In case you missed it last night on Houston PBS’ Red, White, and Blue, the two candidates for Harris County District Attorney made a joint appearance. And while it wasn’t officially a “debate”, it was as good as one and better than most. If you are interested in this race, I encourage you to watch it and form your own opinions about it. It is only 29 minutes long and is chock full of information.
I thought that overall, Gary Polland and David Jones did a good job of bringing out relevant information. Obviously, Polland is a Lykos supporter and asked a very irrelevant question about “judicial bypass”, trying to get that issue on the table for Republican voters. But beyond that, it was informative. If you ask me who “won” it, I’d give the edge to Lykos because she came armed with facts and was able to refute most of the charges that are leveled against her. But Anderson held his own and wasn’t embarrassed, although I was surprised to learn that he sat in on a presentation from DA Lykos about the “trace evidence” or “crack pipe residue” program that is controversial and didn’t object to it at the time. Interesting.
On to campaign finance. Here are the bottom line numbers from the reports:
What I find more interesting in these reports are (a) the large contributors and (b) the total number of contributors. Here are the large contributors:
I have asked the Anderson campaign if Richard Anderson is related to Mike Anderson and will update this if I get a response (UPDATE: not related, friends from law school). Prolific GOP contributors Bob and Doylene Perry have donated $55,000 to DA Lykos. And while Mr. Anderson has raised a considerable amount of money in a short time, most of it is from large donors. DA Lykos has far more individual, small contributions – her report lists 25 pages of contributions to Mr. Anderson’s 13. Which prompts me to ask: where are the contributions from the angry ex-ADA’s (or current ones)? You’d think from reading comments on blogs and at Chron.com there would be thousands of small donations to Mr. Anderson – but it isn’t so.
Here are the reports so that you can read them yourself:
Mr. Anderson:
Mike Anderson Campaign Finance 12-31-2011
DA Lykos:
If you read the comments on those blogs from the ADAs who so despise working under the terrible management skills of DA Lykos, you’d see that they are disciplined in their job for any contribution made to an opponent of the current DA.
I see Murray Newman has given to Anderson. It’s listed under his first name, not the middle name he goes by.
Your photo from the show is very telling. Mike made a rookie mistake appearing on that program when, after being promised and then asking twice for the talking points and they weren’t handed over, he went to the taping anyway. Lykos has her papers and prepared answers with her because she was given the questions in advance. Also telling was that Polland was able to answer her question for her at the end of the show when time was running out.
The presentation Lykos harps on re: trace cases never happened. The judges were notified by a memo that the office was making this change and that was that. Anderson attempted to handle her comments like a judge, not jumping to conclusions or calling her out on TV about it. He needs to revert back to being a prosecutor when dealing with Lykos, shedding judicial demeanor. Pretty sure he knows that now.
Look closely at the fundraising records. Since Mike announced for DA, He has raised $152,000, that’s the total of one month of fundraising. In that same time period, she raised just $40,000. Logically, shouldn’t fundraising for an incumbant pick up after drawing a formidible challenger?
Richard Anderson and Mike Anderson are not related, they are law school friends and both worked as ADAs under Holmes. Richard is now the CEO of Delta Airlines.
Gillian,
That is ridiculous. No ADA is going to be “disciplined” if they support Mike Anderson. I suppose that if Lykos is reelected they might not be promoted or might be moved to a position they don’t like but that isn’t “being disciplined”. Besides, if every ADA hated her as much as you guys say they do, what is she going to do? Promote no one? Move everyone to grunt work? Not going to happen.
The ADA’s and ex-ADA’s the bitch and moan anonymously seem so juvenile in this whole process that it is hard to believe they are “protecting” us.
Mr. Moderate, then Murray is putting his money where his mouth is. That is a good thing. Now, if the rest of the anti-Lykos crowd would do the same, Anderson could fund a real challenge to her.
