Travis Clardy is against school choice and sends his own kids to private school. (Courtesy: KETK)
According to Greg Abbott's recent cease and desist letter, Texas House Rep. Travis Clardy (District 11) is falsely claiming the governor endorses him for re-election. Clardy has been sent to Austin for over a decade while drugs, crime, poverty, and illegal aliens have taken over his District. His counties include Nacogdoches, Shelby, Rusk, Newton, Sabine, and Panola. He represented Cherokee County through last year's redistricting (Source: Ballotpedia).
Texas House District 11 would lose Cherokee County and pick up new territory to the east under a draft proposal being considered in the Texas Legislature. “I have been so proud to get to know and represent the folks of Cherokee County,” Clardy said in a video address to constituents Friday. (Source: Oct. 5, 2021 Daily Sentinel)
Cherokee County has no Democrat Primary this March and all Republican incumbent candidates are unchallenged, even their Precinct 4 Constable currently under indictment (Source: Grand jury indicts Cherokee County constable on assault charge, KLTV) Hence zero reporting of local uncontested elections to keep potential rivals at bay. They can pretend to just sweep into office.
In neighboring Nacogdoches County, Travis Clardy faces Republican challenger Joanne Shofner. Shofner and Clardy both reside in Nacogdoches; she gets endorsements from Greg Abbott, Donald Trump, Ted Cruz and numerous conservative organizations. Travis Clardy is endorsed by the teachers union pushing Critical Race Theory and LGBTQ crap. Clardy has also used snippets of Governor Abbott’s past feigned praise during his campaign, resulting in a ‘Cease and Desist’ threat directly from the governor’s office. Abbott makes it perfectly clear that he does not endorse Travis Clardy’s reelection. This election is not all about school choice vouchers, even with inappropriate teacher-student relationships on the rise in East Texas. It's about the backstabbing bullshit going on in the Texas House of Representatives, i.e. the RINO-orchestrated coup to oust the duly elected Attorney General.
AG Ken Paxton's sham impeachment trial will have political consequences for years.
Many a Republican legislator will be dumbfounded when they are not endorsed for trying to remove Ken Paxton on made up allegations. They claim to be "tough on the border" while at the same their colleagues are creating land deals for illegal alien settlements like Colony Ridge in Liberty County. Whether a poison pill or an actual attempt at controlling the Southern border, Governor Abbott has publicly drawn the line on illegal immigration and its effect on Texas communities. (Source: KETK, Feb 1, 2024)
"Nichols and Bailes made Colony Ridge possible"- Ken Paxton
In an open letter to the governor, Attorney General Paxton points out that two Republican legislators representing Liberty County, State Senator Robert Nichols out of Jacksonville (SD 3) and State Rep. Ernest Bailes (HD 18), sponsored legislation in 2017 to create a self-governing Municipal Management District for Colony Ridge. This backroom deal was designed to enrich the developers and themselves at the expense of their own constituents. Nichols' and Bailes' hidden consent agenda legislation did not fall under the Texas Open Meetings Act, and did not have deliberations or a vote.
"Colony Ridge is a huge problem... that's why we helped create it," say political ads for Ernest Bailes while Robert Nichols waits out his term.
Welcome to Colony Ridge, USA, courtesy the Republican Party of Texas
East Texas’ state and congressional representative districts have been gerrymandered for decades with little to no input thanks to the political ignorance and indifference of locals. Cherokee County was in Texas House District 11 in 2023 before being paired up with Anderson County in District 8 will little to no fanfare. Small town newspapers wait until the last minute to publish the roster of primary candidates and challengers. Cherokee County papers didn't bother to mention their handpicked shoo-ins for 2023. They don't want folks to know what's going on. Residents don’t know who they are voting for, where to vote, or what’s on the ballot. Voting sites are operated by partisan poll workers related to county clerks. Ballot boxes are taken home, left in car trunks, and go missing. Counting continues in secret long after polling places close. In between elections, the area is deliberately flooded with drugs and crime for local politicians to promise to fight. Local media perpetuate the lie of Republicans' chosen “conservative” contenders fighting for Christian values in Austin while they are all openly involved in shady land deals like Colony Ridge.
The federal government doesn't crack down until undocumented migrants are foreclosed on.
Homegrown East Texan Republicans are getting rich on anti-American real estate deals. Their scheme is to offer housing to the millions upon millions of illegal border crossers already living in Texas. To be anointed, State reps and senators stay mum on the growing illegal populations in their home districts. State senator Robert Nichols has never said a word publicly about how he set up the legal framework for Colony Ridge's deceptive financing. No mention of the exploding East Texas crystal meth epidemic or the thousand percent increase in crime moving in next door. Pseudo-conservatives claim to be “tough on the border,” while voting to impeach Attorney General Ken Paxton for suing the Biden administration over the illegal alien invasion. They attend abortion rallies in Austin and pro-Life churches back home. Like Jacksonville's Robert Nichols, they're for paid maternity leave and pro-abortion at the same time. If their backroom legislation ever gets reported, their hometown newspapers sing their praises for screwing over their constituents. They just call it something else to fool everyone.
Cherokee County's Appraisal District has given themselves a makeover by dropping their perceived affiliation with the Cherokee County Tax Assessor Collector's office and changing their name. Not to be confused with the thieves in the Cherokee County courthouse, as of 2024 CCAD will be referred to as “Cherokee Central Appraisal District.” (Source: Jacksonville Progress, Feb. 2, 2024)
Tax Assessor Collector clerk Gina Upshaw, indicted for stealing more than $430K - CBS19
An internal audit of Cherokee County offices and departmental accounts revealed a discrepancy of $431,375.91 related to the tax office. (Source: Audit reveals over $430,000 missing from county tax office, July 12, 2022, Daily Progress)
With $430,000 stolen out of the Cherokee County Tax Office, and the former Tax Assessor bookkeepers’ embezzlement trial coming up in April, the Cherokee County Appraisal District board has voted to remove the word “County” from their official title. Other municipal facilities and parks have also dropped the word "County" from their Cherokee County designations. They don't want to be associated with the other maniacal elitist turds running the place into the ground. Those appealing any Cherokee County Appraisal District decisions will still contend with the Review Board's allies in the District Court.
Thou doth protest thou property taxes too much
County judges and commissioners don't pay squat for their hundred acre homesteads. Those taxpayers who reside elsewhere and use their Cherokee County property for agricultural and recreational purposes continue to pay the brunt of the county revenue that goes "missing." The Cherokee County Appraisal District board of directors have blamed farm exemptions on skyrocketing property taxes, sanctioned their appointed Chief Appraiser to undervalue commercial property in millions of dollars to be passed on as "delinquent" school taxes, cheated the City of Jacksonville out of hundreds of thousands of dollars in tax revenue; and forced their Section 8 rental properties' back taxes onto rural landowners. They pretend to be ignorant on how property values are certified with the State, offering conflicting numbers on tax roll levies to hide what they're doing. The name has changed, but are things really the same?
