Assistant District Attorney Mindy Montford has faced an uphill struggle on one issue in the current campaign to replace outgoing Travis County DA Ronnie Earle: can she impartially investigate ethics complaints? Seen by some as a little too state house, (her father John Montford is a former state senator turned AT&T lobbyist), now Capitol Annex is reporting that she has gained an unexpected booster in the form of Karl Rove. He has allegedly been asking local GOPers to put her signs up in their yards.
If she became DA, Montford would be in overall charge of the Public Integrity Unit, which is charged with prosecuting politicians under the pink dome. There’s been a series of claims that former DeLay and Craddick associates, and a bunch of Republican consultants, have been floating near her campaign (she has called allegations and insinuations of any connection between her and the GOP fanciful). But Rove?
In some ways, his dabbling in local politics is not unexpected (hey, he was Texas’ problem first). But between his newly-revealed involvement in John McCain’s campaign (scroll down to bullet point 10), and claims by recently freed former Alabama governor Don Siegelman that Rove’s fingerprints were “smeared all over the case” against him, you’d think he’d have better things to do with his time.
This article appears in March 28 • 2008.
