- State Rep. Terri Hodge in Dallas’ gay Pride parade last year. (John Wright/Dallas Voice)
State Rep. Terri Hodge, the longtime representative for District 100 and longtime ally of the LGBT community, has just announced that she has reached an agreement with the U.S. Attorney General’s Office to plead guilty to one criminal charge of making a false statement by failing to report income on her personal income tax returns.
As a result, Hodge said, she is also withdrawing from the race for the Democratic nomination for re-election to the Texas House.
Read the full text of her statement after the jump.
STATEMENT BY STATE REPRESENTATIVE TERRI HODGE
(Dallas, Texas) Today, State Representative Terri Hodge released the following statement regarding the closing of her reelection campaign:
“I am sad to inform you that as of today I will end my campaign for the Democratic nomination for State Representative of the 100th Legislative District of Texas.
“I have reached an agreement with the United States Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Texas whereby I will enter a plea of guilty to one criminal charge alleging that I made false statements by failing to report income on my personal tax returns. I freely admit that I violated the federal income tax laws in this regard, and I am prepared and willing to accept the consequences of my actions.
“As a result of my guilty plea to a criminal tax violation, I will not be able to continue to serve in the Texas House of Representatives. Therefore, I cannot in good conscience continue to seek reelection and I believe that the only appropriate action for me to take is to immediately terminate all of my campaign activities. I will immediately begin the process of closing the affairs of my district office in an orderly manner, and will resign my seat in the Texas House of Representatives effective at the time I am sentenced by the court.
“I want to take this opportunity to express my remorse to my colleagues in the Legislature, my friends, and my family for my actions. Most of all, I want to apologize to all the citizens of District 100 for letting them down. It has been an honor to serve you for these last 14 years and I am truly sorry that my actions will prevent me from providing a voice for you in the Legislature. My prayer is that my successor will stand up and fight for the people of our District in the future.
“Because of the ongoing legal proceedings in my case, I will not make any further public statement concerning this matter until the Court has assessed my sentence. I ask that the press respect my request that my family and I not be contacted for any further statement concerning this matter.”
I am so glad this is over. But now groupls like Stonewall and Stonewall YD have mud on their face. All of those idiots at Stonewall decided they would support a felon even though they new she was guilty. Talk about a culture of coruption.
I am a proud Democrat and used to be a member of Stonewall, but I left the group because they are too arogant to look past their own “party insider” attitued.
Eric Johnson, who will likely be the next rep, could have been a great friend to Stonewall, but they groupls leaders blew that chance.
Eric hired a gay campaign manager, and his wife is on the Recourse center board. He is right on our issues, but of course, Stonewall would rather support a felon.
To the current leaders of Stonewall, this is your wake up call. Learn your lesson or continue to lose support in our community.
It doesn’t matter if she was an ally or not, she is a felon. Why on earth did all of our gay elected officials and gay clubs come out in support of her? Criminals are still criminals even if they are pro gay. It is my understanding she has a challenger that is very pro gay too. So why wouldn’t we support a challenger that is also pro gay but not a criminal?
I think it’s time that we in the community change our leaders. Our current leaders just don’t get it any more. Look at what’s happening to stonewall.
It’s time for a change folks.
Interesting that everyone knew she was guilty before she was tried or plead guilty.
Rep. Hodge has done a lot for this community and Mr. Johnson was scheduled for an interview with the Stonewall Democrats and canceled due to a work issue. She has supported this community through the years when others wouldn’t.
I hope Nathan and Kevin are not treated guilty with no presumption of innocence if they are ever charged with a crime.
Erin, your a wonderful person, but I think you missed the point of the people above. She plead guilty. She IS guilty. And yet there is no mention by you that you or stonewall are revoking the endorsement of a convicted felon. You rather, continue to defend her. And there by defending a criminal. I’m sorry, but I like other commentors above left stonewall because of that kind of attitude. I’m sure your a wonderful president of stonewall, but you and your leadership just don’t get it. And because of it, stonewall has lost street cred.
And let’s be honest for a second. We ALL know that she was guilty. And we ALL know that stonewalls political insiders who are lock step with the old guard crazies like janice Mattox, were endorsing Terri hodge no matter who came along to run against her.
And that is sad for stonewall. I am sure Eric will be an ally to us, but you and the rest of stonewall could have done the right thing first. But instead you pulled the same back room bullcrap stonewall has now become known for.
So Erin, now that she is guilty, when is Stonewall pulling her endorsement?
Or are you going to let the endorsment of a convict stand?
You are right, I did not mention rescinding the endorsement because that is not my decision. That decision will be made by more people than just me.
And the “backroom” you mention was 30+ members, in a room at the RCD for three days and 21+ hours interviewing candidates in an open meeting, voting, then ratifying that vote by the membership at large. We have the most open process of any organization. I am defending what Rep. Hodge has done for this community, NOT her actions or her guilt.
Oh Erin,
I’m not stupid, and I have been around town long enough to know how things work at Stonewall. That race was decided long before it ever made it to the endorsment meeting.
I remember the pride parade, all of the Stonewall leaders were rallying for Terri hot and heavy.
Now to be fair, I did see a ton of the Dallas Young Democrats running around with Eric, and I don’t know if they endorsed him or not. But at least the young’ens in our community have since enough to throw the bad water out the door.
But come on Erin, you know that race was already decided. None of the Stonewall leaders wanted to “upset” the balance. Too affraid to stand up for principles. Now you face the consequences. Or maybe Stonewall no longer has morals.
The LGBT community can count on my support. I may not be family, but I am sure a friend.
That goes for my wife, too.
Now let’s go out and win this election on March 2nd!
In service,
Eric Johnson
Democrat for State Representative
District 100
It should go without saying that a person should be allowed to marry whomever they choose. Until the right-wing, religious fanatics in this country stop trying to control everybody else and force their “morals” down the throat of the country, there can be no real freedom in the United States. Civil rights cannot simply be “voted away,” that is the purpose of the Bill of Rights. Religious activists should be left out of these decisions completely. I invite you to my web pages devoted to raising awareness on this puritan attack on our freedom: https://freethegods.blogspot.com/2009/06/san-franciscos-gay-pride-parade.html