Taking another page from Charles Kuffner's election coverage at Offthekuff.com, I asked the Harris County Republican Party nominee for District Clerk, Chris Daniel, if he would allow me to "interview" him. At some point, I decided that I would rather just have a conversation of sorts about the race and, more importantly to me, about who Chris is, why he is running, and what he would like to say to the voters of Harris County.

We discussed a range of topics and even addressed some of the negative campaign tactics that are being used against him in this under the radar, down ballot race. It feels more like a primary race and in fact, many of the same negative tactics are being used against him in this race, the difference being that in the primary, these were "whispers" and in the current general election, you have bloggers and such screaming that it will be the end of the world if the incumbent is defeated.

Here  you go:

Or you can click here to download the mp3.

What are my takeaways? First, it is a whole lot harder to do this than you think. Kuff has been doing it for a number of years and does it quite well. I have no desire to become the partisan counterpart to him, I simply wanted to give this candidate an opportunity to respond to the charges and let people get to know him because what I was hearing and seeing in print about him did not reflect the person that I came to know over the last 15 months or so. There have been a couple of other candidates that asked me to do this, we'll see if they still want to after listening. Remember, it was my first try, so cut me a little slack. We sat in Hobby Airport as I waited for my wife to return home - schedules are very tough and for this one at least, I thought it best that we do it in person. It is amazing how often the intercom at Hobby is utilized and you will hear background noise. As well, Chris has a very strong voice and I had no way to adjust the line level on the recorder I was using. Live and learn.

Secondly, here is the bottom line: if you want to be, as HCRP's Richard Dillon coined, a STAR by voting straight R, you can do so with a clear conscience that Chris Daniel is not going to be the worst thing that ever happened to Harris County. In fact, I'd bet money that in the end, people will be very pleased with his performance, so by all means, be a STAR.

One thing we didn't talk about because I don't find it particularly insightful are the actual duties of the office of District Clerk. If you do not know, here is a list of those duties as outlined by the Texas Association of Counties:

District Clerk

District clerks are called on to assure that the affairs of the district courts are maintained objectively with the full confidence of judicial authorities.

The Texas Government Code states the duties and powers of the clerk of the district court: "The clerk of the District Court has custody of and shall carefully maintain and arrange the records relating to or lawfully deposited in the clerk's office." The district clerk shall:

• Record the acts and proceedings of the district court;
• Enter all judgments of the court under the direction of the judge;
• Record all executions issued and the returns issued on the executions;
• Administer child support payments;
• Administer trust accounts for minors ordered by the courts;
• Keep an index of the parties to all suits filed in the court, and make reference to any judgment made in the case; and
• Keep an account of all funds collected by the office, by way of fines and fees, and the amount due jurors in district court for service.