Stonewall Democrats of Dallas voted unanimously Tuesday night to make no endorsement in the District 100 Texas House race, rescinding the group’s previous endorsement of State Rep. Terri Hodge, who recently pleaded guilty to income tax fraud in connection with the Dallas City Hall corruption case.
Before the vote, Stonewall President Erin Moore told the group that in the wake of Hodge’s Feb. 3 guilty plea, there’s been a lot of “Monday morning quarterbacking” about Stonewall’s endorsement of Hodge a few weeks before.
“She stood up for our rights when it wasn’t popular or the easy thing to do,” Moore said of Hodge. “This organization believes in innocent until proven guilty.”
One member stood up and said he planned to vote for Hodge, whose name still appears on the March 2 primary ballot. If Hodge gets more votes than the other candidate, Eric Johnson, her replacement would be decided by Democratic precinct chairs in the district. Another Stonewall member said he thought the group should endorse Johnson. But Moore replied that Stonewall can’t endorse Johnson because he hasn’t sought the group’s backing. Johnson missed the group’s initial endorsement screening in January because of a work-related matter. Moore said she contacted Johnson after Hodge’s plea and invited him to come speak to the group, but he declined. Former Stonewall President Jesse Garcia said he hopes Johnson will seek Stonewall’s endorsement as a gesture of “good will” if he wins the primary, even though he would be unopposed in the general election. After Stonewall voted 41-0 to make no endorsement in the race, one person began clapping.
“I don’t know that that needs applause,” Moore said.
2 Comments
Do you know who cares what the Stonewall Democrats think?
The Stonewall Democrats. They bestow themselves such undeserved respect.
The leaders should turn it over to someone younger and more in tune with the next generation.
This group is far too full of it.
I just saw the online article about Stonewall having to rescind its endorsement of Terri Hodge, who recently plead guilty to tax evasion. In that same article, it states that Stonewall did not endorse Eric Johnson because he did not seek Stonewall’s endorsement. That is flatly untrue.
Eric Johnson actively sought the endorsement of Stonewall before they endorsed Terri Hodge in spite of her being accused of some very serious federal offenses. The Eric Johnson campaign formally requested to participate in Stonewall’s endorsement process. Eric had many commitments over the MLK Holiday weekend, beginning with the Dallas Morning News an endorsement interview on Friday afternoon, and had a VERY narrow window of availability to attend the Stonewall endorsement meeting. When a work emergency arose, Eric knew he would be unable to attend the Stonewall endorsement meeting, which I immediately conveyed to Stonewall’s political director.
After Terri Hodge pleaded guilty and withdrew from the race, I responded to a request by Stonewall’s President Erin Moore asking Eric Johnson to speak at the Stonewall meeting scheduled for February 16 — an invitation we received on February 3 and mere hours after Terri Hodge pleaded guilty. I informed Ms. Moore that Eric wouldn’t be able to attend the meeting due to a conflict, but that he would be happy to accept the endorsement of Stonewall now that Terri Hodge had admitted to committing a felony and dropped out of the race. During that conversation, Erin Moore told me that the Stonewall Board would be rescinding its endorsement of Terri Hodge, but THAT IT WOULD NOT BE POSSIBLE FOR STONEWALL TO ENDORSE ERIC due to a lack of time to convene the endorsement committee. Ms. Moore then added that Stonewall would be issuing new endorsements after the primary and that she expected Eric Johnson would be endorsed by Stonewall then.
I read in your online article that Erin Moore told you that Stonewall could not endorse Eric Johnson because Eric had not sought Stonewall’s endorsement. Again, I was told personally by Erin Moore THAT IT WOULD NOT BE POSSIBLE FOR STONEWALL TO ENDORSE ERIC JOHNSON even though I informed her that Eric would gladly accept Stonewall’s endorsement and, as I mentioned before, Eric had already asked for Stonewall’s endorsement prior to Terri Hodge dropping out of the race. Interestingly, Eric has an email in his inbox from as far back as 6-8 months ago from a Stonewall officer essentially accusing him of trying to obtain Stonewall’s endorsement outside of Stonewall’s established endorsement process (which, although false, is certainly inconsistent with Erin Moore’s assertion that Eric Johnson never sought Stonewall’s endorsement).
Let’s just cut the bull and be honest here: Stonewall’s credibility took a major hit when it decided to endorse an elected official who was facing 14 counts of bribery and tax evasion, and Eric Johnson had absolutely nothing to do with that decision. Period. Eric has tried to reach out to all Democrats (even those who have treated him like a pariah and tried both overtly and covertly to defeat him) and let bygones be bygones. When Stonewall had the chance to do the same, it decided against it. Erin Moore complained about a lot of Monday morning quarterbacking going on out there, but I think based upon the highly questionable endorsement choices being made by Stonewall as of late, Ms. Moore and Stonewall should do a bit more worrying about the thinking going into their Sunday morning quarterbacking.
Juan J. Ayala
Campaign Manager
Eric Johnson Campaign