As earlier Lone Star Project reports and local news coverage revealed, Harris County Voter Registrar, Ed Johnson, is also a paid Republican political consultant for Campaign Data Systems (CDS) – a firm founded and owned by Dwayne Bohac. While Ed Johnson has been working as a Harris County employee who reviews voter registration applications and provisional ballot affidavits, CDS received at least $145,000 in fees and payments from Harris County Republican candidates.(Source: Texas Ethics Commission) Prompting closer scrutiny, Bohac himself was re-elected by a relatively narrow margin in 2008, winning by just over 6,600 votes and several of Bohac’s political clients won by even closer margins.
Since the story broke, Dwayne Bohac has gone silent, refusing to answer media inquiries and hastily taking down the CDS website. (See the screen archived site here)
Lone Star Project filing Open Records Requests of Bohac and Others
Today, the Lone Star Project formally submitted open records requests of Dwayne Bohac, Tax Assessor Collector Leo Vasquez, Harris County DA Pat Lykos -a CDS client, and others. Given the refusal of Harris County Republican officials and Dwayne Bohac to respond responsibly to media inquiries about Ed Johnson, they must be compelled to produce records before evidence is destroyed or otherwise withheld from public or legal scrutiny.
Corruption by the Numbers
Many of the clients of CDS have won close elections in recent years. Ken Legler (R-Pasadena) won his election by just 902 votes in 2008 and Jim Murphy won in 2006 by fewer than 3,000 votes. Most questionable, District Attorney Pat Lykos paid Bohac and Johnson at least $7,000 in consulting fees for her campaign, which she won by 4,784 votes (less than one-half of one percent). Johnson helped open the 6,950 sealed provisional ballot affidavits and oversaw the rejection of 70,000 voter registration cards leading up to the 2008 election. (Dallas County, by comparison, had just 1,800 rejections.) Incredibly, when asked about this conflict of interest, Lykos said, “I saw no conflict.” (Houston Chronicle, June 10, 2009)
Corruption by the Numbers | |
Margin of victory in Dwayne Bohac’s 2008 Election | 6,614 |
Margin of victory in the Pat Lykos’ 2008 Election | 4,784 |
Provisional ballots cast in 2008, counted by Ed Johnson | 6,950 |
Voter Registration Applications rejected by Harris County | 70,000 |
Amount paid to Dwayne Bohac, Ed Johnson, and CDS by Pat Lykos | $7,000 |
Amount paid to Dwayne Bohac, Ed Johnson, and CDS by Republican Candidates | $145,512 |
Questions for Dwayne Bohac
To this point, Dwayne Bohac has said nothing to the press about his company, his activities or his employees, despite all being implicated in the scandal. Bohac owes Harris County voters answers to at least the following questions.
Why does Bohac only sell to Harris County campaigns?
CDS claims to sell voter lists and software services, which should be applicable all over the state. However, CDS only sells to Republican campaigns in Harris County. Is this because Ed Johnson is only available to help in Harris County?
What Harris County voter information has Bohac and Johnson obtained?
The Campaign Data Systems’ website claimed that, “Most data providers allow you to target using only registered voter data and voter history. However, CDS gives you two additional lists—drivers license data and property tax records.” (See the website) Ed Johnson’s position the with the Harris County Tax Assessor Collector, who oversees the voter registration department, may give him access to property tax data, vehicle registration data and other information in addition to the voter data for which he has full access. Bohac should tell Harris County residents what public data he has obtained and where he obtained it.
Why is Dwayne Bohac routing money through Decide Consulting?
Dwayne Bohac has never paid Campaign Data Systems from his campaign account. Instead, he has suspiciously paid Decide Consulting more than $27,000 since 2004. Decide Consulting was founded by another Bohac business partner, David Moise. This firm is described as a, “software management and consulting business.” Decide has no other political business listed on its website or on Texas Ethics Commission filings. These payments may be an effort by Bohac to steer profits to his business and business associates, while circumventing Texas Ethics Opinion 35 which prohibits payments to a business when the candidate owns more than a 10% stake for more than actual expenditures. As the opinion says, “the business may not make any profit on such a transaction.”
