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The Austin American-Statesman has reported that former Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle has filed paperwork with the Texas Ethics Commission to run for statewide office in 2010. Earle, who has been the subject of a recently launched Draft campaign for Governor and is also seen as a potential Attorney General candidate, did not specify which office he will run for. Earle designated himself as campaign treasurer and will now be allowed to begin fundraising. With Texas Sen. Kirk Watson not planning to announce his statewide intentions until the end of the summer, the move may be designed for Earle to begin to build a campaign warchest while waiting for others like Watson to decide before he makes a final decision. Against the current Democratic gubernatorial field of Tom Schieffer and Kinky Friedman, Earle would have a good chance to win. Although he is not very well known outside of Travis County, his name ID is certainly higher than that of Schieffer and Democratic activists like him for filing charges against Tom DeLay. Neither Schieffer or Friedman have anywhere close to the Democratic credentials that Earle has. Prior to his 32 years as District Attorney, Earle was a State Representative from Austin. Ironically, Earle and Schieffer, who could be on the verge of running against each other for Governor, were in the same freshman class in the Texas House almost 37 years ago. Earle's prosecutor past could hurt him in a possible match up against Kay Bailey Hutchison. In 1993, Hutchison was indicted by a grand jury but was eventually acquitted because Earle did not have sufficient evidence.
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