The Collin County Observer™

Running for Judge

There are 4 judicial races in the run-off. One for District Judge and three in the County Courts at Law. I wonder how many voters know the difference between these courts, or can name any 2 or 3 of the eight candidates.

Voters will have one more opportunity to see and ask questions of the judicial candidates on Monday. The Collin County Bar Association will be holding a question and answer forum at noon at Ralph and Kacoo's in Allen.

Your Collin County Observer will moderate the Q and A. I'm looking forward to leading a lively discussion. The public is invited.

The Observer is trying to give the voters an opportunity to learn all they can about the courts and the candidates. I have just finished interviews with each of these candidates. Scroll below and you will find profiles of each race and each candidate.

I hope I can help make your choice less confusing.

The best political ad of the year

Plano's District 66 legislative race has certainly seen its share of mud slinging. Recently, the Mabrie Jackson side put up a clever website and 30 second TV ad about "Moving Van Taylor". Yes, I know it's an attack -- but the video IS funny.

Of course, Taylor has put up his own attack site, accusing Jackson of (guess what?) being a liberal.

Oh no, not another election!

Pity the diligent Plano voter. His/her presence was required at the polls for the Primary, the City Special Election, the city run-off, and will be for the Primary run-off, City and School elections in May, and the November general election.

Paul Burka of Texas Monthly writes of a truly scary scenario -- another Mabrie Jackson vs. Van Taylor election battle.

Burka writes, "If Jackson wins the runoff, it would not be surprising to see Taylor enter that race, since he has spent a small fortune to get his name and message out and has made no secret of his desire to run for Ralph Hall’s or Sam Johnson’s congressional seat, if either retires. The special election gives him the chance to continue to put his name before the public. Jackson conceivably might enter the race too, to get a leg up on seniority and to be able to hit the ground running in January — and, if she were to win the runoff handily, to squash Taylor permanently."

Regardless of whose running, there will be another election - on May 8 to fill Brian McCall's unexpired term. McCall has been named Chancellor of the Texas State University system.

Where do you live?

That seems to be the burning question in the Precinct 2 Commissioners Court race between incumbent Jerry Hoagland and former Plano City Councilwoman Cheryl Williams.

It's another race where the mud-slinging threatens to overwhelm the issues as Hoagland's camp continues to question if Williams really, really lives in her Richardson duplex. Rumor has it that Hoagland even has Williams' neighbor, Karl Voigtsberger spying on her duplex to make sure they come home at night.

I'm looking forward to seeing the first Peeping Tom complaint. That's got to be a terrifying thought - Karl looking in your windows!?

Meanwhile back to the issues, the Save Lake Lavon anti-bridge folks are all over Jerry Hoagland. His assurances that the bridge will never be built doesn't seem to dampen their ardor at all.

At a recent Tea Party forum in Lucas, both the anti Williams forces and the anti bridge folks were out in force. There was a lot of emotion from the crowd, and unfortunately, sometimes basic civility was lost in the discussion.

Ed Housewright at The Dallas Morning News has written an interesting piece about the Precinct 2 race. It's worth the read.

Clerking or campaigning?

Last month accusations were made that district Clerk employees were campaigning at the polls for their boss, Patricia Crigger on county time.

The Observer looked into these allegations. In an Open Records request, I asked for all the time sheets for all District Clerk employees for a two month period that included the early voting dates.

What I found was that absences were very high during early voting and leading up to election day. But all those absences were recorded as comp time, personal leave with pay, or personal leave without pay.

The Observer concluded that NO funny business was occurring on county time.

It was just another example of what I'm beginning to call "Republicans doing the nasty to each other".

This primary season has plenty of the nasty.

Bill