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I just gave a passing glance to the story that Citibank was suing Dallas DA Craig Watson for $15,000 in credit card debt. Yep, credit card. Then I saw Watkins explanation on the Dallas Observer website.
Before Watkins became district attorney in 2007, his private law practice, bail bond company and real estate title company jointly ensured that his wallet was padded. His paycheck was relatively large, he says, and his lifestyle included proportional luxuries. He and his wife invested heavily in real estate. The $15,000 he owes Citibank was pocket change back then, he says, but things changed when he was elected district attorney.
His salary was slashed, and the real estate market took a nose-dive faster than his and his family's lifestyle could adjust. "I had three strings of income which are gone," Watkins says. "My lifestyle at the time correlated with those strings of income."
Baloney. Your lifestyle was disproportionate to your income. That's how you ended up with $15,000 in credit card debt.
Watkins was a spare defense lawyer in Dallas when he ran for DA on the Democratic ticket in 2006. In still one of the most shocking elections of all time, every incumbent Republican in Dallas County was thrown out of their county wide office and every Democrat won. For example, there were 41 county judicial races that all became Democrat. The DAs race was no different. Watson was no Super Lawyer with a big political machine behind him. It was demographics.
And, of course, he wouldn't have thrown his hat in the ring for his now paltry salary of ..........wait for it.......$187,666 a year (before perks.) And how's he supposed to pay off $15,000 after he has been in office for five years?
