Judge Denise Pratt is incompetent and should resign or be removed from office. And since it is too late for her to remove her name from the Harris County Republican Party Primary ballot, voters should reject her and put her out to pasture.
Now that we have that out of the way, let’s take a look at the way the leadership handled this matter and take a look at her campaign finance account to see why they handled it the way they did.
Writing in the Houston Chronicle, Kiah Collier has this from HCRP Chair Jared Woodfill:
Party Chairman Jared Woodfill said in an interview Wednesday that the party’s advisory board, which has asked candidates to withdraw from races in the past, is leaving this one to “the good judgement of the voters.”
“The advisory board and myself ultimately decided to let the voters decide,” Woodfill said Wednesday. “They’re intelligent and they’re well informed… Obviously, there’s been a lot of coverage in the media.”
When Pratt was under investigation by a grand jury for allegedly backdating court records, Woodfill had said the special committee would consider asking her to withdraw if she were indicted, but the investigation ended in a no-bill.
“I’m sure the voters will make the right call,” Woodfill added.
Jared is far more trusting of the voters than I am, especially with at least one of the pay-for-play slates endorsing Pratt. But we want to know why Woodfill and the advisory committee chose not to demand her resignation or to ask her to remove her name from the ballot when there was still time. To do that, we do what everyone knows to do: follow the money. From Pratt’s January 15th campaign finance report:
That’s a total of $45,750. Although Polland has said publicly he is not going to support her, he hasn’t released his rag yet so there is still time for him to do that. I’d guess that the $10,000 check to Blakemore on 12/18 is tied to Dr. Steve Hotze’s Conservative Republicans of Texas endorsement but that is just a guess.
If you were Jared, would you distance yourself from that kind of money? And why is Paul Simpson, Woodfill’s opponent for HCRP Chair, sitting on the sidelines while families are torn apart?
The good news is that more and more people are aware of Judge Pratt’s incompetence and lack of integrity. There will be a press conference on the steps of the Family Law Courthouse next Thursday, 1/23. At this time it is set for 11:45 am but I hope they move it to 11:oo am and then walk over to the weekly meeting of the Downtown Houston Pachyderm Club and pass out flyers about the club’s former president. Many of the family law attorneys that are behind the press conference are bringing their clients so that the press can get first hand information of the pain and suffering that Judge Pratt’s incompetence has caused.
In addition, my friend George Scott is all over this mess, as relates to the slate endorsements and the outsized influence they have on Harris County Republican Party candidates. I’m good at digging through finance reports but George is on a whole different level. He is a pit bull and will not release his bite until he has had his full and complete say. Head over there and check out these posts:
- Michael Franks Says Hotze-Blakemore Endorsement Process Was Predictable
- Some Of Hotze’s Endorsements Are Inexplicable – Here Comes The Microscope
- Hotze’s Endorsement Of Robert Talton Over Supreme Court Chief Justice Nathan Hecht Guided By Spite Over Brother Bruce’s Legal Defeat?
- Surrendering The Responsibility Of Citizenship To The Slates Of Power Brokers
- The Sad Spectacle Of Conservative Republican Surrender To Slate Politics
More to come – how did Judge Denise Pratt raise $146,020.23 in the past six months while under investigation and who gave her that money?
