ECP Column No. 2

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My second column that appeared in The Ellis County Press this week can be found here or below:

Cover-up? No, of course not. Not here.

You know it’s getting bad when a Republican district attorney covers for a Democratic judicial candidate. Of course, I’m referring to last week’s front-page news article about allegations that County Attorney Joe Grubbs not only knew of assistant prosecutor Cindy Hellstern’s husband allegedly being seen masturbating in his car in 2006 – but that he was in a meeting with Ellis County Sheriff Office investigators a day after the incident and kept the issue hush-hush.

Grubbs, in an explosive re-election fight March 4, denied ever receiving the incident report that was filed. Perhaps, but the truth is the truth: people at the highest levels of this county’s government knew what happened and they quashed it. Whether it was a Class C misdemeanor or not is not the issue. It’s just another example of persons of privilege in this county being “looked after.” So far, the story picked up interest from Dallas TV stations KDFW Fox 4 and WFAA Channel 8, but nobody at the ECSO is willing to come forward on air.

I’ve been working with our newly revamped news department in seeking out these hard-hitting stories; I’m not just a columnist, I actually help run the news department here. So when readers are eyeing the front page, know that they have a familiar face and name working behind the scenes.

So what’s all this gain you the voter? For one thing, if Grubbs can cover for his prosecutor – who was running against Judge Gene Calvert for county Court at Law No. 2 at the time - who else will he cover for?

Maybe those alleged sex predators who are walking the streets of the county scot-free. Or maybe the drug-runners who received probation for having four pounds of black tar heroin? Or maybe, just maybe, Grubbs would cover up for ex-County Judge Al Cornelius and the things that he got away with?

Voters should keep their eye on this race for district attorney. True, campaigns are won from the ground up, but justice is delivered from the top down. And right now, we need someone to tip the scales in the right direction. Hopefully this paper’s news will help do it.

Skipping the candidate forums

So far, the Feb. 9 candidate forum The Ellis County Press and the Taxpayers Alliance for Good Government are sponsoring in Midlothian will feature none of the candidates running for sheriff. That’s unfortunate due to the importance of Midlothian in this entire race: he who carries Midlothian carries the county. Those in the Ferris and Ennis areas won’t like that statement, but statistically, it’s true. More conservative voting blocs are found in northwest Ellis County than anywhere else.

Two sheriff candidates from that area are skipping the forum (Johnny Brown & Steve McKinney, though McKinney did purchase a table for literature). The other candidate, James Ledbetter, has other plans for that time frame.

However, the Precinct 3 county commissioner and Precinct 4 constable candidates will be there, as will a GOP county chair candidate or two. With help from the Rural Citizens Against Annexation and all of the refreshments they’ll provide, this is going to be an educational “win” for that part of the county. Too bad some of the candidates couldn’t clear 30 minutes in their Saturday night schedule to talk to the people.

Signs, brownies and gun control

As much as I would love to endorse a candidate from this newsprint, our policy at The Ellis County Press prevents us from doing so. However, we can expose the records of officials running for office or running for re-election and let voters make up their own minds.

Last week in Ferris, a well-attended crowd showed up to hear Johnny Brown lay out his vision for a crime commission staffed by citizens. Originally intended as a deragotory remark, the Brown supporters were being tagged “Brownies” by online anonymous attackers (who post on elliscountyobserver.com, the infamous blog I publish). But leave it up to creativity to turn a negative into a tasty positive.

During the Q&A, though, Brown was asked a question about gun control. A recent bill was signed into law without much fanfare: HB 2640 now prevents military veterans with clinic-described psychological disorders from owning firearms. When asked if Brown would enforce a Washington-led directive to confiscate all weapons (a hypothetical), there was a lot of deflection on the issue.

Regardless of the questioner or the issue at hand, candidates should try real hard to answer any questions a voter might have.

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