Posted on 01/28/2003 10:23:39 AM PST by SlickWillard
Other than the usual list of trial lawyers and party committees, the top donor to the Texas Democratic Party in 2002 was an unknown 91-year-old woman who died in 1999 and split most of her $1.9 million estate between the state and national parties.
And, true to form for Texas Democrats, the inheritance from retired secretary Martha Hughes, who never married and left nothing to family members, has ignited finger-pointing in a party that needs more internal dissension like it needs a replay of the 2002 election.
Although the first two payments from the estate, $140,000 in April and $250,000 in October, were listed on required disclosure reports, several members of the State Democratic Executive Committee say there's something fishy about how they were never formally notified about the money.
The dissidents see conspiracy and corruption, but state party officials say their effort to keep the money low-key until every dollar has been received was based on due diligence.
"We haven't hidden this donation; nor have we advertised it," Texas Democratic Party Chairwoman Molly Beth Malcolm said Monday. "Until the estate is completely settled, on advisement from our legal counsel, we are not going to discuss it."
Half of $1.9 million would mean the state party is due another $500,000 or so, but lawyers handling the estate say the bottom line took a big hit from declining stock prices and Hughes' lack of interest in reducing the estate tax burden.
"Her attitude was that this country was good to her, and she didn't worry about paying taxes," said David Curtis, the Dallas lawyer who prepared the will. Curtis said the estate's bottom line wound up being "considerably" less than $1.9 million. Dallas lawyer David Carlock, the estate's executor, said that "the majority of it has been disbursed."
Carlock said the federal estate tax took $300,000 to $400,000.
Charles Soechting, the Texas Democratic Party's lawyer, said the party will celebrate the donation at the appropriate time.
"We just know a very kind lady left us the rewards of her lifetime of work, and we certainly appreciate it and intend to honor her in a very proper way," he said.
Carlock said his interest in a low-key handling of the estate stemmed from concern there might be relatives who would want to challenge the will.
Hughes not only left nothing to heirs, but directed Carlock "to use every effort, and any of my estate, to see that this will is upheld."
"She, for whatever reason, had obviously become estranged through the years from her family and did not want them to know it," Carlock said. "We tried to keep things as quiet as possible."
Under Texas law, the deadline for challenging the 1998 will was July 25, 2001, two years after it was filed for probate in Dallas. Although that deadline has passed, Curtis said it still could be subject to challenge.
The original copy of the will was found stuck to the back of a chest of drawers in Hughes' home months after her death, Curtis said.
In addition to the $390,000 sent to the Texas Democratic Party last year, the estate sent $390,000 to the Democratic National Committee.
"I do not know why Ms. Hughes was so loyal to the Democratic Party, but she was resolute that it would receive her estate at death," Carlock said.
Floor fight
When the money was mentioned during a recent State Democratic Executive Committee meeting, only two people raised their hands when asked if they knew anything about it. That was enough to fuel the flames fanned by the handful of committee members who had earlier mounted an unsuccessful effort to urge Malcolm to quit after an election cycle in which Republicans won full control of the Capitol and every statewide election.
Committee member Jesse Martin of Buchanan Dam, who thinks Malcolm should go, is angry that he wasn't told about the inheritance.
"She didn't have a right to withhold it," Martin said of information Malcolm had about the money.
But Martin acknowledged that it's a bit difficult to accuse someone of keeping a secret when the guts of it are in public records available at the Texas Ethics Commission Web site.
In 2002, the state party took in almost $19 million, mostly from party-related organizations, trial lawyers and their firms. Hughes' donation will go with those donations toward general party expenses, such as office space; salaries; and the support of Democratic candidates and officials.
Martha who?
Little information is available about Martha Elizabeth Hughes, who died at her Dallas home "on or about" June 8, 1999. Her body was not found for several days.
At her Dallas church, Monsignor Donald Zimmerman said the records show that Hughes' funeral was at the church and that he administered last rites. The records list no next of kin.
"I visited with her," he said. "I'm afraid I don't remember the personality."
Retired oil company employee Ruth Ann Spears of Dallas knew Hughes from the Desk and Derrick Club, an organization of women in the petroleum industry. Hughes had spent more than 20 years, beginning in 1940, working for Republic National Gas Co. in Dallas.
"We were never personal friends," Spears said. "I just knew her from the organization. She was a very precise little lady. She was not real outgoing as far as making friends easily, but she always had a smile on her face and was always friendly."
