The importance of the District 5 SBOE Primary

There are two Republican candidates for the District 5 State Board of Education Seat. Both candidates want you to believe that they are true conservatives and will uphold those values if elected to the board. But only one of them adheres to the party's platform, and can be called the "true conservative" in this race.

Let's take a look at both:

Ken Mercer is the incumbent in the race. He has made a name for himself as a conservative member of the SBOE.

In 2008, left-wing lobbyists fought to keep true phonics out of Texas classrooms, but Mercer fought for the more rigorous education standards and won. In 2009, the same lefty lobbyists did not want to allow Texas high school students to ask questions about the theories of evolution and global warming. Mercer upheld the conservative platform and again was victorious.

This year, some left-wing "experts" have tried to remove American traditions, holidays and the idea of America's exceptionalism from social studies curriculum. But Mercer has been fighting for accurate American History that places the emphasis on the work of our Founding Fathers and the importance of our traditions and does not diminish the greatness of the United States and its free market system.

Mercer is also a former Texas State Representative, and served as a Member of the State House Committees on Higher Education, Transportation, and Administration.

Tim Tuggey is challenging Mercer for his SBOE seat and claims he is a "21st Century Conservative." What, exactly is a "21st Century Conservative" ? Actions speak louder than words, so let's take a look at what Tuggey means by his actions over the past few years:

First, Tuggey has been listed on the Department of Justice Criminal Division website* at least 70 times as a "Registered Foreign Agent for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia."

* U.S. Department of Justice, Criminal Division, 2009, http://www.justice.gov/criminal

Why would Tuggey actively seek out and represent Saudi Arabia as a Foreign Agent? Within months of the September 11 attacks, Tuggey's lawfirm (Loeffler, Jonas and Tuggey) aggressively pursued and was retained by the dictatorship known as the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

The firm was paid $840,000 to provide public relations, communications advice, and to lobby on trade issues for the Saudis (12.6.02). Tuggey's firm was paid another $420,000 by the Saudis in 2003.

The New York Sun (a) reported that Saudi Arabia hired a lobbyist "in part to promote the Kingdom's bid for accession to the World Trade Organization."

The World Trade Organization was skeptical of Saudi Arabia. To change its image, Saudi Arabia hired Tuggey's high-priced lawfirm. The Saudis needed a makeover of their image. The same day the Saudis hired Tuggey's lawfirm, the Associated Press summarized the situation in its headline: "Congressional critics fault Saudis for failing to fight terrorists, return children." (c)

On Oct. 29, 2003, the Minneapolis Star Tribune (b) reported, "Since 9/11, Saudis have spent millions on image in the U.S. Three Washington firms have been hired to counter criticism of government, religion and culture."

The Loeffler Group, of which Tim Tuggey was the Managing Partner, was named as one of the three firms.

The money paid to these public relations firms: "soared to $17.6 million after the 9/11 terror attacks, Justice Department records show. The increase followed revelations that 15 of the 19 hijackers were Saudi citizens and that the Saudi government was failing in its responsibility to fight terrorism."

Should Tim Tuggey, with his lobbyist connections to the Saudis, be elected to the SBOE?

Secondly, Tuggey is a registered lobbyist who supports the “Open Source Textbook Bill." Check out this article from Texas Insider that details more what the Open Source Textbook Bill would do to our education standards. Tuggey's firm, GrayLoeffler, LLC, details is "education consulting" (aka - lobbying) activities on its website, and the Austin American-Statesman recently looked into his education lobbying ties.


Tuggey is also endorsed by Texas Parent PAC, which supports higher taxes, bigger government and limiting the ability of parents and taxpayers to hold school officials accountable. They've also pushed heavily for open-source textbooks.

Finally, Tuggey has donated more than $40,000 to Democrat candidates like Charles Rangel, Ciro Rodriguez, Henry Cuellar and Chet Edwards over the past 8 years.

Voters can decide for themselves who the real conservative is in this important race, but voters need to know the lobby interests of challenger Tuggey.

