Dec
21
Written by:
Mark Lavergne
12/21/2009 3:23 PM
Former Travis County District Attorney
Ronnie Earle filed Dec. 18 for Lieutenant Governor, the number two statewide elected office.
Earle is the first Democratic candidate to file for Lt. Gov.
Marc Katz, owner of Katz's Deli in Austin, said earlier this year that he plans to run. Also
Linda Chavez-Thompson, a former executive vice-president of the national labor union group AFL-CIO, is reportedly also
considering a run for Lt. Gov.
Earlier this decaded, Earle, as Travis County DA, led a years-long investigation into U.S. House Majority Leader
Tom DeLay's PAC, Texans for a Republican Majority. TRMPAC had allegedly used corporate contributions, "laundered" through the Republican National Committee, to fund state legislative races. In 2005, a grand jury indicted DeLay for conspiring to violate Texas state election law. Though it has not gone to trial, the indictment ultimately forced DeLay to resign from the U.S. House.
That case was the go-to example for Republicans who criticized Earle as a Democrat hack who used his office for partisan reasons -- a charge Earle has denied over the years. He also unsuccessfully prosecuted
Kay Bailey Hutchison in the early 1990s.