Bexar County Republicans are trying to remove an independent candidate who was once a member of their party, and could potentially peel votes away from their nominee in a three-way district attorney race.
Defense attorney Jason Wolff ran and served as a Republican for many years — elected as a judge under the party’s banner in 2010 and 2014.
But the GOP hasn’t won a countywide election in more than a decade in Bexar County, and this year Wolff entered the race to replace retiring District Attorney Joe Gonzales without a party affiliation next to his name.
“People can’t have a civil conversation with one another if they think that they can identify what’s in your heart based on your party affiliation,” Wolff said in a July interview. “I think it’s dividing this country [and] this county, so that’s why I’m running as an independent.”
Now more than a month after the Secretary of State accepted Wolff’s petition to appear on the ballot, a lawsuit that seeks to have him removed has been filed by the Republican Party of Bexar County, its chairwoman Kris Coons, and the GOP nominee for District Attorney, Ashley Foster.
The parties are scheduled to appear in court on Sept. 1.
Major party candidates are selected through the primary process, while independents collect and submit signatures to qualify.
Foster said Thursday that it’s standard practice for campaigns to check the validity of an opponent’s petition signatures, and local GOP activist Marian Stanko sought to do that in a timely manner after Wolff qualified.
Those efforts hit a wall when Wolff’s legal assistant, Shaina Ochoa, declined to turn over her notary records, and later blamed a police raid on the Calfas Law Group, where Wolff and Ochoa work.
“This is about integrity,” Foster said in an interview. “This this about somebody who’s running for the most important criminal office in Bexar County … and it’s about election integrity.”
Wolff says he’s not a target of the Texas Department of Public Safety investigation on the firm where he works, but details of the raid are now featured prominently in the case against him.
Ochoa had already been summoned by a judge to turn over the notary records on Aug. 13.
Then police raided the office the day before her hearing, and Ochoa said her notary book was confiscated, making it unavailable to turn over to Wolff’s opponent.
The book later turned up after Ochoa was escorted to her office by police, declared the book missing, then later recovered it after police had left.
According to the Bexar GOP’s lawsuit, she was texting Wolff throughout the hearing, and has been ordered by a judge not to delete the messages.
It’s not uncommon for a candidate to be removed after the Secretary of State confirms their signatures, but Wolff said Thursday that he’s confident that won’t happen.
“Every circulator and each signature collected were real,” Wolff said. “The Republican candidate and party, not the voters whose voices matter, are trying to limit Bexar County’s choice for district attorney. They will not be successful.”
Both Wolff and Foster face an uphill race against Democrat Luz Elena Chapa, in a blue county that reelected Gonzales, a progressive Democrat, by 12 percentage points four years ago.
Unlike the primary election, which advances to a runoff if no candidates takes at least 50% of the vote, the general election is won outright by whoever takes the most votes on Nov. 3.
