AUSTIN – Gov. Rick Perry's close friend and former chief of staff tried to help Green Party candidates get on the general election ballot this fall as part of a larger effort by outside groups that state District Judge John Dietz declared “an unauthorized, illegal contribution” Thursday.

The judge granted the Democratic Party a temporary restraining order to block Green Party candidates from being certified for the November ballot.

Democrats contended that a petition drive to put Green candidates on the ballot was actually an effort to help Perry, a Republican, by diverting votes from his Democratic challenger Bill White.

The Green Party, represented by former Republican state Supreme Court Justice Stephen Smith, plans to appeal to the high court on Monday.

It had struggled earlier to get the required 43,991 petition signatures for its candidates to make the ballot. At a hearing Thursday, Green Party member Garrett Mize testified that Perry's former chief of staff, Mike Toomey, paid him about $12,000 to convince his party to use out-of-state contributions to help the petition drive.

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The Dallas Morning News reported this month that the petition drive cost $532,000 and was paid for by an out-of-state corporation with GOP ties.

Democrats said Republican leaders apparently wanted to help Green Party candidates get on the ballot because they normally drain support from Democrats.

“Mike Toomey's involvement in this deal is a watershed today,” said Chad Dunn, a lawyer for the Texas Democratic Party. “Rick Perry needs to answer questions about what he knew and when he knew it.”

Perry campaign spokesman Mark Miner said, “Our campaign had nothing to do with the Green Party.”

Toomey and Perry were close friends during their days in the state Legislature a quarter century ago. Toomey later postponed his lobbying career to lead Perry's gubernatorial staff from 2002-2004. Toomey also served as Gov. Bill Clements' chief of staff in the late 1980s, making him the only person in state history to serve in that capacity for two governors.

Toomey did not return a message left on his cell phone.

Dietz said political parties can use corporate money to help cover normal operating expenses, such as telephone and internet service, utilities, office supplies, clerical expenses and legal and accounting fees, but spending hundreds of thousands of corporate dollars to finance a petition campaign is “not my definition of normal,” he said.

Dietz said he could not stop the Green Party's ballot petition, illegal as it might be, because it has already been delivered to the Secretary of State's office.

“The cow's already out of the barn,” he said.

But he enjoined the Green Party from certifying its list of candidates, which would bar them from the ballot if the Supreme Court agrees with Dietz's order.

“The only effective way I have to stop and prohibit the harm and continuing harm to the Democratic Party is to prohibit that action,” the judge said.

Smith said the Green Party's appeal will hover around an interpretation of state law and previous court rulings that “you can't take somebody off the ballot without a full trial.”

A trial on the Green Party case is not scheduled to start until January – two months after the election.

“There's no question that certain corporate contributions are allowed,” Smith said.

Texas Democratic Party Chairman Boyd Richie said the party will continue the lawsuit to discover the source of the Green Party funding. He said it will be up to Travis County prosecutors to decide whether a criminal investigation is needed.

“Some of (Perry's) closet and most trusted political advisers have now been implicated in this illegal ballot scheme,” Richie said. “It is incumbent on Rick Perry and his campaign to come clean, just come clean.”

Richie spoke to reporters while attending a state Democratic Party convention reception at the Texas State Aquarium.

“Here we are in the aquarium. Something smells fishy. It just doesn't pass the smell test,” Richie said.

The Dallas Morning News reported earlier that the Green Party intends to report the signatures as an in-kind contribution from a Missouri company, Take Initiative America, which is headed by Charles Hurth III, a Republican lawyer.

But there is disagreement within the Green Party about the ethical soundness of having a petition drive orchestrated by Republicans. Texas Green Party chair Christine Morshedi of Tomball said she was not particularly bothered by the GOP help because the 93,000 petition signatures indicated Texas voters want more choices.

“I want to get our word out – protect our shores and wetlands and marshes and keep the nuclear industry from growing,” she said.

She conceded the revelation about help from one of Perry's strongest allies surprised her.

“I think it was a strange step for them to take,” Morshedi said.

Houston Chronicle reporter R.G. Ratcliffe contributed to this report from Corpus Christi.