I've had it with Julian Castro.

[carpetbagger]

Those of you who read my other posts on the subject may know that I was undecided in the San Antonio mayor's race, in a runoff between two (officially nonpartisan) democrats.

Last night, I made up my mind watching one of Castro's ads. I'm not sure if it was the local police association, or if it was Castro himself, but Castro appearently indicated it was fair game. In the ad, Castro's opponent Phil Hardberger, previously the chief of one of the state courts of appeal, gets hammered for overturning ten murder convictions, and a few convictions for child abuse.

Here's my gripe...

The job of an appealate court is to make sure people convicted of crime got a fair trial. If they didn't, it's the job of that court to correct the injustice. Yeah, they overturn convictions. It's not glamorous, it's not popular, but everybody knows that you can convict a ham sandwich, or at least a poor or otherwise unsympathetic ham sandwich, for murder in Texas. I met a guy once who went to prison on murder charges, only to have the conviction thrown out when it was discovered that he was in a coma in a hospital when the murder took place.

This attack is not helpful to democrats across the state. It's hard enough to get democratic judges elected in this state, or any judge elected in this state who actually takes upholding the law as seriously as they take judicial activism and winning elections. Once elected, fellow progressives ought to at least cover their backs.

I've heard nothing coming from Castro or the cops as to how or why Hardbergers decisions show poor judgment. But the attack ads smack of demogoguery, the kind of stuff they know better than to believe themselves. (In fact, the sheriff's association spokesman said, after attacking Hardberger, that he thought Hardberger would make a good mayor.) I'd expect more from a democrat and a progressive.

If someone has the real scoop, please let me know.

[Gman]

1. TJ Connaly is running Castro's campaign

Of course, Connaly succumbed to the dark side quite a few years ago. He has since undertaken the evil ways of the dark side and therefore is probably the person most responsible for the ads. Of course, Castro is too immature to say no, I won't run that.

Castro is the Leonard Zelig of San Antonio politics.

[LocalDem]

2. A legitimate gripe

but I disagree with Gman that it shows a lack of maturity, and I don't see this as any worse than most attack ads that take legislative votes out of context.

I think the problem is that Hardberger basically has no other record to debate. He has no legislative or executive track record, and while I agree that appellate decisions can't be fully and fairly debated in a political setting, that's what one should expect when going from the judiciary into other realms of politics.

I know Julian very well and he's a person of integrity and conviction. I think the perceived reversals on some of these matters comes from having taken nuanced and detail-driven positions that aren't easily put into the "for" and "against" categories.

BTW, 'bagger, thanks for the tip on Art Hall for DemBench.org. I have heard good things.