On August 31, 2006, the Texas Values in Action Coalition filed an ethics complaint against Arlington Republican State Representative Toby Goodman, asserting that Goodman was using campaign funds to pay for property and converting those funds for personal use. Recently, the Texas Ethics Commission found that Goodman's payments were a violation of Texas Election Code Sections 253.038 and 253.035. The Ethics Commission levied a fine of $10,000. You can get the full ethics ruling here in PDF form, and see the official TexVAC release after the jump.

Meetings on the plan for a re-vote in Michigan resulted in that plan's final termination. Ben Smith has the goods at Politico; for the rest of us, speculation can begin on how all of this will play out instead.

Economic news continued to dominate the headlines yesterday, and with good reason.

In a statement from Texas Democratic Party Chairman Boyd Richie, he asserts that the process in place "already provides for verification" of delegates, and that the party will not deviate from that process. Full text after the jump.

The weekend brought presidential politics back to everyone (and Texas in particular) with a vengeance.

In a letter sent to the TDP on Friday, the Clinton campaign requested that the county conventions set for March 29 (in which the delegate selection process will continue) be delayed until all of the roughly one million signatures from the caucus portion of the "Texas Two-Step" can be verified. More reporting here from the Star-Telegram. Text of the letter after the jump.

And you thought some Democratic meetings in Texas were contentious. Alaska's GOP Convention basically devolved into civil unrest:

A state Republican convention that could have unified a troubled party descended into infighting Friday, with the lieutenant governor announcing his intention to unseat a congressman and the governor calling for changes in GOP leadership.

Yesterday we had some reiterations of things we'd already been told and gathered some new information about delegates, re-votes, admirals, and other items of interest.

Yesterday was a mixed bag: democracy marched on with another primary and reports indicated that even more (!) people are signing up to vote in these later states, but yesterday also brought us the kind of news that may signal bad things for the future, like the resignation of the only sane man at the White House and yet another record high oil price.

We just got a news alert from Politico with the following text, although no corroborating story seems to be on their page:

Defense Secretary Robert Gates says Adm. William Fallon will step down as head of the U.S. Central Command.

Update: It's official — DOD media relations have just confirmed via phone that Admiral Fallon is retiring and resigning his post. A little background on Fallon's relationship with the Bush administration and the infighting over war with Iran after the jump.