Friday, September 02, 2011

What happened to Joe Driver and Linda Harper-Brown-Benz?

There hasn't been any news about Texas State Representatives Joe Driver and Linda Harper Brown after they were exposed in 2010 for double dipping the taxpayer. This can't be good for either of them. Both are probably being investigated by the Travis County DAs office. If so, there would be little if any communication from their office. Hence no news.

The next step would be an indictment from a Grand Jury. Leaks to the media if a case is being brought to them should be expected.

Joe Driver
Prior to the election Driver was outed by Jay Root of the Associated Press. Root identified $17,000+ of travel related expenses that were paid by his campaign and also by the Comptroller's Office. Driver pocketed this "free money".

Later it was noted that Driver received $40,000 from the Comptroller's Office for mileage, for a car he does not own. Driver has since stated he has reimbursed his campaign (not the tax payers) $49,426 which has not been seen on his reports as of yet.

UPDATE: As expected, according to ethics reports, there is no indication that Joe Driver reimbursed his campaign as he stated.

Linda Harper Brown-Benz
State Rep Harper-Brown was provided a Mercedes, complete with State provided licenses plates, by a company receiving benefits from her votes in the Transportation Committee in Austin. How can anyone not think this smells to high heaven of bribery?

To make matters worse, she then claimed $13,000 in mileage for the use of her personal vehicle from the State for a vehicle she didn't own. This is something Driver is getting driven on. According to recent ethics reports, Brown has accepted a $15,000 loan from her husband  and has a total of $50,000 in outstanding loans with just $5000 cash on hand.

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