Hight Hollers for Help

Liberty Dispatch has received information that the campaign to re-elect Judge C.T. “Rusty” Hight has replaced former campaign manager Elizabeth Beausoliel with a veteran professional campaign consultant out of Houston. The replacement of Beausoliel was expected after she was caught on tape in the courthouse stolen mail scandal.

Beausoliel’s replacement might have been inevitable anyway because of all of the difficulties in the Hight campaign that were not present when she helped him to win in a previous election. Hight has instead hired a spinmeister that is ranked number four in state among Democratic consultants. His name is Dan McClung has been a powerful force in the state’s political scene, helping to elect people like Lee Brown to the mayor's office, State Senator Rodney Ellis and Governor Mark White in 1982 and Governor Ann Richards in 1990. The trial lawyers signed him on to help battle Proposition 12.

Hight has never hired one of the hotshot consultants before but revelations about his changing legal documents in an attempt to change the outcome of a custody case when he was a lawyer and a string of cases involving offenders and offenders with multiple DWI’s has cast a long shadow over Hight’s re-election.

It is not known whether McClung is working for Hight as an in kind contribution or whether Hight’s campaign is paying him. The October campaign finance campaign reports should include that information. Hight and his two nephews, Zack and Zeb Zbranek, are the county’s Democratic Party standard bearers. They come from a long history of Democratic activism reaching back to Judge Zeke Zbranek’s partisan work fifty years ago.

Though Zack Zbranek, candidate for County Court at Law Judge, is inexperienced in running for election he is clearly trying to send a message to voters that he is from the family that has run this county for the last twenty years. Zack may even have agreed to pay for some of McClung ‘s consultation. Billboards connected by poles and by family resemblance recently revealed Uncle Rusty and nephew Zack’s intention to campaign for both courts together. Zack’s signs looking almost exactly like past political signs of his more accomplished brother is another part of the effort to remind voters that electing him and Rusty will create a justice system in Liberty County dominated by the biggest name in Liberty County Democratic party circles.

The addition of Dan McClung is expected to bring a more polished to barrage Liberty County voters with both political rumors and mass messaging. Phone canvassing and multiple mailers could include negative messaging intended to drown the race in mud under the guise of last minute “revelations” about candidates that have lived here for decades.

Because of the shear weight of Democratic party scandals in Liberty County, McClung may also resort to using some sort of Republicans for Rusty campaign. That strategy would be easy enough since before being beaten in the last republican primary Hight’s father-in-law was the county chairman. Hight’s father-in-law was the first incumbent county chairman to be beaten in a primary and it is commonly believed that he lost because as chairman he was helping Democrats (though bi-partisanship may be seen as a virtue to many, it is the job of a county chairman to work to elect someone from their party for every position).

However Dan McClung decides to attack Republicans and downplay the Democratic party’s stances on issues people in Texas have rejected at a two to one ratio, he may have his candidate’s full-time help. Unless McClung advises Hight to go back to work, Judge Hight will have 5 out of 7 days to work full time on his campaign. Most knowledgeable observers predict McClung will tell Hight that voters will not look favorably on a “public servant” making $125,000 being absent from duty 60% of the time at a rate of almost $600 a day.

Judge Hight should listen to this high powered image maker. The rest of us have a front row seat to see how the big boys do it - just like they did with Barack Obama.