Federal Plea Bargain Document Gives Hodge Critics Another Weapon for Dallas House Race
By Mike Hailey
Capitol Inside Editor
As the filing period for next year's campaign enters its final 10 days, State Rep. Terri Hodge will have to decide if the public emergence of a previously sealed plea bargain document<http://www.capitolinside.com/members/hodge-charge.pdf> in which she is accused of accepting a discount deal on an apartment in exchange for her influence as a legislator will have a bearing on her plans to seek another term at a time when she's scheduled to go on trial on bribery charges less than a week after the March 2 primary election.
Hodge - a Dallas Democrat who's been a member of the House for the past 13 years - has vowed to move forward with a re-election bid in 2010 despite the pending criminal case in connection with an investigation into public corruption involving housing developments. But while Hodge has received a united show of support from more than a half dozen House colleagues and other high-ranking elected officials in the Dallas area, the veteran state legislator still hasn't filed for the candidate for the House District 100 seat and must do so by January 4 if she's going to run again as planned.
While Democratic challenger Eric Johnson has declined to publicize Hodge's legal troubles in his bid to unseat her, the federal plea bargain record that had been kept under wraps by a court order until surfacing on Thursday has given the incumbent's critics more tangible ammunition to use against her than the flurry of speculation that's been based on the original indictments and selective pieces of information that prosecutors had revealed up until now.
In the document in question on which U.S. District Judge Barbara Lynn will rely when she sentences Cheryl Potashnik on March 19 as one of several defendants who've entered guilty pleas in the federal probe's aftermath, the former chief operating officer for Southwest Housing Development Company has sworn under oath that she leased an apartment to Hodge at a monthly rate far below market value to ensure the legislator's continued support for the firm's affordable housing programs in Dallas.
Potashnik alleges in the negotiated plea arrangement that she signed that she agreed to give Hodge a break on rent after the lawmaker asked the company for "assistance in the form of affordable housing for herself" within the House district she represents at a time she was having financial problems and couldn't afford to pay the full rental rate.
Potashnik "recognized the goodwill and intangible benefits that might come to SWH by virtue of having an elected official living at an affordable housing development in which SWH had an interest," according to the plea bargain deal. The document that Potashnik signed alleges that the firm that she managed arranged for Hodge to move into a unit with a monthly market rate of $899 at the Rosemont at Arlington Park apartment complex with the agreement that she would only pay $200 each month for rent.
The plea bargain arrangement asserts that Hodge reaped benefits worth more than $28,000 as a result of the special rental deal that the firm subsidized. Previous news reports had suggested that Hodge had been allowed to live at the apartment complex at no cost to her at all.
Lynn also plans to sentence Brain Postasnik, the husband of Hodge's chief accuser, and two other defendants in the corruption case on March 19 as well. Brian Potashnik pleaded guilty to bribery charges in connection with an alleged arrangement with former Dallas Mayor Pro Tem Don Hill, who went on trial earlier this year.
