Robert Eckels' Everlasting Love/Everlasting Hate

I had an e-mail forwarded to me today by several readers expressing shock and concern (and in some cases, outrage) over the endorsement of Pat Lykos by former County Judge Robert Eckels.

I appreciate the notice of Eckels' endorsement e-mail, but I was kind of surprised that my readers are surprised at his endorsement.

Eckels, after all, is the same guy who kept Lykos employed after her failed bid for Attorney General in 1994.  Nobody to this day is sure exactly what Lykos was doing for Eckels, other than drawing a steady paycheck.

He also bankrolled her campaign in 2008, as I pointed out in this blog post way back when.  The article that I linked to back then was one by then-Houston Chronicle columnist Alan Bernstein.  He reported that  Eckels had handed Lykos a very large chunk of change so that she could publish some very misleading campaign literature that created the impression that she had the official endorsement of the Harris County Republican Party.

Eckels has proven that his affection for Lykos runs deep.

What also runs deep, apparently, is his hatred.

Students of Harris County Courthouse History may remember that back in the Johnny Holmes era, Mr. Eckels' father was prosecuted by Mr. Holmes.  Those of us who have ever prosecuted a case will be the first to tell you that we don't really earn a big fan following from a Defendant's family.  Eckels' disdain for the Holmes Administration (and anyone he seems to consider to be formerly tied to the Holmes Administration) is par for the course in the Criminal Justice Business.

It is understandable that he would sympathize with Pat Lykos for being investigated by two Grand Juries and now the Texas Rangers.

But as Lykos takes his endorsement (and doubtlessly, his campaign donations), you should take what he has to say with a shaker grain of salt.  It has as many lies and misrepresentations in it as the mailer he financed (and denied) back in 2008.

Robert Eckels' endorsement pretty much exemplifies the origins of the phrase "consider the source."

Robert Eckels: Pat Lykos' Personal Texas Workforce Commission

Did you ever own your own business or know someone who did, and they always hired that person to work for them that you just couldn't figure out why? Like maybe they were a useless brother-in-law or something, and they just couldn't hold down a job that they earned on their own merits? All the other employees couldn't stand that guy because he didn't deserve the job, yet the boss just kept on promoting him?

I'm starting to get the feeling that this is the phenomenon going on between Robert Eckels and Pat Lykos. The former County Judge seems to feel it necessary to do everything in his power to keep the well-past retirement age Pat Lykos as part of the active Work Force.

After her controversial tenure on the bench during the 1980s and very early 1990s, she ran for the AG's Office in a nasty nasty race (anybody seeing the pattern here? We call that foreshadowing.)

She lost.

And Eckels, for some reason, decided to hire her on as some sort of special project manager within the Harris County Judge's Office. He also allowed her to maintain her "Judicial status" by taking off one day a month to go do her visiting judge gig.

Once all of the Harris County Criminal and District Court Judges stopped allowing Lykos to sit on their benches as a substitute (due to her lack of ability to get along with any of the lawyers or the staff), Eckels allowed her to travel to other counties to cover their dockets. Apparently, once you get out of the county for a few hundred miles, people don't know your reputation.

When Eckels stepped down from the County Judge's position, he made Ed Emmett promise not to terminate her employment once he left. I can't help but wonder if Lykos has been as loyal of an employee to Emmett as Eckels was to Lykos.

And when Lykos decided to run for something for the umpteenth time, Eckels was the first guy there with a $25,000 check (from people who thought that they were paying for his election campaign, by the way).

In Alan Bernstein's article today, he points out that Eckels has turned himself into a one-man crusade to Keep Pat Lykos Employed! As pointed out by Alan, and detailed below, his latest is a $17,500 donation to send out a slam-piece against Kelly Siegler on Lykos' behalf by the Harris County GOP Political Action Committee.

Seriously, Eckels, do you really think that Pat needs any help when it comes to mud-slinging? I mean, she like wrote the book on mud-slinging.

The thing that confuses me is why is Eckels playing deer-in-the-headlights about being caught doing the piece? Is it allowed for anonymous benefactors like Eckels to give that kind of money to a group that "has received no other money this year and endorsed no one for other offices."

In addition, the Harris County GOP Political Action Committee (Alan points out) "has been criticized by Republican Party officials for using the name while lacking any official connection to the party.

Yet Eckels becomes their one and only donor of the year for the sole purpose of doing a slam-piece for Lykos.

Is this sounding dirty to anybody yet?

I'm not well-versed at all when it comes to Election Law, but is this something that Lykos has to report on her finance reports? If so, did she? I'm thinking I already know the answer to that particular question.

And it is sure sounding dirty to me.

Whoa!

I may have to take back every single last teasing and rude thing I've ever said about Alan Bernstein.

Tonight on his blog, he has posted a story about Robert Eckels being behind one of the three slam mailers sent out on behalf of the Lykos campaign.

It seems that Mr. Eckels was the sole donor of a whopping $17,500 to the misleadingly named GOP PAC for them to send out a slam piece on Kelly Siegler, attempting to associate her with Chuck Rosenthal. It notes that the money came out of his leftovers from his own campaign fund, given to him by people who donated money to him, only to have it diverted to Lykos' gutter-dwelling campaign.

Alan notes:

Eckels said he was not trying to conceal his involvement in the anti-Siegler piece by contributing $17,500 to an otherwise-dormant organization.

Um, okay, then why didn't I see his name signed off on the mail out trash?

His official statement?

"The language is perhaps a little stronger than I might use, but there are problems within the district attorney's office and with the attitude that Chuck and his team have had down there and it is time for a change."

So, what's the deal here, Mr. Eckels? I mean, you've already funneled an extremely large amount of money to the Lykos fund without really running it by the people who gave you that money. Now, you are funding out slam pieces on Kelly Siegler and doing some sort of "Who? Me?" routine.

Why do you feel the need to sponsor a slam piece that is deliberately misleading as to being some sort of "official prounouncement" from the Republican Party?

Why don't you just let Pat run on her own merits?

Oh, wait, that's right. She doesn't seem to have any.

As an addendum, Alan notes that Lykos' comment on the topic was that everything on it is "factually based (with) nothing deceitful."

Uh, yeah, we're really going to go to you on the issue of truthfulness, Pat.

The Robert Eckels Question

One of the questions I asked in a post below was whether or not the $25,000 donation from the "Robert Eckels Committee" meant that Eckels led a committee to raise money for Lykos or does it mean that people who donated their money to Eckels had it turned over to Pat Lykos (with or without their consent).

Nobody answered the question on the blog, so I reluctantly did a little investigating (loosely read: I asked somebody smarter than me).

Here's the deal, the money given to Pat Lykos from Eckels was money collected for his campaign.

And that's perfectly legal. Apparently, a campaign can use its funds however it wants to - even for um, ahem, uh, legal fees.

So, if you were using the list of candidates "donations" as a gauge for their popularity with the voting masses, you may want to recalculate when it comes to Lykos. If you take out the $25,000 donation from him, Kelly Siegler is the leading Republican donation earner.

In other words, Lykos didn't garner $25 grand from a lot of people who liked her. She garned it from one man -- Robert Eckels, who apparently liked her enough to give her money that people had given him.

I wonder how that makes the people who gave the money to him feel.