Sunday, February 7, 2016

How Trump Blew It Last Night on the Eminent Domain Question

Last night during the Republican presidential debate, Jeb Bush of the Bush crime family, attacked Trump for using eminent domain in Atlantic City.



Of course, eminent domain is evil and Trump should not be given a pass for using it but Jeb should be the last person to be charging someone for using eminent domain. His brother, George W., who he is using in spots to campaign for him, acquired most of his wealth when the City of Arlington, Texas  grabbed through eminent domain homes, so that Bush could build a new baseball stadium for the Texas Rangers and an accompanying parking lot, a team then-owned by a group where George W. was the general manager and key partner.

Trump should have it Jeb over the head with that and he never would have recovered.


The story on one of the cases (there were other properties involved) was first reported by Texas reporter Robert Brice in May 1997, late in Bush’s first term as governor of Texas:
In April of 1991, the Rangers shepherded through the Legislature a bill [that] would create the Arlington Sports Facilities Development Authority, a quasi-governmental entity endowed with the power of eminent domain. Shortly after the bill was signed into law by former Governor Ann Richards, three parcels of land located near the stadium, nearly thirteen acres in all, were condemned by the ASFDA. The land was owned by … the heirs of television magnate Curtis Mathes.Among court documents is an unsigned Rangers memo by a team representative, discussing the history of the Mathes tracts. The representative notes that in his first contact with the Mathes family concerning the land, on November 6, 1990, “I was not well received.” The memo goes on to say that the ASFDA’s appraiser assigned the land a value of $3.16 per square foot, for a total value of $1.515 million. “An offer was made by the Authority at this price. This offer was rejected & the Sellers countered with $2,835,000.00 for all three tracts, i.e.: $5.31 p.s.f.” In mid-December, the ASFDA offered the Mathes heirs just $817,220 for the three tracts, far below even what the ASFDA’s first appraiser had suggested. The Mathes family refused to sell, and the ASFDA seized the land through eminent domain.
Glenn Sodd, a Corsicana attorney who represents the Mathes family, says he has found little evidence that Bush was directly involved in the decisions to condemn the property for the stadium. But he adds, “What happened to my folks was pretty audacious. It was the first time in Texas history that the power of eminent domain has been used to assist a private organization like a baseball team.”
[In May 1996], a Tarrant County jury found that the sports authority’s offer of $817,220 for the Mathes property was too low, and it awarded the Mathes heirs $4.98 million, plus accumulated interest. For the past year, the city of Arlington and the Rangers have been arguing over who will pay the tab.
Bush sold his interest in the Rangers in 1998 for $14.9 million. He had invested a total of $606,302.27 [in 1989] and was one of two managing partners.

-RW

2 comments:

  1. I watched some coverage after the debate on CNN. One of the commentators was Nia-Malika Henderson, who CNN describes as "a senior political reporter for CNN, reporting broadly on the 2016 campaign for CNN's digital and television platforms."

    She was such a dope that she referred to it as "imminent domain."

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  2. The one who looked the stupidest though was Rubio. I was hoping someone would go after him. Christie just obliterated him. Rubio the skipping record was funny.

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