Judge Les Hatch will decide if Jason Corley is or isn’t Precinct 2’s county commissioner following an unprecedented Monday beginning with Corley escorted out of the county courthouse and ending with him suing to be reinstated.
Other commissioners said they were stunned by Judge Curtis Parrish telling Corley he resigned his seat by running for Congress, replacing him with Slaton’s Mark Meurer, a story LubbockLights.com broke Monday morning.
“It’s definitely personal. And I believe political,” said Cary Shaw, Precinct 3 (northeast Lubbock County) commissioner.
Parrish disagreed, saying, “As the county judge, it’s my job to defend the Constitution and laws of the state of Texas. I want to give [Corley] a plaque and a flag and I hope there’s a time where he can come back and let the people of Lubbock County thank him for his service to Lubbock County.”
In Texas, officials with more than 13 months left in their terms automatically resign if they run for a different office. Parrish issued a statement saying Corley became a candidate for Congress in mid-November – weeks before his official announcement on December 2.
“If you announce for candidacy or you become a candidate-in-fact, then you have triggered that automatic resignation,” Parrish told LubbockLights.com.
Corley denied it, saying he timed his announcement to not run afoul of the law.
“[Parrish] had security remove me from the Commissioner Court offices after I gathered up my things. So, I was having to pack like the rent was due to get out of there,” Corley said less than an hour after he was asked to clear out his office.
The written statement from his congressional campaign said, “This corrupt power grab will not stand. … This blatant political attack only proves one thing: Jason Corley’s leadership has them scared.”
The issue needs clarification in district court “pronto,” according to one local attorney, who said both sides have interesting arguments.
LubbockLights.com tried to contact Meurer Monday by calling the courthouse, asking various officials for a current number and then texting and calling a number listed for him on the Internet.
‘This blew me out of the water’
Commissioner Michael Dalby, Precinct 1 (southwest Lubbock County), said he found out about three minutes before it happened.
“I had no knowledge this was going to happen. I was not involved in any of this decision making. The judge acted on this on his own. This was on his own accord. This was not a court decision,” Dalby told LubbockLights.com
Shaw said, “It was probably 9 o’clock when the deputies marched him by the door and I found out what was going on.”
Jordan Rackler, Precinct 4 (northwest Lubbock County) said, “I think for respect of the Court, we should have had a heads up.”
“I’ve had people today ask me to run for judge. This is gonna be big, I’m afraid,” Rackler said Monday afternoon.
“As to how this Court cannot work together to have one end goal, which is to serve the people – this was a surprise to me. This blew me out of the water,” Rackler added.
Shaw said, “He [Parrish] wants more money in the county budget. And he knew with three conservatives on the court, that’s not going to happen.”
“I had heard rumors that he was going to try to do this months ago,” Shaw added.
That’s when there was talk Corley might run against Parrish for county judge.
Rackler agreed, saying, “I had heard a rumor about three weeks ago that the judge was looking into this.”
“Corley does not mind standing up to the judge, but … since Jason wasn’t running against the judge anymore for the [county] judge seat – since he had went on to Congress – I really didn’t expect this to come out of the judge,” Rackler said.
Rackler wasn’t sure if having Meuer on the court would change the court’s consensus on budgeting and tax rates.
“I don’t know anything about Mark [Meurer]. Today is the first time I’ve ever talked to him. I know nothing about how he would vote or what his views are on some things,” Rackler said.
Parrish’s reasoning
The story began when Jodey Arrington announced he wouldn’t run for reelection. Days later, on November 12, Corley announced an exploratory committee. Everyone we talked to agreed that’s not enough to trigger the automatic resignation.
But Parrish pointed out a specific detail from the announcement.
“He had sent that from his ‘Corley for Congress’ Gmail account,” Parrish said.
Parrish also said:
“There was also a P.O. box that was attached there too for written correspondence called ‘Corley for Congress’ … as well as two campaign graphics, ‘Corley for Congress.’”
(Parrish claimed campaign expenditures count as running a campaign.) “As far as I know, those P.O. boxes are not free. You have to pay for those. And so, this also would constitute a campaign expenditure.”
