Beaumont Examiner Editorial: Billionaires plotting takeover of Texas House

The following editorial reflects the views of Don J. Dodd, Publisher/CEO of The Examiner Corporation. Jeff Yass, a multi-billionaire and the wealthiest man in Pennsylvania has made substantial political donations – much of his money ending up right here in Southeast Texas. Boundaries of Yass’ vast fortune are untold, but his 15% stake in TikTok, according to Forbes Magazine, is alone worth $21 billion. Selling the secret lives of our children to China really brings home the bacon. Many of his recent contributions, totaling millions, have been directed toward the “Club for Growth Action,” a Political Action Committee (PAC) with no Texas-based staff that can be seen, which is sticking their Pinocchio nose into Southeast Texas politics. This PAC recently sent out a mailer featuring an image of Pinocchio to voters in Jefferson and Orange counties, accusing Speaker of the Texas House Dade Phelan of “Lying” and advocating for us to vote for Phelan’s opponent, David Covey, on May 28.

Who is David Covey? These mailers, that somehow manage to get delivered to our homes when we can’t seem to get regular mail or packages delivered by the post office in a reasonable time, don’t say a word about the candidate they want us to blindly elect. No one seems to know what Covey’s plans are to serve Southeast Texas; all we know is he had billionaires from West Texas, and now from Pennsylvania, paying millions of dollars for TV commercials, Deep Fakes on social media, unsolicited emails and text messages. As a newspaper, many have asked us about Covey and, while we fully endorse Dade Phelan because of his integrity and honesty while still securing state funding for Southeast Texas, we really know nothing of Covey – mostly because he won’t tell us. Numerous calls and emails have gone unanswered. Not interested in an interview? Ok. We sent a list of questions seeking his stance on important policy initiative; again, no answer. So, we searched the internet; Covey is listed on campaign filings as an Oil and Gas Consultant and Lawyer with work experience, yet he is not eligible to be a practicing lawyer with his mail-order, online degree. What Covey fails to mention in campaign literature is his 2013 and 2014 stint as Constituent Liaison for U.S. Congressman Steve Stockman, who, in November 2018, was sentenced to serve 120 months in prison and ordered to pay over $1 million in restitution for orchestrating a four-year scheme from 2010 to 2014 to defraud charitable donors of hundreds of thousands of dollars and secretly funnel the proceeds to pay for personal expenses and to finance his campaigns for public office illegally.