said he supports the Green Party’s bid to be on the ballot and has provided informal political advice.

Holm is a partner in an Austin consulting firm, and his clients include Houston homebuilder Bob Perry, the state’s most prolific contributor. Holm said the builder, who is the biggest campaign donor to the governor but is not related to him, was not involved in helping the Green Party.

“Bob Perry did not contribute one penny to this effort,” Holm said.

Holm is among several GOP figures linked to the Green Party petition case. At the time of Swift’s e-mail, the party was being assisted by former Perry chief of staff Mike Toomey, now a lobbyist.

When that petition effort sputtered, out-of-state Republicans with ties to the governor’s chief political strategist, Dave Carney, took over. They paid a petition-drive company to collect 92,000 signatures, which were turned over to the Green Party as an in-kind contribution.

Democratic strategist Matt Angle said the party wants to know who paid for the drive.

“It is no longer credible for Rick Perry to deny his campaign’s involvement in the ballot scandal,” Angle said. “At least three of his closest political associates have been connected to the scheme.”

Perry spokesman Mark Miner said whoever funded the effort to help the Green Party did so on his own, not in connection with the campaign.

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