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Rick Reed, former Dallas County prosecutor now interested in becoming the Travis County District Attorney
From The Texas Observer comes a sneak peek at the race for Travis County District Attorney — the most powerful prosecutor in Texas, with the power to go after state elected officials. Among the fab four seeking Ronnie Earle’s office thus far: Rick Reed, the SMU-schooled attorney who learned the trade working for the likes of Henry Wade and John Vance while he was a prosecutor in the Dallas County District Attorney’s Office. Also, notes the Observer, he’s the son of Dick Reed — “two-term state representative from Dallas who was a member of the famed ‘Dirty 30’ reform group of the early 1970s” and is oft-mentioned in the 1972 book Shadow on the Alamo.
Reed’s been in the Travis County District Attorney’s Office since losing a bid to become the Dallas County District Attorney in 1998. No doubt he’ll face questions concerning the copious DNA exonerations stemming from cases tried during Wade and Vance’s tenures; seems like he’s prepared for those queries and then some. And as the Observer and Reed’s Web site reminds, he was the chief architect in the case against Tom DeLay — a chip off the old block, in other words. Though, says the Observer, his colleagues weren’t keen on going after DeLay: “I was the only person pushing to present the case to the grand jury.” –Robert Wilonsky
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