The website http://www.disdbondelection2008.com/ [1] was short-lived and the record needs to be set straight as to why.

Nobody "threatened" the website's owners. They chose to take the site down versus bringing it into compliance with Texas Election laws regarding political advertising [2].

Plainly put, if the primary purpose of your site is express advocacy for an issue (i.e. a call to action such as: "vote no"), then you are required to put the phrase: "political advertising paid for by [the name of whoever paid for it]." Failure to do so opens you up to all sorts of unpleasantries--all of which cost money.

The genesis of the law is good: to prevent anonymous, big-named donors from unduly influencing elections simply by throwing lots of money at an issue. Unfortunately, it bites the "little guy" as well.

You'll note that, around election season (on advice of our lawyers), this website bears similar language--even though (since our sole purpose is not express advocacy) we could probably get away with not doing it. It's just a risk we chose not to take--and it is easy to avoid taking it.

After careful consideration I chose to make all sides aware of the issue to avoid an "October" (make that "April") surprise. I also tried to talk the owners of disdbondelection2008.com into simply putting their name on it and leaving it up (as well as talking about options like starting an SPAC, etc.).

The owners of disdbondelection2008.com had very valid reasons for wanting to remain anonymous; so they chose to take the site down rather than reveal their identities.

Even so, they had some extremely good points that were worthy of discussion and consideration. I hope they'll consider options to bring the site back--and will let readers of Dallas.Org know if the situation changes.

Anyway, I hope this sets the record straight.