Early Voting Begins

Well, friends, after four long years, we are finally reaching that light at the end of the tunnel.

Early Voting begins tomorrow, October 22nd, at 8:00 a.m.  You can get the full Early Voting schedule and locations by clicking here.  Early Voting for the Downtown area will be at the Administration Building, so make sure you vote early.  That way you can spend the next two weeks bugging your friends and neighbors to vote.

This should go without saying, but don't get apathetic now!  Motivate yourself and motivate all the eligible voters around you!

Yes, Lloyd Oliver is such a terrible candidate that he should not only lose, he should be deported from Harris County.  However, Lloyd's lack of qualifications mean nothing to the straight-ticket Democratic voter and that means you need to motivate your friends and family to get out there every bit as much as you did in the Primaries. (NOTE:  Also remember that if you can work a poll for any of your favorite candidates, that is always greatly appreciated).

It is going to be an interesting election and I think we are about to learn a lot about the voting future of Harris County for years to come.

Jim Leitner

I'm sure that some of you noticed that I posted a lengthy diatribe yesterday about the departure of Jim Leitner that I have now deleted off the blog.

I wrote it yesterday afternoon and published it last night.

After sleeping on it, I realized that even for my typical rants, it was too personal for me, so I deleted it.  It bothered me how worked up I was getting about Leitner.

So, I'll leave it at this -- his departure is a major step towards making that Office a better place.

The End.

Haunted House Tour

And now for something completely different.

Jackie Carpenter of the P.D.'s Office and I are trying to get a group of prosecutors and defense attorneys together to go to Nightmare on the Bayou on Tuesday, October 30th at 7:30ish.  There may or may not be a pre-game at Char Bar before going.

Kevin "Not the Clowns!" Petroff and Brian Warren and I got a group together when we were all young prosecutors about ten years ago and went to a haunted house and it was blast.  Some of the stories have lived on ever since.

HINT:  Ask Petroff what "Don't you have a station?!" means to him.

It should be a lot of fun and we hope you'll join us.  Contact me or Jackie so we can see if we have enough people to get some sort of group rate.

Bonus points if you can talk Petroff into coming in from Galveston to lead us.

Has Leitner finally left the Building?

After sharing more false reports and wrong information than Brian Wice at a Vegas Sports Book, it appears that Jim Leitner has finally left his post as First Assistant at the Harris County District Attorney's Office.

According to multiple reliable sources, Leitner worked his last actual day at the Office earlier this week and is taking today and Friday off.  His "official" last day is Friday.

Now, knowing how much Jim loves to read this blog, he may very well go reapply for his position just to spite me.

Or there may be a lot of D.A.'s who will be getting to see their former supervisor across the bench from them in court on Monday morning.

He joins John Barnhill, Steve Morris, Don McWilliams, Carl Hobbs, Angela Salazar, and Joni Vollman  as yet another top Lykos Administration Official making their departure as her tenure comes to a close.

In Case You Missed It . . .

http://www.houstonpress.com/2012-10-18/news/lloyd-oliver-tea-party/

I really don't know that there is anything else I can say . . .

Why Lloyd Oliver's Candidacy Isn't Funny

If you are a Democrat planning on voting straight-ticket, I hope you will take a minute and read this post before you do.

If you push the button to vote straight Democrat, you are going to be voting for Lloyd Oliver for District Attorney, and I'm pretty sure you don't want to do that.  His stance on domestic violence is an affront to anyone who cares about women's issues.  If you aren't aware of that, please, read on.

The Democrats had a good candidate for District Attorney in former-prosecutor and now-defense attorney, Zack Fertitta.  The insanity of Oliver defeating Fertitta in the primary in May was so completely unexpected that even the Democratic Party tried to have Oliver removed from the ballot.  That same insanity should serve as a wake up call that on Election Day anything can happen.

At first, the reaction to Lloyd Oliver being the Democrat's candidate was kind of funny.  I'll admit it.  His bizarre comments on everything from his three previous indictments to boxing lessons to his firm policy of starting court at 1 p.m. every day were a funny contrast to the platform of a candidate who actually knew what he was doing.

Of course, it seems much less humorous if you realize that come January 1st, Lloyd Oliver could be the District Attorney with some help from straight-ticket voting.

In an article in the Chronicle this past Sunday, Brian Rogers wrote a very thorough article detailing Oliver's checkered past.  I would say his past was "controversial," but that would incorrectly imply that there was some controversy over whether or not Lloyd Oliver is a buffoon.

Oliver claims to be "Not for Sale" as the D.A. candidate, yet all three of his prior indictments are directly related to him using his legal experience to illegally obtain money.  Shortly after his primary election, I had to speak with him because his website falsely listed me as a supporter of his.  Oliver was pleasant, but all he could talk about was how much money he was about to receive from "some of these P.A.C.s" the Democratic Party had.  He was delighted and he was soon seen driving a new convertible BMW around Downtown.

