Travis County DA Race: Runoff Between Lehmberg, Montford

by: Phillip Martin, Progress Texas

Thu Mar 06, 2008 at 11:00 AM CST

We're catching up on races we were unable to report a lot on -- and this race, now going to the runoff, could be the most important race Travis County voters have for quite some time.

First, let's look at the results from Tuesday's four-way race:

The runoff is between Mindy Montford and Rosemary Lehmberg. We at BOR endorsed Lehmberg for the primary, and I'd imagine we'll do so again for the runoff. She's a well-qualified candidate, someone with tremendous experience in every aspect of the job.

We'll be reporting a lot on this race in the coming weeks. In the mean time, here's some resources for background on the race -- including previous coverage here at Burnt Orange Report:

• Austin American-Statesman - Ronnie Earle announces his retirement
• Texas Observer - A terrific, long discussion of the race
• BOR - Ronnie Earle endorses Rosemary Lehmberg
• BOR - Richard Morrison writes a diary titled, "Why the Travis County DA's race matters" that is a must read

Austin Round-Up

by: Karl-Thomas Musselman

Mon Feb 25, 2008 at 01:37 AM CST

• Stuff White People Like- very funny.


• McBlogger reports on a Mindy Montford - Gary Cobb sign war.


• Looks like the masses agree with Burnt Orange Report- the Daily Texan's presidential endorsement was rather...lacking. Maybe they should look for more writers like this or at the very least, use paragraph breaks.


• Ed Martin, father of BOR writer Phillip Martin, was interviewed by the Texas Blue after last week's debate. Cool.


• Gary Mauro, father of BOR writer David Mauro, was interviewed by the Texas Blue after last week's debate. Cool.


• Tom Musselman, father of BOR publisher Karl-Thomas Musselman, was not interviewed by the Texas Blue after last week's deabte, but did score VIP tickets to Obama's Austin rally Friday. Cool.


• Where to find your presidential campaign surrogates in Texas this week. Courtesy of Elise Hu, who as my mother remarked Friday night, is that woman from the TV, and who we confirmed, is still not Jennifer Kim.

TRAVIS DA: More Shocking Revelations!!!

by: david.holmes

Sun Feb 03, 2008 at 11:08 AM CST

I did a little research last night of campaign finance reports and I want to share with you what I found.

Could you bring yourself to vote for a Democrat for Travis County District Attorney who accepted contributions from the following donors?

Donor         Clients
Lobbyist A          AT&T, Accenture
Lobbyist B          AT&T, Accenture, Annheuser-Busch
Rep. Donor A              Gave over $826,000 to Republican candidates since 2000
Lobbyist C          AT&T, Phillip Morris
Lobbyist D          AT&T, Alcoa, Perry Homes
Lobbyist E          AT&T, Texans For Lawsuit Reform
Lobbyist F          Exxon Mobil
Lobbyist G          Public Strategies, AT&T

How could a District Attorney of Travis County - the one person in Texas responsible for keeping tabs on the behavior of Texas' elected officials - be trusted after taking contributions from the lobbyists above?  Several of these lobbyists have donated multiple times and many thousands of dollars.

Which candidate is so tainted you may ask?  Well, actually it's a former candidate for Travis County DA:  Ronnie Earle.

Somehow, even after all of those people gave him money, Mr. Earle was able to perform in a manner in which he is nearly universally lauded by Democrats; except, perhaps, by a few of those Democrats he investigated.

I have watched two bloggers attack Mindy Montford for some of the contributions she has received in her campaign - one of them even thought it appropriate to place Mindy's head on the body of a prostitute.

That disgusting post is what got me involved in this race initially.

See, I know Mindy Montford and her family.  I know their integrity and know their Democratic roots.  But most importantly for this race, I know that Mindy is respected by people on both sides of the aisle because she is honest, smart, and works hard at what she does.

The couple bloggers who have attacked Mindy mysteriously overlook the contribution reports and endorsements lists of other candidates in the DA race.  One of the candidates is being supported by Tom Craddick's lawyer; another of the candidates is supported by Tom Delay's lawyer.  Every candidate who has raised money in the race has accepted money from people they may not always agree with on every issue or court case.

You will not see me attacking the other candidates for those associations because I have no reason to question their integrity.  It is shameful that a few people have chosen to question the integrity of someone they do not know based on a series of logical fallacies.

As I get toward the end of this diary, I cannot help but wonder why I am sitting here having to talk about Democrats beating up another Democrat when 95% of the people reading this post probably have no idea of the differences between the four, good Democrats we have running for Travis County District Attorney.  So, below, I will compare the candidates from my perspective...