Your Dallas County DA Wants You to Know She's Ready — to Talk, and to Run Again

One thing you can say about Faith Johnson is that she's ready to fight for her job.It wasn't long after Dallas County's new district attorney read my column about a Democratic challenger — former state District Judge John Creuzot — lining up to run against her that she had her staff contact me.She wanted to talk.Hang on. This isn't inside baseball.This is evidence of an entirely different ballgame than we've been exposed to in recent years from a DA's office embroiled in one controversy after another, from the end of Democrat Craig Watkins' tumultuous final days through Republican Susan Hawk's rocky 20 months at the helm.In both cases, we grew accustomed to phone calls not returned and aides dodging sensitive questions.So it's refreshing to know that Johnson, who vowed to be a transparent public figure when she was sworn in last month as Gov. Greg Abbott's pick to finish Hawk's term, was unhappy my messages didn't get to her."I never want people to ever think they can't contact me," Johnson said. "I don't refuse to talk to the media at all. Sometimes it's good, sometime's it's bad, but I have an open-door policy ... a commitment to be transparent."And with that, Johnson, 66, and I talked at length Thursday about her future prospects as DA in a county dominated by Democrats for more than a decade.Here, again, is where Johnson is a breath of fresh air.  Continue reading...