Senate blocks Perry parole appointee

AAS 5/13/09
Senate blocks Perry parole appointee
By JIM VERTUNO
Associated Press Writer

AUSTIN, Texas — In a rare rebuke of a governor's appointment powers, the Texas Senate voted Wednesday to block one of Gov. Rick Perry's nominees to the state Board of Pardons and Parole over concerns she is unqualified.

The 27-4 vote against Shanda Perkins of Burleson was a resounding bipartisan rejection of the former banker. Unlike the occasional high-profile debates over presidential nominees, the Texas Senate rarely votes against a governor's appointment.

Critics, including the American Civil Liberties Union, had assailed Perkins' nomination, noting she has no college degree and had no criminal justice background before Perry selected her for a board with the power to grant parole and recommend clemency in a death penalty case.

Grits for Breakfast blog 5/13/09
Parole board vacancy: Insert dildo joke here
(UPDATED) The full Texas Senate today will consider the nomination of Shanda Perkins, the anti-sex toy crusader from Burleson who Governor Perry has nominated to serve on the parole board despite having no apparent experience regarding criminal justice besides the effort to ban dildos from Johnson County. (I know, I know, it can't be done - they're indigenous.) The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals later overturned Texas' statutory sex toy ban.

Capitol Digest 5/19/09
Spurned nominee lobbies lawmakers

Rejected nominee doesn't quit

Shanda Perkins, the unemployed Burleson banker turned down by the Texas Senate last week in her bid to become a member of the state parole board, was back at the Capitol on Monday, lobbying senators for a second chance.

Her pitch: Past members of the state Board of Pardons and Paroles didn't have a college degree.

Senators cited her lack of a degree as one reason they turned back her nomination, in a rare public rebuke of a gubernatorial nominee.

Perkins and former state Rep. Bill Zedler, R-Arlington, were standing outside the front doors to the Senate Chamber, stopping senators to make their pitch.