Texas Governor Perry Vetoes Funding of Drunk Travis DA Rosemary Lehmberg's Public Integrity Unit

Gov. Perry Line-Item Vetoes in SB 1

Article IV - The Judiciary

Judiciary Section, Comptroller's Department
D.1.4 Strategy: PUBLIC INTEGRITY UNIT, $3,742,829 $3,830,597
TRAVIS CO & UB
Public Integrity Unit, 53rd Judicial District.

Statement from Governor Rick Perry about Line Item Veto of Public Integrity Unit:

Despite the otherwise good work the Public Integrity Unit's employees, I cannot in good conscience support continued State funding for an office with statewide jurisdiction at a time when the person charged with ultimate responsibility of that unit has lost the public's confidence. This unit is in no other way held accountable to state taxpayers, except through the State budgetary process. I therefore object to and disapprove of this appropriation.


related articles:

Travis County D.A. Arrested for Drunk Driving: Another Texas Democrat Arrested

Texas Should Take Public Integrity Unit away from Travis County DA

Perry vows veto of state funding unless Drunk Travis Ethics District Attorney Lehmberg resigns

Perry vows veto of state funding unless Drunk Travis Ethics District Attorney Lehmberg resigns

The Travis County District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg is in charge of such things as prosecuting drunk drivers and politicians who commit ethics violations. Well, she has been recently convicted of drunk driver herself and the video of her resisting with the police during arrest is an embarrassment to the State of Texas. The law allows for her to be removed for drunkenness. She refuses to resign so Governor Perry is getting involved...

from the American Statesman: http://pushjunction.com/l/Cp5

Move seeks to force Lehmberg out after after drunken driving conviction

Gov. Rick Perry is vowing to veto funding for the state’s Austin-based ethics-enforcement unit unless Travis County District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg resigns, officials confirmed Monday.
Perry has until Sunday to veto bills passed by the Legislature during its regular session that ended in May, including the state budget that contains about $7.5 million to fund the Public Integrity Unit for the next two years.

Texas Should Take Public Integrity Unit away from Travis County DA

from Rick Perry vs. The World:

Take Public Integrity Unit away from Travis County DA

BOR cogently argues why the Public Integrity Unit of Texas should not belong to the Travis County DA:

Those calling on Lehmberg to resign need to recognize the severity of handing the Public Integrity Unit and the environmental prosecution division over to a Perry crony whose attitude on everything from pre-trial release to the death penalty is likely to be out of touch with Austin's progressive community values.

Executed properly, the Public Integrity Unit invaluably serves all of Texas by enforcing anti-corruption law. Yet our Public Integrity Unit is subject to the whims of white Austin liberals who dominate the Democratic primary in Travis County.* Their current selection Rosemary Lehmberg has shown herself to be unfit for the office in a variety of ways.
Officials who serve all Texans should be accountable to all Texans, not to "Austin's progressive community values."


* One wonders whether moving the Public Integrity Unit to Travis County would pass Voting Rights Act preclearance in the Obama Justice Department.