Smoking Gun: Leaked Emails Show Griffith’s Wife Likely Violated Law

San Angelo ISD communications director Molly Turk quickly responded to the email reminding all that “school district officials may not use public resources to advocate for or against particular political candidates and/or groups of candidates.”

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton took six Texas school districts to task in the days leading up to the March 4, 2024 Republican Primary Election by filing civil lawsuits against those districts for electioneering. He called it election interference.

“I am extremely troubled by this pattern of government officials engaged in illegal electioneering. These are government employees charged with the education of our children. They must respect our laws,” said Paxton following the filing of a lawsuit against Denison and Castleberry ISD. “I will continue to use every legal remedy available to me to stop this unlawful conduct. Elections are the foundation of our republic. They must be free and fair.”

Interestingly, Paxton’s only remedy for policing election code violations are civil lawsuits. Last year, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ordered that the Texas Attorney General, as part of the executive branch, does not have jurisdiction to criminally prosecute election code violations. Instead, the justices ruled, only the local DA can bring criminal charges, as DAs are part of the judicial branch in Texas government. The Texas Constitution has very strict rules about the separation of powers, the justices argued. We have never seen either DA, 51st DA Allison Palmer, or 119th DA John Best, prosecute an election code violation.