Abbott: Ex-rep should foot bill
Governor demands that Farenthold pay for special election
WASHINGTON — In a rare move, Gov. Greg Abbott demanded Wednesday that scandal-plagued former Congressman Blake Farenthold cover the costs of the upcoming emergency special election that has been called in the wake of his abrupt resignation this month.
In a letter to Farenthold’s former congressional office, Abbott also urged the Corpus Christi Republican to make good on the $84,000 he promised to repay the U.S. Treasury for a taxpayerfunded settlement he reached in a 2014 sexual harassment lawsuit.
“While you have publicly offered to reimburse the $84,000 in taxpayer funds you wrongly used to settle a sexual harassment claim, there is no legal recourse requiring you to give that money back to Congress,” Abbott wrote. “I am urging you to give those funds back to the counties in your district to cover the costs of the June 30, 2018, special election. This seat must be filled, and the counties and taxpayers in the 27th Congressional District should not again pay the price for your actions.”
Abbott requested that Farenthold respond by next Wednesday. But with no legal requirement for Farenthold to pay or even respond to the governor, political analysts say the demand could amount to little more than a gesture for the Republican governor to put pressure on the excongressman and distance himself from the scandal.
Farenthold did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Chronicle.
Local election officials estimate the costs at more than $200,000, to be borne by the 13 counties that compose the 27th District along the Texas Gulf Coast.
Farenthold announced his resignation in a video released
hours before he left office April 6. That was days before a House Ethics panel was scheduled to vote on new allegations of sexual harassment and misusing his staff for campaign purposes.
Abbott’s payment demand came a day after he decreed an expedited special election June 30, using emergency powers to bypass state and federal laws that he said could have pushed back voting into September.
Abbott, backed by Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton, cited the urgency of the district’s ongoing recovery from Hurricane Harvey.
“All counties contained within this district continue to be under the state disaster declaration related to the devastation of Hurricane Harvey, making it imperative that we fill this vacancy as soon as possible,” Abbott wrote. “Hurricane relief efforts depend heavily on action at the federal level, which can only occur if Texans residing in disaster zones have full and effective representation in Congress.”
Four candidates — two Republicans and two Democrats — already are contending in May 22 primary runoffs ahead of the regular midterm elections Nov. 6.
The runoff is being held even as the U.S. Supreme Court takes up a legal challenge by a coalition of African-American and Hispanic groups alleging that the Republican-leaning district was one of several in Texas that were illegally gerrymandered by the Texas Legislature to marginalize minority voters. Several accusations
Farenthold, a four-term congressman, has been under a widening ethics cloud for months. Although he announced in December that he would not seek reelection, he did not immediately resign.
Instead, he vowed to serve out his term to the end of 2018 and repay the $84,000 settlement he had reached with Lauren Greene, a 27-year-old former press secretary who had accused him of sexual harassment and retaliating against her when she complained.
Until December, amid deepening scrutiny of sexual harassment claims against prominent media, business and political figures, the financial terms of Farenthold’s settlement with Greene had remained confidential. Farenthold agreed to pay it only after the payment was made public by House administrators.
At the same time, several other Farenthold staffers went public with their own accusations, prompting the House Ethics Committee to renew a long-dormant investigation.
Farenthold, maintaining his innocence, gave little explanation for his belated decision to resign, other than to say that “in my heart it’s time for me to move along and look for new ways to serve.”
The Ethics Committee, noting that Farenthold’s resignation ended Congress’ jurisdiction over the matter, nevertheless urged Farenthold to make good on his promise to repay the Greene settlement, as have top Republican House leaders.
In putting off any repayment over the past four months, Farenthold’s office has said he was waiting on “advice of counsel” to see the fate of a reform bill that would overhaul the way staffers pursue harassment complaints against lawmakers — and make lawmakers bear the costs of any financial settlements. ‘Unprecedented’ call
With little legal recourse to force Farenthold to pay up, some analysts see Abbott’s letter as little more than a public pressure campaign — and an unusual one at that.
“It’s entirely unprecedented,” said Cal Jillson, a Southern Methodist University political scientist.
Farenthold is one of a half-dozen lawmakers who have been accused of sexual harassment or misconduct in the wake of the #MeToo movement. But he is the only one who’s faced a call to repay the costs of a new election.
“Congressmen are falling like flies in sexual and other kinds of scandals, and I’ve never heard of a governor or any other official call for the disgraced member to pay for the special election,” Jillson said. “It’s hard to say that anything serious is going on here. It’s strange. The governor does not expect that Farenthold is going to pay the cost.”
But even if he does not, Abbott may be making a statement.
“There’s nothing he can do to make him, other than to publicly shame him, which is what members of the House are trying to do,” said Jordan Libowitz, a spokesman for the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. “That’s clearly not working. Farenthold is not somebody who’s easy to publicly shame if he doesn’t want to do something.”
Given the governor’s limited clout in the matter, Libowitz added, “it seems more like political grandstanding. If he’s not going to pay back the $84,000 he already said he was going to pay back, I can’t imagine him paying $200,000 that he doesn’t want to pay.”