Monica,
Not sure what you mean by a photo – I don’t have any on this one. If the judges didn’t attend a presentation, why did Mr. Anderson say he did and that it wasn’t the right place to object to it? No question that he raised a large amount in a short time – my point was that he needs a bunch of small contributors as well. It doesn’t look to me that Lykos has a shortage of funds or a shortage of contributors.
Dave,
With all due respect, there have been several prosecutors that have been told that Lykos “won’t be as forgiving as she was in 2008” for those who support her opponent. If you don’t think she retaliates against people she considers political enemies, I would suggest you refresh your memory with this post from when she first took office.
http://harriscountycriminaljustice.blogspot.com/2009/05/lykos-on-diversity-revisited.html
and this write up from Lisa Falkenburg
http://www.chron.com/news/falkenberg/article/Departing-assistant-DA-says-boss-slights-diversity-1745076.php
Additionally, prosecutors are being warned about the content of their Facebook pages. Not because of anything they are doing is unseemly, but because they don’t want to get caught fraternizing with the enemy.
Regardless of what you believe about Lykos, you can imagine that there are at least SOME prosecutors who support Mike Anderson, right? The fact that NONE of them have felt comfortable signing up to support him should serve as at least a bit of circumstantial evidence that they are afraid of their boss.
And by the way, I think what Monica is referring to is the still shot of the YouTube video of the debate that you see before you hit “Play”. Lykos has a library of materials in front of her, while Anderson has none. I guess he wasn’t informed that it was an open book test in advance. I guess he gave Polland the benefit of the doubt, which he shouldn’t have.
Murray,
Your first link is almost three years old and involves a black pregnant woman allegedly demoted for supporting Clarence Bradford. Now, being the cynic that I am, I have to question why, if that allegation is true, haven’t we heard more about it? This, if true, would be the easiest of all employment discrimination suits to win. Something tells me that there is more to this story.
Goodness, linking to a Lil’ Red column three months after yours on the same subject? Do you take Lil’ Red seriously? I don’t and even if I did, I’d ask the same question – almost three years, not a peep. Why?
Regardless of what I believe about Lykos, I know that SOME prosecutors dislike Lykos and “hope” that Anderson wins. As of now, I’d say that all total I’ve talked to roughly two dozen ADA’s and the trend seems to be roughly 60/40 against Lykos in that group. Some say that my sample is weighted in favor of Lykos because of who they are, so let’s say the real number is 80/20. Are you telling me that 80{997ab4c1e65fa660c64e6dfea23d436a73c89d6254ad3ae72f887cf583448986} of all current ADA’s are such spineless wimps that they refuse to support a political candidate publicly? I can’t accept that.
It is a FELONY to retaliate against an employee for their support of a political candiate. Texas law is explicity clear (Title 16, Chapter 276, Section 001):
Pat Lykos may be the worst boss ever in history but there is no way that she is going to retaliate against an employee for supporting Mike Anderson. As I said before, could there be “soft” retaliation, such as being overlooked for a promotion? Certainly, but if you believe the public is at risk because of her leadership, isn’t it your duty as a prosecutor to do everything you can to protect the public, including being passed over for a promotion?
Okay, I see now what Monica was talking about. Dude, c’mon, seriiously, think about this. This debate has been public knowledge for weeks. Mike Anderson has won three county wide elections. Mike Anderson has hired Allen Blakemore to help him win. Mike Anderson knows that Gary Polland supports Pat Lykos. Do you really think he walked into that debate unwittingly? And Polland didn’t exactly attack him, he just asked tough questions, questions that Anderson should have been prepared to answer and in fact, seemed to be prepared to answer with the exception of the one about Lykos presenting the material to the judges. And he darn well should have been prepared to answer that one if in fact the presentation happened.
Jones pushed Lykos pretty hard and I don’t see her camp saying that she was ambushed.
The Richard Anderson who gave Mike Anderson all that money is the CEO of Delta Airlines. In the 19702, he was a law student and aide to then-DA Carol Vance. It’s likely that Mike Anderson and Richard Anderson were either in the DA’s office or law school together.