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(a) The New York Sun


July 22, 2003
Saudis Spent $420,000 on WTO Lobbying
Author: - Staff Reporter of the Sun


Saudi Arabia spent $420,000 in a six-month period on a lobbyist hired in part to promote the kingdom's bid for accession to the World Trade Organization.


The firm of Loeffler, Jonas and Tuggey signed up to provide communications advice and to lobby on trade issues for the Saudis last December to the tune of $840,000 a year.


According to documents filed with the Department of Justice on June 23, a partner at the firm, Thomas Loeffler - a high-powered Republican with close ties to President Bush and Vice President Cheney - held several meetings with influential politicians for his client. Mr. Loeffler met with House Speaker Hastert; the House Majority Leader, Rep. Tom DeLay; the Secretary of Commerce, Donald Evans, and Senator Daschle, amongst others.


Also on the Saudi front, Rep. Doug Ose, a Republican of California, yesterday announced that he would offer an amendment this week to deny funding that will be used for issuance of visas to international child abductors and relatives of child abductors. Mr. Ose is a member of the House Committee on Government


Reform that last year investigated the issue of child abductions to Saudi Arabia.


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(b) Star Tribune: Newspaper of the Twin Cities (Minneapolis, MN)

October 29, 2003
Since 9/11, Saudis have spent millions on image in U.S. Three Washington firms have been hired to counter criticismof government, religion and culture.
Author: Joe CareyAssociated Press

Saudi Arabia's spending on public relations, advertising and lobbying in the United States soared to $17.6 million after the 9/11 terror attacks, Justice Department records show.

The increase followed revelations that 15 of the 19 hijackers were Saudi citizens and criticism that the Saudi government was failing in its responsibility to fight terrorism.


By comparison, in 2001 the Saudis spent $655,000 on public relations in the United States.

"The main purpose of the campaign is to get our voice out to the American people" and counter criticism of the Saudi government, religion and culture, said Nail al-Jubeir, spokesman for the Saudi Embassy.

Television ads on CNN, ESPN, MSNBC and Fox News since May 2002 have depicted Saudi Arabia as a modern nation aligned with American interests. In a two-week period last November, 1,541 Saudi-sponsored ads ran on American television.

The Saudi strategy is clear: Spend large amounts on media advertising, book time with TV news shows, lobby congressional leaders and monitor policies coming out of Washington.

The Saudis have hired three well-connected Washington lobbying and law firms to advance their case. One firm, paid $420,000 so far this year, is headed by former Rep. Thomas Loeffler, a top contributor to President Bush when Bush was governor of Texas and a major fundraiser in Bush's presidential campaigns.

Foreign Agent Registration Act filings reviewed by the Associated Press show that Loeffler and his wife contributed $8,000 this year to the reelection campaign of Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., who has criticized the Saudi response to terrorism. The couple also sent $2,000 to the Bush campaign.

Lobbyists are required to report contributions they make while working for a foreign government. Saudi officials said Loeffler's contributions were not made on behalf of the kingdom.

The Saudis also paid $456,000 last year to one of Washington's best known law firms, Patton Boggs, to lobby on Capitol Hill. They paid the law firm Dutton & Dutton $625,000 to monitor congressional and administration policies.

About $16 million of the Saudi money went for television, radio and print ads in the top 20 markets across the country. The ads, according to Saudi officials, were designed to impress upon the American people that Saudis really are allies against terror.

Around the first anniversary of the attacks, the Saudis bought ads in USA Today, Time, Newsweek, U.S. News & World Report and other print media.


The Saudi campaign, however, hasn't quieted its critics.

"We can't get over the fact that 15 of the 19 hijackers were from Saudi Arabia," said Shelby, a former chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee. He said the Saudis have a long way to go to prove their commitment to fighting terrorism.

The State Department renewed a warning Monday to defer travel to the kingdom because of "indications of terrorist threats aimed at American and Western interests."

