Friday, February 22, 2008

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.

7 comments:

hcresident said...

And how much money is he willing to give her? Is it enough money to cover her legal expenses when she starts firing people (remember Orleans Parish)? How does she decide to who to fire? Is it based on race, age, ethnicity, religion or does she just fire them all (and then open herself up to numerous lawsuits). Trust me, if the elected DA is either Lykos or Bradford, Rosenthal's legal fees wil pale in comparison to what is coming. Everything they have ever done will soon be open to the public because of depositions. It won't be pretty.

Anonymous said...

Employees at will.

Murray Newman said...

Good Morning Snookems (AKA Anon 8:46),
So are you confirming on behalf of the Lykos campaign that there will be mass firings? I don't think "at will" is going to save her for all of them.

Anonymous said...

Snookems doesn't speak on behalf of the Lykos campaign. Snookems has only met Lykos once, many years ago. Snookems did vote for Lykos over Chucky 8 years ago.

Snookems was a big Kelly fan, until Snookems, who is fond of the pastor at Lakeside, read the Lakeside I and II transcripts, which really can't be explained away in terms of strategy. Snookems thought all prosecutors were officers of the court, and that when something was said in response to a batson hearing, those statements were under oath.

Snookems got disappointed at this.

Snookems is disappointed that Kelly cannot acknowledge the racism in the office. Who uses "code words" for things like a defense holdout on a jury? No one does.

Snookems has concerns about arrogance and business as usual at the office. Snookems thinks a strong leader without the good old boy and girl ties is needed to straighten things up in that office.

Sometimes, the best leader of a law enforcement organization is not liked, but is feared.

Snookems has been doing this a whole lot longer than you.

Ron in Houston said...

anon 10:35 sounds like Gollum from the Lord of the Rings.

Nasty snookem, hates them we do.

Anonymous said...

JAGJO writes:
Well then, it would be perfect if Lykos were running for chief of police or military drill sargent.

If someone thinks that Lykos does not subscribe to the " good old boy and girl ties " they are sorely misinformed.

Being feared and being all out hated are two entirely different actionary and reactionary emotions.

Not sure which is worse, grandma Lykos running for DA or people who refer to themselves in third person. LOL

Third person is representing one's self in a disassociated manner projecting an externalist perspective indicating that one's self can not converse in first person when one lacks conviction of subject manner at hand.

Have a nice weekend, everyone!

The Phantom Bureaucrat said...

Anonymous/Snookems may be Lykos or just be another trolling supporter of the woman. He/She/It didn't answer the question posed in the OP; how do you think people that contributed money to Robert Eckels' campaign feel that he gave it to Lykos? I'd be pretty cheesed off about it if I had been one of them since this is clearly an attempt to play king-maker (and anyone that doesn't acknowledge there will be substantial payback has not watched Eckels at work in the past).

There are reasons why we collectively do not want such contributions made and with a grumpy old political hack like Lykos on the receiving end, I can only imagine the combination of favors sold with her award winning personality. It is clear that she has anger management issues and the kind of petty personality that embraces retaliation as a viable means of personal conduct. If that the kind of person best qualified for the role of DA in Harris County?

Anonymous commentators are complaining about the possibility of Siegler "going too far" in prosecuting defendants, coming up with a couple of weak examples over a 20+ year career yet they are completely willing to overlook the temperament of Lykos who gets worse each year. Correct me if I'm wrong but she has made it clear during her public speaking sessions that she was going to purge the office (perhaps using more politically correct terminology) when elected (not "if elected"). Who will she replace these mostly dedicated career ADA's with? What will be her litmus test for employment (probably how much they donated to her campaign)? How does she think she's going to hold onto the rest of the qualified staff using "fear" when they have a wealth of employment options open to them that pay better, will have regular reviews for the kind of perks Lykos won't be able to offer, and a caseload so heavy that all her doubletalk political BS about reform will be meaningless?

Bradford might be an inept administrator that plays favorites and will cause things to grind to a halt if elected but Lykos would start systematically dismantling the office by design of default before she left office for "medical" reasons. Also, I have a wager to make with any of her supporters regarding what her daily timetable will be, one that will make Lloyd "Splashtown" Kelley's antics look almost dedicated by comparison.

Episode Seven: The Voters Awaken - A One Act -Sci-Fi Play

SCENE:  The Death Star orbits over Downtown Houston. [INTERIOR] The Imperial Council Chambers. EMPRESS OGG sits at the head of a long table ...