Analysis: Paxton's Legal Trouble Puts Abbott in a Bind

Attorney General Jim Mattox of Texas had a funny line when he was running for governor in 1990, trying to elbow his way through a Democratic primary against former Gov. Mark White and State Treasurer Ann Richards: “I’m the only candidate in this race proven innocent by a jury of my peers.”

It was both true and uncomfortable. The state’s top legal official had been indicted and acquitted of commercial bribery while in office. Ordinarily, that is the sort of thing that can send an officeholder home, but Mattox won re-election in 1986 and made it all the way to the 1990 Democratic runoff for governor, a race that still stands as a landmark of nastiness in Texas politics.

The current race for attorney general shows few signs of repeating that tone, but questions about one candidate — state Sen. Ken Paxton, R-McKinney — marked the primary campaign and remain an issue ahead of the general election.

Attorneys general like to call themselves law enforcement officers, but that is a forgiving description, akin to calling a pet beagle the guardian of the homestead. The agency is more like a civil law firm with one client, the state of Texas, which does not even require its attorney general to be a lawyer.

More at http://www.texastribune.org/2014/06/06/paxton/ .