Our statewide leaders aren’t fighting for us; they are fighting for themselves. Texas’ highest law enforcement official is the Attorney General, the People’s Lawyer. What happens when the People’s Lawyer gives bad legal advice and abuses the office for political gain? The office of the Attorney General harms our everyday lives, our safety and the safety of our children.

The Texas Attorney General picks his battles. It was a Texas Attorney General opinion which enabled Tom DeLay’s mid decade redistricting. To the great credit of the Texas Rangers in 2006, an election year, it was a Ranger who brought concrete evidence of sexual and physical abuse at the Texas Youth Commission to the Texas Attorney General. The Attorney General turned his back. Instead, he used Attorney General resources to target elderly and minority Democrats assisting the homebound to cast their mail in ballots. Attorney General Abbott squandered seven figures of discretionary funds, finding no organized widespread fraud or voter impersonation. Reports of investigators spying on an elderly woman in her bathroom and knocking on her door amid selective prosecutions of Democratic activists convey a political purpose: voter intimidation. Media reported a County Democratic Party no longer sending out campaign volunteers to homes for voter registration. While litigation settlement curbed certain abusive practices by the Attorney General, Texans remain burdened by an Attorney General prone to attack non-existent problems. He’s supported stricter voter identification, including the Indiana photo identification law. That’s harder for poor, elderly and minority voting prospects. Attorney General Abbott was too quick to absolve BP post-April 20 oil spill as having made “all the right actions and all the right comments” as of May 3.  Mr. Abbott’s two million dollars in oil and gas campaign donations blinded him to his duty: serve Texas, not British Petroleum. 

As a wife, mother, teacher and 30 year lawyer, I will fight for the people of Texas. Greg Abbott will not. I won’t turn my back on fraud or crime. I won’t use the Opinion process to halt legitimate investigation of suspect state agencies. Mr. Abbott halted the Comptroller’s investigation of the builder-oriented Texas Residential Construction Commission. The Attorney General opinion was sought within days of a $100,000 donation to the AG by homebuilder Bob Perry and wife, part of their donations exceeding a million dollars.

As the first woman Texas Attorney General, I will fight fraud and crime whether committed with a computer or a tire iron. I’ll continue to highlight the issues important to Texans and the incumbent Attorney General’s politically motivated actions harming Texas.