Marty Lancton - Harris County Judge Candidate (Republican) Joins Houston's Morning News

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Oh, I think this is the wrong kind of judge.

Speaker 2 (00:02):
Anyway.

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Seven twenty two is our time here in Houston's Barning News.
Marty Langdon has decided that he's going to throw his
fire helmet into the ring and run for Harris County judge.
He joins us here this morning, Good morning, Jimmy. Maybe
you could explain to me, Marty. I've never understood why
do we call it a judge. They're not in front
of a court of law, there is no jury. Why

(00:23):
do we call that position judge?

Speaker 3 (00:25):
I mean, that's a great question, that's great civics question,
you know. I mean, I think one would think that, ah,
the Harris County judge would be the adult in the
room and be able to solve the problems of Harris
County and so be able to call a ball a
ball and a strike a strike.

Speaker 2 (00:39):
But right now we know that's not happening.

Speaker 1 (00:41):
No, no, there's no there's no adult in the room
in much of Harris County government. Well, there's one adult
in the room, one of our our there is one,
one of our commissioners, for sure. Yeah, that's right. But
if everybody else is pretty much insane, So what made
you decide to get into this race, you know within
our next year name this is a very battle.

Speaker 2 (01:01):
Well, you know, I think a little bit differently.

Speaker 3 (01:04):
You know, I've had leaders within the party come to
me a couple of years ago and said, you don't
really need to think about this. We know your ties
with the community, we know the ties with Republican groups,
we know that your focus is on what is right.
And through a lot of thought and prayer over the years,
I said, and I believe that we have an opportunity
to change the way that Harris County is going. It's

(01:26):
going in the wrong direction and we need to go
ahead and fix it. And so what we need to
focus on are the things that Harris County actually is
supposed to take care of, which is public safety being
number one. And if you don't take care of the
first responders, the police, the sheriff's deputies, and the constables,
you're not going to have much else to take care

(01:46):
of if we don't take care of them. And of
course the firefighters out there that are saving lives. So
that's the first and foremost, and then you have to
deal with the blood mitigation, disaster response, emergency management, infrastructure,
and good and something that not a whole lot of
people talk about, but I will be talking about, which
is jobs in Harris County, good paying jobs. We have
port expansion going on, we've got businesses coming in, and

(02:10):
we've got to get good skilled training apprenticeships so that
we have these positions to get filled because right now
we don't have enough skilled labor to get him filled.

Speaker 1 (02:19):
A mattress back indorsement. That's always helpful, isn't it.

Speaker 2 (02:23):
Yes.

Speaker 3 (02:24):
You know what I said during our official campaign launch
was I've never met anybody, and I've known Mack for
a long time. I've never known somebody to work harder.
He gets up, he joked. While we were at our kickoff.
I said, I get up at four thirty every morning.
I don't know how you do it. He probably gets
up before me and he has more energy. And his
response was I've got a better mattress. So I said, well,

(02:44):
that'll end up on YouTube.

Speaker 2 (02:46):
So, but you know, I've.

Speaker 3 (02:48):
Never seen a world where anytime somebody in the community
has needed something, he always first pick up the phone.
So he cuts through the red tape and he gets
the help where it needs to be. And that's what
we have to focus on in Harris County. We've got
to fix the problems. We've got to be transparent about
the taxpayer dollars. And I don't know if you know
my history. I'm not afraid of a good fight, and

(03:08):
I know that the old guard political establishment, I've taken
them on in one and we're gonna do the same
thing here in Harris County.

Speaker 2 (03:14):
Oh.

Speaker 1 (03:14):
I'm glad to hear that, because we certainly need to
get this county straight down.

Speaker 2 (03:17):
That's for sure now.

Speaker 1 (03:18):
One of the areas that obviously the current judge, Lena
Hildago has basically been saying that, you know, she can't
run the county without raising property taxes. She can't provide
raises for police and fire without a property tax increase.
I'm assuming you disagree with that. I disagree with that.

Speaker 3 (03:35):
I've heard that narrative for a long time, and through
our eight year battle all the way to Texas Supreme
Court to take care of our first responders.

Speaker 2 (03:42):
I don't buy into any of that.

Speaker 3 (03:44):
If somebody doesn't know how to balance the budget and
they don't know how to make the priorities of what
county government and your tax dollars are supposed to go
to They don't need to be there. And that's why
I'm running for Harris County Judge and that's why we're
going to fix this.

Speaker 1 (03:55):
All right, Marty, We wish you all the best and
I'm sure we'll talk to you many times between now
and election day. Thank you for your time this morning.
We appreciate it, welcome looking forward to it.

Speaker 2 (04:03):
Thanks you.

Speaker 1 (04:04):
Bet Body Langton with a firefighters shooting and he is
running for Harris County Judge seven twenty six