Indivisible Houston Daniel Cohen discusses the feud between Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo and District Attorney Kim Ogg objectively.
I have been away from Houston for nine months. I was sure that by the time I got back, District Attorney Kim Ogg would have stopped playing political games and using the state’s power to harm another Democrat who has brought transparency to a Commissioner’s Court not there previously.
But then I read the Texas Monthly article titled “Democrats Took Control of Texas’s Largest County. Then Party Leaders Went to War With Each Other,” which gave me pause. It seems the relationship between the two did not start well as Ogg reportedly attempted to coerce Hidalgo into appointing a particular executive assistant.
Hidalgo, panting from exertion, answered the call. District Attorney Kim Ogg, a fellow Democrat who, like Hidalgo, had come to power as the Harris County electorate turned blue, greeted her on the line. Ogg, who declined a request for an interview, had rung her to continue to press the incoming county judge to make a particular political appointment to an executive assistant position, Hidalgo said in an interview with Texas Monthly. Hidalgo said she ended the call quickly and she wasn’t interested. “It’s pretty obvious when someone is trying to handle you,” Hidalgo told me. “I wanted to make these decisions based on my own judgment.”
Judge Hidalgo also denied Ogg the ridiculous number of DA she requested. Hidalgo, a Progressive, works the criminal justice system intelligently and efficiently instead of through the insanity of the status quo.
Daniel Cohen who is well schooled in Harris County politics had much to say. Please listen to the entire interview.