Life at the Harris County Criminal Justice Center

With less than 24 hours before the start of Early Voting for the 2016 Election, Harris County District Attorney Devon Anderson found herself, yet again, receiving some negative publicity that her opponent Kim Ogg could capitalize on.  All of the local news outlets were reporting about an interview Anderson did on a local podcast, The American Chronicles , with Vlad Davidiuk. About nine or ten minutes into the interview, Davidiuk brings up the fact that many of Right Wing voters are unhappy with Anderson over the indictments of two pro-life filmmakers who were attempting to film representatives of Planned Parenthood breaking the law.  Acknowledging that the Right Wing voters are unhappy, Anderson responds by saying: They have a problem with me on one, maybe two cases.  When they get a liberal, pro-choice Lesbian District Attorney, I wonder how many cases they'll have problem with with her. Kim Ogg, of course, pounced on the statement and accused Anderson of stating that Ogg w

It's hard to believe that it has only been four years since the 2012 election, where Mike Anderson easily defeated Lloyd Oliver by 596,502 votes to 543,239.  So many things have happened since that night in November that it seems to have filled at least twice that amount of time.  During that election, 406,991 voters pulled straight ticket Democrat as opposed to 404,165 for Republican.  About 386,415 people actually gave more thought to who they were voting for and didn't go the straight ticket route. The 2016 race for Harris County District Attorney could not be more different than 2012.  Mike Anderson was an even-tempered retired judge with virtually no controversy attached to him.  Lloyd Oliver was an unqualified buffoon who had inexplicably won the Democratic primary over a much more qualified candidate.  This year, Republican Incumbent Devon Anderson has several professional scandals attached to her Office and is not known for her calm demeanor under pressure.  Her Democ

As I mentioned in my last post, my best guesstimate about the judicial races is that they will pretty much go as the straight ticket voting goes.  However, as the election of 2012 pointed out, that can be a really close margin. I highly suggest that those of you with vested interests in the Criminal Court races type up your own lists of recommendations and make sure that you get them out to your voting friends and family before early voting starts  in two weeks.  Most importantly, make sure that family and friends take time to vote DOWN BALLOT! Below are my recommendations.  Some of my decisions were tough calls.  Others weren't. County Court at Law # 16 - Linda Garcia (R) vs. Darrell Jordan (D) This Court is a newly created entity and this is the first election for the Judge of this Court.  Republican Linda Garcia is the current sitting judge, after having been appointed to the position.  Judge Garcia has an impressive resume and background in criminal law.  Prior to becom

As we get closer and closer to the Election Day on November 8th, I'm getting more frequent questions about what I think  is going to happen.  In all honesty, your guess is as good as mine, and I'll always defer over to Charles Kuffner  if you want a truly educated opinion.  I have some observations and thoughts, but I'll be the first to tell you that they are more or less just guesses. Whenever anybody asks what I think will happen in November, I always say that I think it is going to come down to straight-ticket voting.  Predicting how the straight ticket will go, however, is just mere speculation.  If it goes Republican, I think that most (if not all) of our judges will be just fine -- which is a good thing.  However, I also think that even if Harris County goes Republican that the race for District Attorney (between Devon Anderson and Kim Ogg, on the off chance that you just now wandered into this discussion) will be much closer than any other race.  Either outcome wou