Left Wing Partisans: The Legislative Study Group

The left-wing Legislative Study Group is a caucus in the Texas House of Representatives and public policy information outpost. Due to the mixture of their obscurity, leftism, and authoritative-sounding name, the LSG is sometimes cited by the media. Al Sharpton of MSNBC used them recently in a debate with Texas Public Policy Foundation analyst Josh Trevino. The San Francisco Chronicle recently cited the LSG as well wrongly labeling them bipartisan.

The LSG is comprised entirely of liberal lawmakers and activists whose work is too liberal for the majority of Texans.

Former Dallas area Democrat Terri Hodge was a board member of the group during the 81st legislative session. Hodge was force to resign her seat in 2009 after pleading guilty to tax fraud and bribery. She was sentenced to a year in prison and released in early 2011.

Harold Dutton, another Democrat member of LSG, stated in May that he would hire Hodge to be his chief of staff if he were reelected in 2012.

In 2007,Kristi Thibaut was lobbying Texas lawmakers on behalf soon-to-be disgraced fraudsters ACORN. Thibaut ran for and won election in 2008 and was a member of the LSG while in office. In 2010 Thibaut lost her bid for re-election.

On Monday this week it was under reported by Texas media that an Austin attorney was arrested on federal racketeering charges. The attorney, Marc Rosenthal, was a major donor to another former LSG member one term Representative Diana Maldonado.

Americans are voting with their feet, moving to Texas more than any state in the union. In spite of that trend the LSG has dutifully produced an annual document called “Texas on the brink”, listing as many partisan bad rankings for Texas as they can find.

Pundits looking to add a credible source to their Rolodex should look elsewhere. The only credible thing about LSG is the sound of their name.