Suzanna Hupp, lobbyist, has a new cause
Former Rep. Suzanna Gratia Hupp, R-Lampasas, lists a surprise client in ethics disclosures about her new lobbying practice: She represents a group trying to cull from the state's jail and prison populations offenders who've committed "nonviolent and victimless crimes," such as possessing small amounts of marijuana.
Ms. Hupp is the lobbyist for and one of three founders of Texans for Public Safety Solutions. It supports passage of HB 2391, which would let law enforcement officers write citations to -- and not have to take to jail -- people who are found with less than 2 ounces of marijuana, an expired driver's license or in the act of trespassing.
The fine-don't-incarcerate option would apply to hundreds of different Class B misdemeanors, said David Fried, the group's executive director.
Go directly to jail would still apply, though, to driving while intoxicated, inciting a riot and enticing a child, said Mr. Fried, who has been active in the Libertarian Party.
"We don't want to be labeled a 'pot organization,'" he said. "We're about reducing the number of people that are spending time in jail."
He said Ms. Hupp and Marc Levin, a criminal justice expert at the free market-oriented Texas Public Policy Foundation, "got funding for this project" from a donor who prefers not to be identified publicly.
Ms. Hupp described the roll-out -- no pun intended -- of her lobbying practice as part adventure, part pain.
"I'm still trying to get my lobby legs," she said. "The ethics rules are difficult. I don't like gray areas."
While she reported her six clients will pay her gross fees of between $55,000 and $145,000, Ms. Hupp expressed some disappointment that two causes close to her heart aren't among the pharmacists, foreclosure lawyers and massage school owners she's representing.
"I didn't get hired by a gun group and I didn't get hired by the chiropractors," said Ms. Hupp, a chiropractor and ardent advocate of gun owners' rights.
Comments
"I'm still trying to get my lobby legs," she said. If her lobby legs are as nice as her legislative legs she will do fine.
Posted by: anon | March 19, 2007 9:28 PM
"roll-out" ... nice.
Posted by: laura | March 20, 2007 10:56 AM