November 21, 2017      5:29 PM

Updated: Republican Party of Texas blasts House with open records requests, seeking to find out who submitted TEC inquiry

The RPT is asking all House members for documents related to who asked the Texas Ethics Commission whether speaker commitment forms are “legislative bribery”

The Republican Party of Texas on Tuesday said it has submitted open records requests with the offices of every member of the Texas House as party officials try to figure out who complained to the state’s campaign finance regulator about the party’s speaker commitment form.

“According to a press report last week (in the Quorum Report) an inquiry was filed with the Texas Ethics Commission on the Republican Party of Texas’ Republican Caucus Speaker Selection Commitment Form asking whether the existence of the form was a method of ‘legislative bribery,’” the party said in a statement.

“That report claimed to include the text of a letter sent by an anonymous member of the Legislature asking the question,” the RPT said.

The letter, which was shown to Quorum Report, asks the Ethics Commission whether the state GOP is engaging in felony bribery by promising to provide an economic benefit – or conversely threatening to withhold an economic benefit – based on whether a candidate will pledge to support a speaker candidate chosen by the House GOP Caucus.

By Scott Braddock

Copyright November 21, 2017, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved