Ronnie Earle is a former Travis County District Attorney. He held the office from 1976 until his retirement at the end of 2008. A Democrat, he made national headlines in 2005 when he filed campaign finance fraud charges against U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay.
In addition to his investigations into political corruption as district attorney, Earle also argued for community-based preventative criminal justice. In a 1997 op-ed in the Austin American-Statesman, he wrote, “The most powerful way to realistically affect crime is to strengthen the community. We can best do that by reweaving the fabric of community, which consists of family, extended family, neighborhood, church, school, workplace - that matrix of threads carefully woven over the years that gives meaning to our lives.”
Though Earle supports the death penalty “for those few brutal murderers he believes would never stop killing, even in prison,” he has said that he “agonized” over whether or not to seek capital punishment in his cases because of his doubts in procedural aspects of the criminal justice system.
When Earle announced his retirement in 2007, the Austin-American Statesman speculated that he might be eyeing a gubernatorial run in 2010. Earle’s name has also been mentioned as a possible candidate for Attorney General.
Earle’s prosecution of elected officials in both parties has drawn censure in some instances. The unsuccessful prosecution of Attorney General Jim Mattox for bribery in 1985 is a flashpoint for Democrats, and Tom DeLay has called his prosecution by Earle “vindictive and partisan.”
Other detractors cite the botched charges against U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison in 1994 for “misusing state telephones for political business.” At a pre-trial hearing, Earle declined to present a case when “the judge questioned the admissibility of the prosecution's evidence.” According to the Christian Science Monitor, “that led to Senator Hutchison's acquittal, and many saw the DA as an amateur.”
In over three decades as district attorney, Earle earned a reputation as a populist who believed “the courts are for the people.” He was also known for his zealous respect for campaign finance laws: he once brought a complaint against himself for missing a filing deadline by one day. Earle turned himself into then-Justice of the Peace Guy Herman, who described the episode to the Christian Science Monitor: "He could have filed that report late and nobody would have paid any attention. But instead he came in and said, 'I violated the law and should be fined.' So I fined him."
Prior to his years as DA, Earle served in the Texas House of Representatives, as a presiding judge of the Austin Municipal Court, and as chief counsel of the Texas Judicial Council.
On Feb. 11, the Dallas Morning News editorial board endorsed Earle in the Democratic primary for Lieutenant Governor.
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