Kaufman county chief public defender Andrew Jordan is going to run for Kaufman District Attorney. My source? Andrew told me Friday. The GOP primary/de facto election is in March. Candidates have until January to file.
Mr. Jordan and Kaufman DA Rick Harrison met Friday to discuss the election. I was told that Andrew and Rick are both hoping for a clean campaign. I’m not sure how much the candidates can control the tone of the upcoming race. Reading the comments on other sites leads me to believe that ship may have sailed.
I have purposely not written about Mr. Harrison’s DWI arrest because of the vitriol. I don’t want to be a platform for sewer gossip. However, it’s important to cover the Kaufman DA election so I’m not going to avoid the topic.
Whereas I am all for open debate and comments on ideas, not so much on people. Therefore, I’m going to strictly monitor comments on candidates, no anonymous comments will be allowed and I will delete anything I find objectionable. My comments standard willl be purely subjective and arbitrary. If you don’t like the rules, don’t comment.
Who is Andrew Jordan? Mr. Jordan is a 2002 graduate of Texas Tech law school. Andrew has completed the criminal law trifecta- prosecutor, private defense, and public defender. Mr. Jordan oversaw the creation of the Kaufman public defender’s office, which by all accounts is a well run operation.
I believe that the PD was funded by a grant and that the future of said office is not yet certain. The local defense bar was not (and still is not) happy about the loss of court appointments to the PD. It’s a sore subject on the square. What’s not debated is that the indigent are well represented. Creating a new bureaucracy from scratch is not easy. Mr. Jordan has received accolades and well deserved media attention for the success of the Kaufman PD.
I’ve always believed that the job of District Attorney is more a management/political position than actual criminal law work. Creating and running the PD office is a valuable experience in that regard.
Andrew and I both worked under former DA Ed Walton (thought not at the same time). During my ADA tenure I had a DWI trial with Andrew as defense counsel. Andrew taught me a very important lesson that day- EMT’s blood draws are not admissible in DWI cases. I will never forget that rule because it kept out my best evidence in that case. The defendant would have been acquitted had he not testified.
Note to potential DA candidates- I will post a Q&A with any interested DA candidate. If you want to be the next Kaufman DA shoot me an email.