Oops.

Obviously nobody (other than Lloyd Kelley) knew about the e-mail scandal that would fall upon the D.A.'s office on December 27th of last year. As I've mentioned earlier, what was shaping up to be the most interesting race of the season was going to be the one for the 176th District Court. Judge Brian Rains has held that bench for longer than I care to remember, and I think prosecutors and defense attorneys alike had grown extremely weary of Rains' blatantly rude and hostile attitude toward all parties involved. And that's not to mention his extremely questionable policy of being as resistant to granting probations as he possibly could be . . .

Shawna Reagin was the first to declare that she would run against the unpopular Judge, and she announced as a Democrat. Her candidacy was extremely well received by her peers in the defense bar, who all rushed to sign the petition for her candidacy.

Fast forward to January 2, 2008, when Jim Leitner signs up as a Republican candidate for District Attorney. Again, this was also well-received by lots of people, especially the Defense Bar.

But here comes the "uh oh".

When the people signed Reagin's petition for her candidacy, they became barred from voting in the Republican Primary.

They can root for Jim Leitner in spirit, but they can't vote for him unless he makes it into the general election in November.