Eye on Politics: The race for Tarrant County District Attorney
DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) - With Election Day less than a month away, we're taking a look at voter education outreach and the latest in the Texas Governor's race. Political reporter Jack Fink also sits down for one-on-one interviews with the candidates for Tarrant County District Attorney.
Every week, CBS 11 political reporter Jack Fink breaks down some of the biggest political stories grabbing headlines in North Texas and beyond. Watch the latest episode of Eye on Politics in the video player above and stream new episodes live every Thursday and Friday at 7 p.m. on CBS News DFW.
Voter education outreach
Tuesday was the last day to register for the November midterm elections in Texas. And there's another deadline fast approaching: Oct. 28 is the last day to apply for a mail-in ballot.
The number of requests to vote by mail this election has dropped sharply in three of North Texas' larger counties when compared to the last midterm election four years ago. Here's a look at the numbers as of this week:
Collin County
Mail ballots sent in 2022: 11,752
Mail ballots sent in 2018: 22,126
Tarrant County
Mail ballots sent in 2022: 22,383
Mail ballots sent in 2018: 44,239
Denton County
Mail ballots sent in 2022: 9,741
Mail ballots sent in 2018: 16,194
CBS 11 requested similar numbers from Dallas County, but never heard back.
The numbers come months after nearly 25,000 mail ballots were rejected during the March primary or a little over 12% of all ballots cast.
After so many mail ballots were rejected in March because they didn't comply with state law, the Texas Secretary of State's Office says it increased its voter education outreach this year. Representatives have traveled across the state in an effort to head off similar problems in the general election.
Sam Taylor, Assistant Secretary of State for Communications said, "in the past, we have done a grassroots effort, but I think it's way more robust this year and a lot more focused on senior citizens because that's the population that tends to vote by mail in Texas, 65 and older, and disabled."
Latest in the Texas Governor's Race
A new poll out this week by Marist College shows Gov. Greg Abbott leading his Democratic challenger Beto O'Rourke by four percentage points among registered voters. But when the poll asked those who said they will definitely vote, Abbott's lead doubled to eight percentage points, 52% to 44%.
New fundraising numbers also came out this week.
O'Rourke announced his campaign raised $25.18 million dollars between July 1 and Sept. 29 from nearly 500,000 contributors. That's slightly more than Abbott, whose campaign says it raised nearly $25 million from nearly 45,000 contributors during that same time frame.
Gov. Greg Abbott touted his economic record during a campaign stop at a small business in Dallas this week.
Watch the video in the video player below to learn more about his visit.
Race for Tarrant County District Attorney
No matter what happens in November, 2023 will bring a new District Attorney for Tarrant County. Republican Sharen Wilson is retiring after entering office in January 2015.
Jack Fink sat down with both candidates, Republican Phil Sorrells and Democrat Tiffany Burks, to talk to them about what their priorities would be if elected.
Burks wants to do more to address mental health and drug addiction through the DA's office. She also wants to set up a diversion program in the DA's office and address the backlog of about 40,000 criminal cases pending in Tarrant County.
"It's going to encompass a lot of work," she said. "It's also going to encompass facilitating relationships between judges, defense attorneys, law enforcement and I think that I'm the right person to get that done."
Addressing the backlog is also priority for Sorrells if he is elected. He told Jack part of what he'd do to address the backlog is make sure more experienced attorneys are working in the office. He believes addressing the backlog is also a key part of addressing rising violent crime in Tarrant County.
"You've got a lot of people that are out on bond," he said of the pending criminal cases. "If they're not seeing consequences for their actions, then they're thinking that there are no consequences for their actions, they're still committing crime."
During their interview, Jack asked both candidates about whether they'd prioritize prosecuting doctors who disobey the recent state law banning most abortions.
Burks said deciding whether to prosecute these cases will require nuance.
"You have to balance following the law with seeing that justice is done," she said.
She said that she doesn't know how much justice there is in prosecuting doctors who perform abortions for women who in some cases have been through traumatic events.
"I think it's unfortunate that medical providers have to choose between their medical license and their Hippocratic oath, and their ability to provide good reproductive rights, reproductive decisions to their patients," she said.
Some Democratic DAs in Texas have made headlines for saying explicitly they would not prioritize these cases.
"They're not just doing that with abortion, they're doing that with lots of cases and that's what you're seeing all over the country," Sorrells said. "Democrat-led District Attorneys offices aren't enforcing the law and you see lawlessness."
He also said as it relates to the abortions, he's not a legislator and he'll enforce the law.
"Whatever they want to make illegal, then my job is to follow that law," he said.
Watch the full episode of Eye on Politics in the video player above to hear the candidates make their cases for why they should be elected.