While we pull ourselves away from the world's slowest, longest police chase ...
The Associated Press checks in today with Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins as he prepares to run for re-election one year from now. (Two weeks ago we met one Republican who'd like the job.) The rather lengthy piece recaps his highlights (all those DNA exonerations, that TV show) and spends quite a bit of time with the district attorney as he delivers speeches around town. But it also asks whether Watkins has been more concerned with his image and isn't maybe just a wee bit too sensitive when it comes to criticism. (To which he responds, "I may be thin-skinned.") And there's quite a bit of naysaying in the piece, especially at the top, from Watkins's nemesis Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley Price. Writes Deborah Hastings:
As his re-election campaign rattles to life this fall, Watkins finds the national halo he's been standing under has become more of a local floodlight magnifying frailties and foibles. His trailblazing has become irksome to older politicians, who consider it arrogant to break the rules before playing by them.
Among them is John Wiley Price, the only black Dallas County commissioner, who says Watkins has "gotten to be a show horse instead of a work horse."
"I had a lot of high hopes for Craig," the outspoken fellow Democrat adds. "It appears he's gotten public policy confused with personality politics."
