Ogg holds the edge in DA’s race, experts say
Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg still holds the edge in the upcoming Democratic primary, political watchdogs say, despite several opponents’ attacks on her leadership style and record on reform.
Early voting begins Tuesday in the race pitting Ogg against two progressive ex-employees and a defense attorney with backing from more conservative groups. One of those opponents, Audia Jones, has garnered interest from liberals for her promises to stop prosecuting certain low-level crimes. Jones’ recent endorsement from presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders could propel her into a runoff.
Ogg, however, has decades of experience and name recognition in her favor, experts said.
“She’s the incumbent DA and she’s far better known than her rivals,” said Mark Jones, a political science fellow at Rice University’s Baker Institute. “Ogg is still the candidate to beat.”
An expected surge in voters for the Democratic presidential primary, coupled with a low position on the ballot, means that the district attorney’s race is a “low-information election,” said Jeronimo Cortina, associate professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Houston.
People do not pay as much attention to district attorney-related issues before casting their vote, so Ogg could be a go-to for people who do not recognize her challengers, Cortina said.
“We’ve also seen that the county has an appetite for more progressive
candidates,” he said. “That doesn’t mean it’s going to translate into votes.”
Without polling information to help predict the race, it’s reasonable to assume Ogg will win, said Renee Cross, senior director of the Hobby School of Public Affairs at the University of Houston. But candidates such as Jones and Carvana Cloud fit into the “Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez effect,” she said, referencing a movement of younger, progressive politicians who bid against more moderate and established Democrats.
“I would still assume it’s Ogg’s to lose,” Cross said. “But as 2016 told us, anything can happen.”
Challenge from left
Ogg took office three years ago with the support of many groups that pushed criminal justice reform — one of which has since rescinded its backing because of concerns that Ogg isn’t progressive enough. Among the reasons, they cite the DA’s open opposition to parts of a federal settlement to fix the county’s misdemeanor bail practices, as well as her repeated requests for more prosecutors in her office.
She has defended her decisions, saying she took a more nuanced approach to bail reform in order to balance community safety concerns and defendants’ constitutional rights. Ogg said she is still accomplishing reform, especially through her mental health and marijuana diversion initiatives that can direct offenders away from jails and into rehabilitative programs.
Ogg, 60, formerly headed Crime Stoppers of Houston and was the city’s gang czar for former Mayor Bob Lanier. She has largely focused on her experience in her re-election campaign.
“Because of my track record, my name identification and my lifelong history of service within the city and county, I’m the most qualified,” she said Friday during an interview with the Houston Chronicle’s editorial board.
Jones, 35, is a former prosecutor who worked for Ogg and previously provided legal counsel in both the federal and corporate arenas. She entered the race early and earned the support of many groups that champion the “progressive prosecutors” movement, which aims to reduce incarceration and racial and class inequalities in the criminal justice system.
Aside from declining to prosecute some lower-level cases including marijuana possession, other drug possession and sex work, Jones wants to end felony cash bail, unless someone is determined to be a flight risk or a threat to the community, she said. She has also pledged not to seek the death penalty, according to an American Civil Liberties Union questionnaire.
“I understand what policies and procedures actually can be put in place and could have been put in place years ago in order to change the way our system is going,” she said during the editorial board interview.
Jones is married to District Judge DaSean Jones.
Cloud is considered more progressive than Ogg, but she takes less of a hard-line approach than Jones when it comes to using her prosecutorial discretion.
She said she’ll decline to prosecute marijuana cases but will leave the door open to some prosecution on other drug possession cases, depending on the situation, according to an ACLU questionnaire. And she wants to create a plan for how to best prosecute sex work so that dismissals are preferred.
“I have a vision that understands the key principles that we need to make sure we have criminal justice reform,” Cloud said Friday.
Cloud, 42, said she will also recommend personal recognizance bonds — as opposed to cash bail — in most felony cases. She was known for her domestic violence work as the former bureau chief of the DA’s special victims’ bureau.
Defense attorney Todd Overstreet, a former state and federal prosecutor, is running primarily on a campaign to rebuild and train staff at the District Attorney’s Office.
“I think Kim did attempt to fulfill her promises to the community,” Overstreet, 48, said. “I just think when they got started, there was a lack of leadership, and now the rest of the community feels like it’s chaos.”
He said he won’t decline to prosecute marijuana and other possession cases.
Republican primary
If Ogg gets past her opponents, she will have to face one of three Republicans in November, all of whom say Ogg’s leadership created dysfunction in the office and resulted in more violent offenders on the street.
Mary Nan Huffman is the legal counsel for the Houston Police Officers’ Union and a former prosecutor in Montgomery County.
Lori DeAngelo is a former prosecutor in Harris County and has branded herself as the most experienced in the Republican race.
Wayne Lloyd Oliver is a perennial candidate who has run in multiple party races, even winning the district attorney Democratic primary in 2012 before losing the general election.