With much less drama than the Presidentials, the two candidates for Harris County District Attorney got together for a debate on Thursday.
The two candidates for Harris County district attorney disagreed Thursday about recruiting grand jurors, establishing a public defender’s office, handling drug possession cases and other issues.
Democrat C.O. “Brad” Bradford, the former Houston police chief, said the county should think about adopting the federal court policy of selecting grand jurors at random to ensure that the panels represent a cross-section of the community. Republican Pat Lykos, a former felony court judge, said judges should continue to screen grand jury members to make sure the panels, which have “the authority to destroy lives,” are made up of people with integrity.
From the article, it sounds like it was pretty substantive, which I think is great. Was anyone here in attendance at this? Please leave a comment with your impressions if you were. Thanks.
As for that other debate, we’ll have a better idea of the outcome in a day or two when the tracking polls give results that have been affected by those who watched. Early returns seem to favor Obama. I don’t watch Presidential debates – they just don’t interest me, and I think too much emphasis is placed on “gotcha” moments – but clearly a lot of other people were watching. What was your opinion of it?
UPDATE: Here’s Greg with a good roundup of reactions to the Presidential debate.
Both candidate spoke on our jail overcrowding. Bradford merely stated that it was a problem, while Lykos explained her plans to divert the mentally ill and non violent offender to residential treatment centers.
They also spoke about grand jury selection. Bradford was for a random selection and having the courts meet at night. How can you assure that these random selections are willing and able to serve, and how many citizens would really want to give up their evening to serve on a grand jury? Lykos hit it on the nail when she said that the grand jurors need to be people of integrity since these jurors have the authority to basically destroy lives.
Lykos made references to the k-mart raid and the crime lab mess, Bradford ignored the references. Does he really feel that voters have forgotten about what has happened under his watch as Chief of Police? The citizens of Harris County deserve far better than his proven mismanagement skills.