Barbara Ann Radnofsky, the Democratic nominee for Texas Attorney General, commented on the incestuous[i] relationship between Attorney General Abbott and Bob Perry, the Houston homebuilder ordered Monday to pay $51 million to a Mansfield couple who purchased a defective home from his company.

Radnofsky: "Bob Perry was protected for years due to his incestuous relationship with Greg Abbott. The Attorney General acts to protect his own political interests as funded by his patrons."

Since 2001, Greg Abbott has received in excess of $1 million in campaign donations from Mr. and Mrs. Bob Perry, of the huge Bob Perry Homes building giant.  In return, the Attorney General has been active in coddling homebuilders. 

Radnofsky explained how the Texas Attorney General shielded Bob Perry and other homebuilders, historically:

"The Texas Attorney General is a massively powerful position.

"It was an Attorney General opinion which enabled the wasteful, bureaucratic and industry-dominated Texas Residential Construction Commission (TRCC) to flourish, until the legislature eliminated the Commission.

 "I call on Attorney General Abbott to return every penny of the million plus dollars he received from Mr. and Mrs. Perry."

This includes, particularly, the $170,000 from July 29 through December 15, 2005 the Perrys paid to Attorney General Abbott {Exhibit A}.  After the Perrys paid  $100,000 of this amount on December 15, 2005, the Attorney General was sent a December 16, 2005 request from the Chairman of the House Committee on State Affairs {Exhibit B} questioning the Comptroller's Review of the TRCC.  The Attorney General went on to thwart and quash the Comptroller's Review in a May 3, 2006 opinion, effectively shielding builders. [ii]

The Attorney General prevented investigation of the TRCC [iii], a wasteful and intrusive government agency, by the Texas Comptroller. [iv]

John Cobarruvias, of Houston, Texas, an active member of Homeowners of Texas approved of Radnofsky's call for Greg Abbott to return the Perrys' campaign contributions, noting:

"Bob Perry and his wife gave well over a million dollars to Greg Abbott as Attorney General.  In return, Mr. Abbott has done nothing for the homeowners of Texas who need his help.  When you are stuck with a bad house, it wrecks you financially, and your family relationships suffer as well."

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During her 30 year legal career, Barbara Ann has represented retirees, life-saving doctors, blood banks, children burned by lighters, families of murder victims, unfairly treated businesses: a wide variety of persons entitled to protection. Barbara Ann graduated with honors from the University of Houston and the University Of Texas School of Law.   She was honored as the Outstanding Young Lawyer of Texas in 1988 and for the past 17 years she has been listed in "Best Lawyers in America".

Prior to 2006, she was a partner at the law firm of Vinson & Elkins in Houston, where she served as head of the Alternate Dispute Resolution Section.  She was the first woman at Vinson & Elkins to have children as an associate and later attain partnership.  Texas has never had a woman Attorney General. 

Media Contact:

Katie Floyd

Office: 713-357-3360

katie.floyd@radnofsky.com

Please contact Katie for exhibits.

[i] Incestuous: Random House, third definition: being so close or intimate as to prevent proper functioning: an incestuous relationship between organized crime and government.

[ii]The Residential Construction Commission, later eliminated thanks to homeowners' efforts in the legislature, had no enforcement power to make builders fix defects.  The Comptroller explained, "...the homeowners' only recourse is to go to binding arbitration, as required by most builder contracts, or to go to court - precisely the outcome the Texas Residential Construction Commission was created to prevent."

[iii] The Attorney General admitted in his May 3, 2006 opinion dismissing the Comptroller's powers of investigation that Tax Code language authorizes the Comptroller to "at any time examine and investigate the expenditure of appropriated money for a state institution or for any other purpose...The Comptroller shall investigate any state institution when required by information coming to his own knowledge." Tex. Tax Code Ann. Section 111.003(e) (Vernon 2001).

Nonetheless, the Attorney General ruled that the Tax Code didn't authorize the comptroller to "investigate state agencies and their agencies and their policies; management and operations." AG Opinion GA-0427, p6(May 3, 2006).

[iv] The Comptroller's conclusions concerning that agency which she described on January 23, 2006:

"This agency imposes costly and bureaucratic roadblocks for homeowners left out in the cold by shabby construction and a commission dominated by builders, where even the public members are beholden to the industry they are supposed to be regulating."

"In FY 2005, the agency spent $3.7 million on its operations.  That same year, the agency collected $6.6 million from builders and homeowners.  As a result, the agency transferred $2.9 million to the general fund, effectively helping balance the general state budget on the backs of homeowners."