I'm afraid that Oliver is very much for sale, and not for very high prices, at that.  If you think that doesn't matter, think about what a Lloyd Oliver D.A.'s Office would be like.  He's already expressed his disdain for the Public Defenders' Office (which, pound for pound, is one of the most talented groups of defense attorneys in the county).  I highly doubt he will give their attorneys the time of day.  Private sector attorneys who might want a better deal on their clients will doubtlessly have his ear.  Especially since he doesn't know what he's doing in the first place.

If Lloyd's questionable past and his lack of ethics don't concern you as a Democratic Voter, than you really need to pay attention to his stance on Domestic Violence.

By clicking here, you can see Lloyd's March 29th performance on Reasonable Doubt, where he first describes his plan to dismiss domestic assault cases in favor of teaching battered wives how to box.  I was one of the interviewers at the time and was dumbfounded that any upright mammal would make such a stupid comment.  Surely, Lloyd Oliver would backtrack on his statement, right?  It was just a misstatement, wasn't it?

Nope.  On the campaign trail, Lloyd Oliver has held fast to his belief that domestic violence is not a big issue in this country and should simply be handled through combat.  In a recent episode of Red, White and Blue, he even went so far as to state that "part of [some couples] making love is [to] beat up one another first."

The idea of Democratic voters crossing Party lines to vote for Republican Candidate Mike Anderson isn't just mine.  Read the details of Chronicle columnist Patricia Kilday Hart's article on some of Lloyd's previous antics.  Read Ms. Hart's article about Lloyd's Domestic Violence stance here.  Political blogger Charles Kuffner (who tends to run a little on the Liberal side) even advocates voting straight-ticket Democrat and then going back to de-select Oliver.

I've never been a fan of straight-ticket voting.  I've been voting since I first became eligible twenty two years ago, and I've never once done it.  To believe that there aren't excellent candidates on both sides of the aisle is pure foolishness.

That has never been more clear in this year's Harris County District Attorney's race.

Volunteers Needed

Judge Mike Anderson's Campaign is currently looking for any volunteers who can donate an hour or more of their time to work at polling locations around the county during Early Voting.

Early voting (finally!) starts on Monday, and there is probably no better insight into just a portion of a what a candidate goes through (when running for office) than working a polling location.  If you're interested in helping out, contact the campaign at campaign@andersonda.com or just e-mail or text me off list and I'll put you in touch with the person you need to talk to.

The 2012 HBA Bar Poll Results

The results of the Houston Bar Association 2012 Judicial Preference Poll were announced today and can be viewed by clicking here.

Not surprisingly, Judge Mike Anderson's 984 votes crushed Lloyd Oliver's 200 votes, which was the largest margin by far in all of the CJC related races.

Of the currently sitting District Court judges in the CJC, Judges Ruben Guerrero, David Mendoza, Ryan Patrick, Herb Ritchie and Mark Kent Ellis all edged out their opponents.

Challengers Stacey Bond, Kristin Guiney, Brock Thomas, and Brad Hart were the winners in their respective races.

Here are the numbers:

174th District Court
Ruben Guerrero (D) - 541 votes
Robert Summerlin (R) - 333 votes

176th District Court
Stacey Bond (R) -- 434 votes
Shawna Reagin (D) -- 310 votes

177th District Court
Ryan Patrick (R) -- 400 votes
Vivian King (D) -- 316 votes

178th District Court
David Mendoza (D) -- 479 votes
Roger Bridgwater (R) -- 363 votes

179th District Court
Kristin Guiney (R) -- 400 votes
Randy Roll (D) -- 364 votes

337th District Court
Herb Ritchie (D) - 373 votes
Renee Magee (R) -- 363 votes

338th District Court
Brock Thomas (R) -- 568 votes
Hazel Jones (D) -- 266 votes

339th District Court
Brad Hart (R) -- 390 votes
Maria Jackson (D) -- 340 votes

351st District Court
Mark Ellis (R) -- 591 votes
Garland "Mack" McInnis (D) -- 296 votes

Early voting begins on Monday, folks.  Get ready to vote and to motivate your friends to vote.  We are on the final stretch.  I'll be writing a little more about this later.

Veterans' Court on 60 Minutes

Congratulations to Judge Marc Carter and the Veterans' Court who were profiled last Sunday on CBS' 60 Minutes.  I completely meant to post about it in advance, but got distracted by activities with my kiddo.

Luckily, you can still catch it online by clicking here.

Judge Carter and Pat McCann and all of those involved in the Veterans' Court continue to make Harris County proud.

Brian Roger's Article on Lloyd Oliver

In case you missed it, Brian Rogers wrote an informative article in today's Houston Chronicle on Lloyd Oliver that EVERY voter should read.  You can read it by clicking here.