A forum was held for the Republican candidates running for Harris County D.A. on Thursday night, sponsored by King Street Patriots and Big Jolly Politics. It was billed as "60 Minutes of Straight Talk" and it surpassed expectations.
Current Harris County D.A. Pat Lykos is running for re-election and she is being challenged in the primary by Judge Mike Anderson. To say that this campaign is nasty would be an understatement. Frankly, even those who normally don't pay much attention to local and county politics have noticed. My husband is one of those people. As I was leaving for the event, I reminded him where I would be and he said, "Oh, that's an ugly race". Yes. Yes, it is.
Retired State District Judge Anderson announced his challenge of Lykos and the negative campaign began. He seems to think the compelling issue of the campaign is office morale in the D.A.'s office. This goes back to the good old boys and their desire to reinstate the frat house atmosphere that Lykos cleaned up as she took office. The days of booze and back slapping good old boys are over at the D.A.'s office and for some, it is a bitter pill to swallow.
Lykos is building an independent crime lab, as she pledged to do. For those wanting to profit from a crime lab at an out of county location or with private groups, this means they will not ride the taxpayer's gravy train. That is not going down so well. The crime lab will be located in the Medical Center area and will be utilize state of the art technology. Especially in the area of DNA evidence, the medical community and the judicial community will jointly benefit from Lykos' community commitment. Signed, sealed and delivered.
Follow the money. Police officers who are not booking people for trace amounts of drugs, so scant that no evidence for trial would be remaining after the testing procedure of the alleged drugs, are not using 3 or 4 hours off the beat and racking up taxpayer funded overtime checks.
Lykos is recognized statewide for her innovative programs and her strong law and order manner. The good old boys must not appreciate a professional in office, demanding that the hours of law enforcement be used responsibly. While her opponent openly mocked Lykos' concern of overcrowded jails, claiming it was fine with him to have them stacked on top of each other, Lykos has allowed the judicial community to concentrate on more serious crimes like robbery, murder and human trafficking.
Five former U.S. Attorneys have endorsed Pat Lykos for Harris County D.A.
The "runaway jury" controversy? It was a slanderous and wrong-headed attack on Lykos by her opponents. It was Lykos who invited the federal agents into the situation to investigate, despite what the folks spreading the lies would have you believe. Everything that was alleged by the person investigated in the DWI case was proven false by the federal authorities. The DWI lawyer was shown to be manipulating the jury and denied the D.A.'s office standard access to the jury. As far as taking photos of the jury? If you have ever had the opportunity to serve on a Grand Jury, you know that the first action is to take your picture after you are chosen. It is also used for your id badge.
Maybe the complainer believes in other tin foil hat conspiracies, too.
It is unusual for a Republican vs Republican race to be so ugly. Shame on the other campaign. When you have nothing else to offer the voter, maybe all that can be used is phony and negative attacks on the opponent.
This office was an embarrassment to the citizens of Harris County before Lykos was elected and instigated the clean up. Maybe her opponent, who boasts of having the support of the very crowd who produced the former atmosphere, would just like to return to the days of not having a strong, competent, innovative, successful woman in charge. No doubt the whining about "low morale" by the liberals and those hoping to go back to the good old boys ways are hoping to defeat Lykos.
That would not be in the best interests of Harris County.
As Lykos says, as she points out her office's success in combating human trafficking and the fact that the border is not secured, that there are two specific duties of government: "to maintain law and order internally and to protect our borders.
I endorse Pat Lykos for Harris County District Attorney.
2 comments:
Dear PP,
I am a longtime employee of HCDA. While I respect your support of Pat Lykos, I disagree and frankly, (maybe this sounds silly, but it is the way I feel) can't help but be a little hurt about your comment that the office was "an embarrassment" and that we needed a "clean-up." I may not be perfect, but I am proud of my work and feel that I have done a good job over the years.
There are ALWAYS bad apples around, no matter who is in charge, no matter what setting (at church, in private business, in government, in schools). It is a fact of life. I don't like them either.
I have been with the office for about twenty years - worked under several D.A.s I am no rock star, just a regular person who takes my work seriously.
If you had a chance to know us, you would see that most of us are the same.
We are not "whiners" and you would also find that we are a mix of liberals and conservatives. You would find that we are regular people who do NOT get drunk at lunch and who do want to help people. Personally, I do not think I have EVER had a drink at lunch at any job in my life. I may be wrong about that, but I am fifty years old and do not remember ever doing it.
Many of us, in fact, are pretty boring. We are moms and dads who depend on our income (and insurance) to support our families. We do our jobs and go home and take care of our families. (It is getting harder these days since we haven't had a raise in four years and are not likely to see one soon. I realize lots of folks are in this boat too.)
Some of the younger, single employees are like young, single people everywhere. They are energetic, want to have fun, and go out after work and socialize. Nothing wrong with that, I don't think. I did the same when I was their age. I enjoy working around them and now look at them as "kids" who can use advise and support.
Like you, I too, hate these ugly politics. It gives me a sick feeling to read all the awful stuff out there. I will be glad when the elections are over, so maybe we can just get back to work.
Thank you for reading. I hope I haven't offended you. My point isn't to fight - the opposite - I want to end the fighting and ugly business.
Dear Anonymous,
I do not think the author of this article is referring to those hard working Moms and Dads at the DA's office. Your work is certainly appreciated I am sure, even by the current leaders of the department. The take away message I see from the article is the "good old boys" syndrome and practices of the past administrations have been done away with and cleaned up by Ms. Lykos. I commend her for not only that but also seeking justice for those that have been falsely accused or were hung out to dry by some in order to move up the ladder in the former DA's office.
Sincerely,
A supporter of Pat Lykos
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