As we head into the home stretch of the campaign – early voting begins in three weeks, and the deadline to be registered for this election is one week from today – we turn to the statewide candidates for the final round of interviews. I’ve said before that not only is this year’s slate of statewide Dems the strongest top to bottom that we’ve seen since 1994, this is also the weakest group of Republicans we’ve seen since at least then. Nowhere is this dichotomy clearer than in the race for Attorney General, where the Democratic candidate is the excellent Sam Houston, and the Republican hopeful is the ethically challenged and possibly future felon Ken Paxton. A native of West Texas, Sam is a well-regarded attorney in Houston. He was a candidate for State Supreme Court in 2008 and had the highest vote percentage of any statewide Democrat that year. The stark contrast between Houston and his underqualified opponent has been noticed by the press, whose attentions Paxton has been diligently ducking ever since he secured the Republican nomination. Houston has been racking up the endorsements, and should have a clean sweep when all is said and done. He’ll be a breath of fresh air and a return to the original purpose of the office of Attorney General, which at one time represented the interests of the state of Texas and not just the Republican Party. Here’s the interview:
I’ve got two more of these set to go. Let me know what you think.