“Saturday [November] the 15th, he sent a text message. … ‘I’m running for Congress in Congressional District 19.’ It wasn’t ambiguous. He said, ‘I am running for Congress.’”
Logo in Corley press release about an exploratory committee. Credit: November 12 email
“It’s not just the text message and it’s not just the e-mail, but given in total, that has triggered the … automatic resignation provision of the Texas Constitution,” Parrish sad.
LubbockLights.com told Parrish two other commissioners were concerned this was both personal and political.
“I understand that is potentially the narration here,” he said, adding he would have done the same with any other commissioner – not just Corley.
Parrish also said, “[Corley] has not been removed from the courthouse. … He’s perfectly free to be anywhere that the public can be in at the courthouse right now. … He was asked to get his personal effects out of the office, but he’s not removed from the building at all.”
What Corley’s lawsuit says
Corley’s attorney, Ben Garcia, electronically filed a lawsuit after regular hours Monday. The lawsuit is technically against Meurer to remove him from office and put Corley back in. But the claims are directed against Parrish.
The court record said, “The Lubbock County judge, Curtis Parrish, concluded that Commissioner Corley is a candidate for another office relying on the extremely broad definition of ‘candidate’ in Elections Code section 251.001(1), which does not even apply to candidates for election to the U.S. House of Representatives.”
The lawsuit makes a technical distinction between the Texas Election Code and a state constitutional provision for automatic resignation if a commissioner becomes a candidate for another office too soon.
Click here to read the lawsuit.
The word “candidate,” was not defined in the Constitution and so the issue of becoming a candidate has been clarified by various opinions from the office of Texas Attorney General – including one in 2021: “The person’s statement must be made in a public setting and be clear and unequivocal.”
The opinions have consistently said considering or exploring do not count.
“There was no vacancy,” the lawsuit said more than once.
“Meurer now purports to occupy the office of county commissioner for Lubbock County Precinct 2 and even sat upon the dais in Commissioner’s Court on December 8 … despite the fact that there was no vacancy,” the lawsuit said.
Thoughts from local attorney
LubbockLights.com reached out to local attorney Fernando Bustos for his perspective.
“You bet it needs to be decided by the state district judge real pronto,” Bustos said.
“Did he unequivocally say, ‘I am a candidate – I am running.’ Or was he just testing the waters? … That’s the dispositive question. I think that there are some decent arguments to be made on both sides,” Bustos said.
“If all you’re doing is saying, ‘I have an exploratory committee,’ but you haven’t yet declared yourself as a candidate, that indicates that he doesn’t need to resign. … If you have ‘Corley for Congress’ kind of stuff floating around out there, that kind of indicates that perhaps he’s already decided to run and he really ought to resign,” Bustos explained.
As for Corley’s claim of getting legal advice, Bustos said, “I commend him for trying to get legal counsel, but that’s not going to be a get-out-of-jail card.”
Why Meurer?
“I’ve known Mark [Meurer] for many years, and I know of his impeccable work as the director of the Mercy Center in Slaton. … He comes in with a great amount of skills as far as financial understanding, budgets, understanding corporate budgets specifically,” Parrish said.
Parrish did not want to impact the upcoming race between Justin Martin, M. Trey Newton and Kevin Pounds in Precinct 2. Corley is not running for reelection and the term ends December 31, next year.
“That was one of the conditions when I talked to him [Meurer]. I said, ‘I will appoint you, but you are not going to run for this position because it is up to the people of Precinct 2 to determine who their next commissioner is going to be,’” Parrish said.
“It seemed to me to be more prudent to go ahead and make that appointment, create that replacement so that Mr. Corley can get about the business of campaigning for Congress. … But the people of Precinct 2 deserve a commissioner that will be working full time for them and not campaigning for another job,” Parrish said.
Parrish said he talked to Meuer about the situation two or two-and-a-half weeks ago.
“He said that ‘yes,’ he would pray about it. And then I told him, I said, ‘Well, I’ll let you know if there is a vacancy in Precinct 2,’” Parrish said.
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