Earle announces retirement
Candidates lining up to replace longtime Travis County district attorney.
By Laylan Copelin
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF

Friday, December 14, 2007
Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle, who has led that office since 1977, told his staff today that he will not seek re-election.

He was expected to issue a statement later.

Earle, 65, will serve the one year remaining on his term, but his retirement will end an era.

"Is the district attorney's job an elective office?" Ken Oden, a former county attorney, once quipped about his friend's long tenure.

Earle, a Democrat, might not be done with politics.

By retiring, he would be available for a gubernatorial bid in 2010.

It would be his first statewide campaign � and a longshot at that � but it would give Earle, who has a populist streak, the opportunity to speak out on issues other than criminal justice. In court he once accused corporations of trying to buy state elections, likening them to robber barrons and facists.

Earle, a Fort Worth-area native, came to Austin in 1960 to attend the University of Texas. After law school, Earle, at 26, was named municipal judge, the youngest in the state at the time. He was elected to the Legislature in 1973, but three years later, running as a courthouse outsider, he became district attorney.

He was never content to just prosecute crimes. He created the first victims-assistance program in the state and gained a national reputation for community programs trying to address the causes of crime.

It was his role as prosecutor in the state capital, however, that made him a lightning rod. Earle investigated and prosecuted � to mixed results � public officials of both political parties. Most notably, at a 1994 trial, Earle abruptly abandoned his prosecution of Kay Bailey Hutchison on charges she misused her office of state treasurer before she was elected U.S. senator.

The incident didn't sidetrack either official's career, but Earle drew his first opponent since his initial election because of that botched prosecution. He easily won re-election.

A decade later, Earle was tangling with another high-profile Republican.

His 2005 indictment of U.S. Majority Leader Tom DeLay as part of a broader investigation into corporate spending in Texas campaigns raised Earle's profile, but that money-laundering case is tied up in pre-trial appeals and might not be resolved before Earle leaves office. The courts have dismissed other indictments arising from the same 2002 campaign incidents.

Today's announcement kicks off what could be a crowded race to replace Earle.

For the past two months, would-be successors have been weighing a campaign as speculation grew that the longtime prosecutor would not seek re-election.

As many as half-a-dozen Democrats are mentioned as possible candidates. Three prosecutors from within Earle's office might make the race: Rick Reed, 52, who joined Earle's staff after losing a 1998 race for Dallas County district attorney; Gary Cobb, 46, who's been a prosecutor since 1990; and Mindy Montford, 37, who worked in the Harris County District Attorney's Office before joining Earle's staff in 1999. She is the daughter of former state Sen. John Montford.

Outside Earle's staff are two possible candidates: Jeanne Meurer, 54, retiring this year as state district judge; and Randy Leavitt, 53, a longtime defense attorney who became the first assistant county attorney in 2004.

If no Republican candidate surfaces, the race to be the county's next elected felony prosecutor will be a sprint. Early voting for the March 4 primaries begins Feb. 19.