Travis County DA attempting to revivie the "Public Integrity" Unit?!?

"If a ruler pays attention to lies,
All his servants become wicked."
Proverbs 29:12

From Thursday's Statesman discussing the race to replace Rosemary Lehmberg, we find this nugget about the Democrat nominee:

Most recently, [Democrat candidate Margaret] Moore has offered a position to a state District Judge Don Clemmer, who she describes as bipartisan, to take over the office’s special prosecutions division, which houses the Public Integrity Unit. Clemmer has worked at the Texas attorney general’s office and as deputy general counsel for the governor’s office.

Moore said the appointment will help as she tries to convince state lawmakers to add funding to the Public Integrity Unit when the legislative session begins in January. The unit has statewide jurisdiction and prosecutes state officials on ethics violations and other official misconduct.

“Judge Clemmer will be working with me toward that goal,” Moore said.

Soo...the Democrat machine in Travis County hasn't given up on the 'public integrity' unit?!?

That, by itself, is interesting.

Next up: who, pray tell, is Don Clemmer?!?

It turns out Don Clemmer is a currently serving nominally 'Republican' Travis County district judge who was appointed by Governor Abbott to fill a vacancy last fall.  Technically, Clemmer is on the ballot this fall.  The seriousness with which he's campaigning is revealed in the fact that we've literally never seen him at a Republican party event and had never even heard of him before we'd read this article.

In other words, Don Clemmer is about as Republican as Joe Straus.


Which means he would be the perfect vehicle for the business as usual crowd at the Capitol to run this play.

This sort of move would probably be DOA in the Senate, but it would be a lot better if it never got there in the first place.

Of course, the easiest way to prevent these sorts of shenanigans would be to elect the Republican candidate Maura Phelan.  Maura really is fantastic and she might be the one Republican candidate worth voting for this fall.  You can learn more about Maura Phelan here.