In a nutshell, the binding arbitration clauses have the ability to drive homebuyers out of the public courts where judges, inspectors and lawyers are cheaper than arbitration services.
"Everybody has to go to binding arbitration, even if your roof is leaking or your wall cracking, and sometimes it takes months to resolve," noted Ahmed who said if the homebuyer fixes the problem because its impossible to live with, they then forfeit their warranty.
At Ahmed's organization's Web site HOBB.ORG, there are countless horror stories of the American Dream turned nightmare, stories where individuals and families discover toxic mold or shoddy construction threatening their most important material investment, only to find their legal recourse neutered.
Andrew Wheat has written that groups like Public Citizen, Consumers Union and Homeowners Against Deficient Dwellings say arbitration amounts to a Kangaroo court.
A few years ago, Wheat and members of Texans for Public Justice dug and found information that suggested former House Leader Tom Delay's Texans for a Republican Majority Political Action Committee might have been engaged in improper and illegal misuse of corporate campaign money. The work Wheat did, helped lead to Delay's eventual indictment on conspiracy and money laundering charges.
Bob Perry was the largest donor to DeLay's Republican PAC.
Wheat says his organization has followed Bob Perry's long money trail for years.
In Texas he's "motivated by a push to limit damages from homeowner lawsuits"
Regardless of his motives, his impact has been felt throughout Texas politics.
In a recent interview with West Virginia Public Radio, Jake Bernstein, editor of "The Texas Observer," said, "people don't pay enough attention to who's paying for campaigns."
He noted that in Texas, there hasn't been the sort of debate there should have been on the issue of campaign finance reform, especially since so many members of the Republican legislature, the governor and others have all benefited from people like Bob Perry.
Still, theories swirl across the political landscape as to why Bob Perry would spend so much money to effect Congressional and Senate elections across the country.
Janet Ahmed says that Bob Perry led an effort in Texas to regulate the home buying public by creating an agency that hinders homebuyers from getting warranty work done.
Ahmed says this is coming to the rest of the country.
"If the wealthy Texas based homebuilders are able to limit liability in Texas that they are also influencing the political arena in other states to do the same thing," she said.
The widely known conservative Tennessee columnist Frank Cagle wouldn't speculate on Bob Perry's intentions except to say "a Texas developer probably knows Karl Rove." from http://codylyonblogolater.blogspot.com
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