| Fort Bend County Republican Party Chairman Eric Thode said Monday he didn't make a key remark in one of his affidavits used in an appeals court and Texas Supreme Court case. However, on Tuesday morning, Thode said he had reread the affidavit and said he had told attorneys to yank the sentence in question.
Fort Bend County District Clerk Glory Hopkins filed two appeals to the 14th Court of Appeals, and after two denials, took her case to the Texas Supreme Court.
Hopkins, using an incorrect address sent out to Republican Party members through three e-mails, attempted to file her application and filing fee through certified mail. The ZIP code on the address used by Hopkins was incorrect, and the application never made it to its intended destination, that being Thode's Houston office address.
Thode filed an affidavit in Hopkins' appeals, saying he believed Hopkins should be granted a spot on the March 7 primary ballot.
In an affidavit sent to the Supreme Court on Hopkins' behalf, Thode said, "My address for filing by certified mail is the same for all candidates in the Republican general primary election."
Then, in affidavits on Elliott's behalf for the 14th Court of Appeals and the Texas Supreme Court, Thode said, "I never sent any e-mail stating or suggesting that candidates for elected office other than Precinct Chair should send their applications to the Brittmoore address (his Houston office's address)."
Thode said Monday he didn't make the latter statement.
"That would not be true," Thode said Monday. "I missed that. In that particular e-mail, I gave everybody six or seven options (on how to file for office). It (the affidavit) should not have included that sentence.
"They (Elliott's camp) knew that because they had all the e-mails that I sent all the way back to November, and I know that address was in there to all candidates," he said.
Thode said he didn't write any of the affidavits.
"I didn't write them; I didn't read them critically; I just skimmed over them...nor did I write Glory's," he said.
Thode said both sides supplied affidavits to be used in their cases, but he looked them over and signed them.
"I think it was fairly clear in Annie's...these were the facts they wanted to stress," he said. "At no point in that response did I oppose Glory getting back on the ballot. There was no opposition to that from the beginning."
Revisited on the issue Tuesday morning, Thode changed his story and said he had instructed Elliott's attorney, Troy McKinney, to pull the statement in question from the affidavit.
"I told Troy McKinney to pull that sentence out," Thode said. "It's clear, if you read the next paragraph where it says 'I also sent other e-mails with the correct ZIP code for the Brittmoore address...(to Fort Bend County elected officials and to known candidates),' that one of those sentences is incorrect."
The Texas Supreme Court denied Hopkins' petition on Friday.
Elliott will face Democrat Veronica Torres in the general election in November.
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