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(c) Associated Press Archive


December 5, 2002
Congressional critics fault Saudis for failing to fight terrorists, return children
Author: CONNIE CASS; Associated Press Writer

Saudi Arabia's effort to bolster its image as an ally in the war on terrorism met with skepticism Wednesday from lawmakers who complained the Saudis have failed to curb Islamic radicalism and refused to help return U.S.-born children abducted by Saudi parents.

Critics pointed to a recent Kuwaiti newspaper report quoting Saudi Interior Minister Prince Nayef as suggesting the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks were instigated by Zionists instead of the 19 hijackers, 15 of whom were Saudi Arabian.

"The interior minister's comments only serve to confirm American suspicions about the Saudi government's commitment to the war on terror," Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., wrote to the Saudi ambassador to the United States, Prince Bandar bin Sultan.

Schumer urged the Saudi government to cut off funding of extremist Islamic schools that the senator called "the root of anti-American sentiment in the Arab world."

Another New York Democrat, Rep. Eliot Engel, said "the Saudis have shown again and again their complicity in some of the most vitriolic forms of anti-American, anti-Semitic rhetoric that leads to deadly terrorist attacks."

Rep. Dan Burton, chairman of the House Government Reform Committee, accused the Saudi government of aiding and harboring Saudi parents, mostly fathers, who have abducted their children from the United States in violation of custody orders issued by U.S. courts.

Girls kidnapped to Saudi Arabia may never be allowed to return, even when they reach adulthood, Burton said, because women cannot leave that country without the permission of their male relatives.

Burton denounced the Saudis for refusing to turn over documents his committee subpoenaed from some of the embassy's U.S. lobbyists and lawyers, as well as Qorvis Communications, a public relations firm that Burton said is paid $200,000 per month by the Saudis.

The records could shed light on child custody cases and accusations that the embassy aided the abductors, Burton said. "If they're an ally of the United States, then they should work with us to return American citizens to the United States," said Burton, R-Ind.

Amid the criticism of Qorvis Communications' work for the Saudis, three of its founding partners announced Wednesday they were leaving for another firm. One of them, JimWeber, said they were joining Clark and Weinstock primarily for better business opportunities, but the Saudi work was also a factor.

"There was some concern on our part that the Saudi account was becoming dominant inside Qorvis and that could have some impact on our ability to market our services more broadly," he said.

President Bush has called on the Saudis to do more toward combatting terrorism, as well as returning U.S. citizens who were taken in defiance of court orders. But dealings with the oil-rich nation are delicate, especially as Bush tries to persuade the Saudis to support a possible war with Iraq.

The committee hearing came one day after Saudi Arabia launched a public relations blitz defending its efforts to fight terrorism and announcing new measures to deny financing to terror groups.

In a rare news conference representing the Saudi Embassy, Crown Prince Abdullah's foreign policy adviser, Adel al-Jubeir, said his nation also was a target of al-Qaida and eager to defeat terrorists. Saudi Arabia has been "unfairly maligned" and subjected to a campaign that "borders on hate," al-Jubeir said.

Asked about the child custody cases, al-Jubeir said Saudi Arabia has worked to resolve the disputes and offered to negotiate a treaty with the United States to deal with the legal issues involved. "Is Chairman Burton serious about dealing with child custody cases or is he engaging in a publicity stunt?" al-Jubeir said Tuesday.

On Tuesday night, the Government Reform Committee tried to serve subpoenas on a lawyer, a lobbyist and a public relations consultant who have worked with the Saudi Embassy on the child custody issue. Burton said none of them could be found by U.S. marshals. "They've been hiding," he said.

The representatives of Patton Boggs law firm, The Gallagher Group and Qorvis Communications declined to appear at the hearing voluntarily but denied evading subpoenas.

Patton Boggs has no objection to partner Jack Deschauer appearing if the firm is "given adequate notice and adequate explanation of the scope of the questions committee wants to ask," said managing partner Stuart Pape.

Maureen Mahoney, a lawyer representing the Saudi Embassy, said the committee isn't entitled under international law to documents held by the embassy's consultants.