Coleman Stephenson, Hughes' plumber (and, at $10,000, the only other beneficiary named in the will) heard her talk a little politics, enough to know it was a subject best avoided.
"Occasionally, we would discuss (political) things, but we were so at different ends of the spectrum that we knew better than to go into details," said Stephenson, a Republican. "She was a true Democrat."
Hughes' political gab with her plumber did not translate into political activity. Dallas lawyer Ken Molberg, a senior member of the State Democratic Executive Committee, can summon up only a hazy memory of Hughes.
"I believe I knew who she was," Molberg said. "I only have a vague recollection about her."
Hughes chose to let her wealth, not her words, do the talking in her will.
Section IV, the who-gets-what clause, gives half the estate to the Democratic National Committee "to further the political life of this nation," and the other half to the State Democratic Executive Committee "to further the political life of the state of Texas."
The bulk of the estate consisted of stock holdings.
According to Carlock, Hughes was a South Dakota native educated at Huron College there and at Columbia University. Before moving to Texas in 1940, she taught French at what was then the State College of North Dakota and had worked as director of public affairs for a small private college in Virginia.
After her retirement from Republic Natural Gas and a stint as a secretary for the general manager of Dallas' Statler Hilton Hotel, Hughes worked part-time for H&R Block, Carlock said.
Hughes enjoyed ballroom dancing and earned several awards from the Arthur Murray Dance Studios, Carlock said.
"Miss Hughes," said Democratic Chairwoman Malcolm, who didn't know her, "was obviously a wonderful woman who cared deeply about the Texas Democratic Party."
kherman@statesman.com; 445-1718
As far as I can tell, Monsignor Donald Zimmerman is a priest at Christ the King Catholic Church in Dallas.
If there's any truth whatsoever to all this Christianity stuff, I guess Muss Hughes will discover what God thinks of people who finance the advocates of the murder of His children in the wombs of said childrens' mothers...
Hughes not only left nothing to heirs, but directed Carlock "to use every effort, and any of my estate, to see that this will is upheld."
"She, for whatever reason, had obviously become estranged through the years from her family and did not want them to know it,"
"I do not know why Ms. Hughes was so loyal to the Democratic Party
Unable to legally kill her own hated family, she wants to insure that others have the opportunity she lacked.
As I read the article, I was thinking along the same lines. You can't understand socialism [in any of its incarnations - German Naziism, Russian Bolshevism, Chinese Maoism, American
People don't like to hear this, but the fundamental reason socialists support abortion is precisely because it is the murder of a human being. All that crap about "Womyn" and their educations and their careers and their sexual freedom is just a pile of socialist propaganda.
Excellent question. Of course, you're talking to someone who, for precisely that reason, hasn't voted for a Republican in many years, and is no longer registered to vote: I un-registered the day after Dubyah betrayed us on ESCR, and, prior to that, I didn't vote for him in 2000 because I knew he would betray us.
Scratch a Bush [Senior, Babs, Laura, now Dubyah himself], get a pro-abort.
?
It's not surprising that a Catholic of her generation would be a die-hard Democrat. Not surprising at all...
"Her attitude was that this country was good to her, and she didn't worry about paying taxes," said David Curtis, the Dallas lawyer who prepared the will. Curtis said the estate's bottom line wound up being "considerably" less than $1.9 million. Dallas lawyer David Carlock, the estate's executor, said that "the majority of it has been disbursed."
Carlock said the federal estate tax took $300,000 to $400,000.
The Rats got hoisted by their own petard on that one.
But why? The Democrats have been the party of irreligion since time immemorial, just as the GOP has been the party of religion since its inception [the two unifying planks of the original GOP were religion-based opposition to slavery and religion-based opposition to the Mormons' practice of polygamy]. She has to have known this.
Maybe the author of the story was mistaken, and she was given a Catholic funeral as an accident, something like this: The morgue found itself with a Jane Doe pauper on its hands, and it was the Catholics' turn to do the pauper funeral, only it turned out that Jane Doe wasn't such a pauper after all.
If there are any Dallas Freepers who are familiar with the case, I'd be interested to know.
But for the entire twentieth century, and, depending on your view of Thomas Jefferson, going back to its founding, the Democrat Party has been the party of irreligion.
Where does it say that?
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