Okay Harris County, You Win.

Harris County definitely has us beat when it comes to crazy contests for DA. Travis and Harris Counties are both going to elect new district attorneys, but under two very different circumstances. Travis County DA Ronnie Earle is retiring after serving for more than three decades. Harris County DA Chuck Rosenthal was planning on running for another term, but he dropped out after a series of embarrassing emails from his public computer became, well, public.

Basically, Rosenthal's involved in a lawsuit and as part of the case, a federal judge unsealed a set of emails the married Rosenthal sent and received on his public computer. Within the emails are several lovey-dovey messages between him and his executive assistant, Kerry Stevens (who also made $75K a year and drove a county vehicle). Some of my favorite Rosenthal lines:

"You own my heart..."
"The next time I see you I'm going to kiss you behind your right ear."
"Bet I could make you sleep."

Once I stop blushing, I'm going to continue this post.

OK I'm back. Rosenthal had to drop out of the race for D.A., largely from pressure within the Harris County Republican Party. He's gone, but there are NEW EMAILS!!! Not only do they reveal he was using his public computer to run his campaign... there are several emails from Rosenthal's doctor (and husband of DA candidate Kelly Siegler) with racial and sexist undertones. For example, one recovered email photo shows a black man lying on a sidewalk, surrounded by half-eaten pieces of watermelon and an empty fried chicken bucket.

See the KHOU story here, plus the documents.

Now, I haven't seen Ronnie Earle's emails, but I doubt they can top Rosenthal's.