Local Judge's Campaign Signs in Violation of Texas Law?

Brad Goodwin’s yard signs, 4x4 feet and 8x4 feet, violate the Texas Ethics Commission rules said Gus Clemens, who is the media buyer for Carmen Dusek's campaign facing Goodwin for 391^st District Judge.

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Above: Brad Goodwin's campaign logo from his Facebook page header. (Facebook)

Such a violation is not a one-time thing, they said. Every single sign is an additional violation of the rules, Clemens argues.

[[{"fid":"17733","view_mode":"preview","type":"media","attributes":{"height":"674","width":"1200","class":"media-element file-preview imgbody"}}]]Above: Carmen Dusek's signage. (Facebook)

The “for” on Goodwin’s signs is 37.5% the size of the office, they allege. This may be nit-picky, but this is election of a judge, Clemens claimed. “Judges must know and follow the law. Goodwin either didn’t look at the rules or deliberately declined to follow them,” Clemens said in a statement.

According to Clemens, this is the corresponding Texas law governing signage that she claims Goodwin in in violation. Emphasis is theirs:

II. Misrepresentation Of Office Title.

A candidate may not represent that he or she holds an office that he or she does not hold at the time of the representation. If you are not the incumbent in the office you are seeking,  you must make it clear that you are seeking election rather than reelection by using the word “for” to clarify that you don’t hold that office. The word “for” must be at least one-half the type size as the name of the office and should appear immediately before the name of the office.

In addition to the signs, Clemens claims Goodwin also violated Texas law by announcing his campaign before appointing a treasurer. "Goodwin sent out press releases and began running for office prior to filing a treasurer appointment. You must have a campaign treasurer on file with the Texas Ethics Commission before you can do any campaigning or tell people you are going to run," Dusek claimed. They sent a link to Goodwin's April 24, 2015 announcement. 

Stephen McLaughlin of McLaughlin Advertising responded early Tuesday morning after research with the state.

"By the time I was contacted, the story was already on San Angelo Live, and the members of the campaign quoted in it had Facebook posts denying authorship of the statement it was based on. 

"My firm designed the logo for Brad Goodwin’s campaign. 

"There was, of course, no intent to ignore or defy any of the ethics guidelines. Not on our part, and certainly not on Mr. Goodwin’s. 

"The story refers to the election guidelines of the Texas Ethics Commission, not actually Texas LAW. These guidelines are set  by the Commission and candidates agree to adhere to them or face a fine. 

"At issue is the size of the word "FOR", which the guidelines require to be at least half the size of the name of the office sought by any non-incumbent. 

"Our design absolutely meets the intent of the guideline. I do not believe the Commission would find fault with the proportions either. Unfortunately this was not raised until it was too late to get a ruling before the election. 

"On Monday I contacted the Commission for clarification on whether the overall words being in proportion was what they required, as we designed the Goodwin logo, or if measuring the highest points of the letters was their criteria. According to their staff attorney there is no precedent for this question. No one has ever filed a complaint about the size of “FOR”.  

"He could identify no violation. 

"I have every faith that the voters in this election will see that IF this is an error, it was slight, and ONLY on my part. This in no way changes the fact that Brad Goodwin is the most qualified candidate for this bench. He has experience  in felony criminal law, and that experience can help keep bad guys off our streets.  Our local voters are too smart to ignore that fact because of something like this. Further, he is a forthright and honorable person. 

"I hate to think that a Republican primary election in West Texas can come to this. Some of the people on the other side of this campaign I have known for years. If they interpreted the standards this way,  there was ample opportunity to call it to my attention, long before any signs were printed. That would have given me the chance to either seek a clarification, or simply bump the size of two letters down a fraction of an inch and rule out all doubt. 

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Originally, we understood the information about the signage was coming from the campaign of Carmen Dusek. Gus Clemens was acting as a subject matter expert.