Nothing sinister. That is unless you don’t like Delta Airlines.
Mike Anderson filed for DA Nov. 30, 2011 and was preparing well before that, yet ~80{997ab4c1e65fa660c64e6dfea23d436a73c89d6254ad3ae72f887cf583448986} of his total contributions came from 7 old friends.
Anderson is running for DA not judge and he needs to act like it.
Anderson followers blaming Lykos for being prepared does not excuse Anderson’s lack of preparation.
Anderson looked old and very tired or sickly.
He came across as petty, angry and judgmental reminding me of what Rick Santorum’s much older brother would be like.
Big Jolly,
Don’t you find it odd that Mike and Devon Anderson have no financial skin in the game?
One has to wonder why they haven’t put any personal money into the campaign coffers?
Since both Andersons were former judges you would think they each had left over judicial campaign funds if nothing else to contribute to the cause.
It seems pretty disingenuous for Mike Anderson to demand others to contribute to his campaign while he and his wife hold on tight to their own money.
I seem to remember that Kelly Siegler gave a few thousand dollars of her own money to her campaign when she ran for DA and Mike Anderson ought to do the same before he asks others for money.
Lead by example.
Monica,
Jones attacked Lykos with information from Anderson’s website and Polland attacked Anderson with information on her website. She came prepared to rebut Anderson. Now I ask who proved to be the better lawyer?
Any prosecutor who supports Lykos’s primary opponent publicly (as in donating money) risks the same fate that Craig Goodheart (fired), Luci Davidson (fired), and others who were fired or demoted (incl. Marc Brown – not naming the rest because some still work there) had to face. Lykos is as vindictive as she is power hungry and paranoid, so I could not imagine a current prosecutor donating money to her opponent. When she won the election in 2008, all prosecutors had to turn in a resume including their spouse’s name, employer, and any organizations they were a part of. This was quite clearly to track who supported Kelly or Bradford through their spouse or another avenue – unless you can think of a single way that your spouse’s name, employer, or outside organizations somehow impact an ADA’s job performance.
It should also be noted that not a single person who has been a prosecutor (in the last few decades if ever or currently) has donated to Lykos.
Mike Anderson got his ass kicked by a girl. Where is all this great oratory skill I hear so much about? There is a long list of currently employed prosecutors who gave to Lykos’ opponent Siegler still on the DA payroll. Now the list does not include family members which would include Wes Palmer, Rachel Palmer’s father who gave to Kelly. Here is the list:
Ed McClees (Husband of Kristen Guiney)
Kari Allen
Tina Ansari
Maritza Antu
Colleen Barnett
Angela Beavers
John Boone
John Brewer
Baldwin Chin
Britni Cooper
Eric Devlin
Bill Exley
Alexis Gilbert
Suzanne Hanneman
Kathy Kahle
Eric Kugler
Harry Lawrence
Lance Long
Renee Magee
Mia Magness
Marcy McCorvey
Katherine McDaniel
Hans Nielsen
Lynne Parsons
Matt Peneguy
Lisa Porter
Marie Primm
Julian Ramirez
Josh Reiss
Beth Shipley
Belinda Smith
Connie Spence
Markay Stroud
Natalie Tise
Valerie Turner
Jane Waters
Kaylynn Williford
Roe Wilson
Now that is a long list and proving once again DELETED by MODERATOR
Please, no personal attacks.
David,
Only girly men post on Murray’s blog anonymously.
So I guess one is a “girly man” if you comment anonymously on my blog, but it is cool if you post under somebody else’s name on other blogs, Don?
Wow. I guess “girls” and “girly” types are expected to get beat up on by guys, eh Hooper? that’s a pretty deplorable attitude towards women, is it not?
I have to wonder if the Mike Anderson voters are voting for him or just against Pat Lykos?
Neither candidate comes across as the real deal.