I meant to get to this earlier but, you know. Anyways, Harris County District Attorney Pat Lykos, first elected to the office in 2008, has announced her intention to run for a second term. Here is the press release from her campaign:
As a guy who wasn't a fan of hers in her first run, I have to say that, to me, it looks like she accomplished quite a lot during her one term. Obviously, there are others that do not feel the same way. A friend, ex-ADA Murray Newman, has challenged anyone to answer the question: What's so "Republican" About Pat Lykos, Anyway?
Geez, Murray, toss me more softballs like that one! I'll take them every day of the week! I think that I will answer more verbosely in a future post but for now, I'll just swing and hit the softball out of the park: JUSTICE!
Republicans are, and hopefully always will be, champions of Justice! While Democrats were beating slaves, Republicans were championing their freedom. DA Lykos has put the boot to unjust prosecutions and a whole lot of people appreciate that. A few don't – them's just the facts, ma'am.
I'll get way more into that at some point. Murray also greeted his readers with a "Merry Christmas" post because Mike Anderson has filed to challenge DA Lykos in the primary. Well, be careful what you are merry about, I guess would be my response. Again, I have no dog in this hunt but when a guy starts his campaign off with a blatant lie, I can't get too enthused about him. Here is what he had to say:
Additionally she has invented a program that ignores the intent of the legislature and essentially gives first-time drunk drivers a free pass.
Obviously, DA Lykos has done neither. I'll turn to Murray's colleague in both the criminal defense and blogging arenas, Mark Bennett, who said:
If the goal of DIVERT was to get people who would otherwise fight their cases to instead accept responsibility, it appears to be a success: there were (bearing in mind the slop in the numbers, since DIVERT pleas didn’t begin immediately and the DA’s numbers cover an extra 24 days) around 10,191 guilty pleas (DIVERT and non-DIVERT) between August 2009 and August 2010, a 14{997ab4c1e65fa660c64e6dfea23d436a73c89d6254ad3ae72f887cf583448986} increase over the previous year.
Let's see: taking responsibility and more guilty pleas. Sounds like Mr. Anderson is full of hot air. Which he is. Heck of a way to start off a campaign supposedly based upon "integrity". Puke.