Brad Woodard's interview with Rosenthal

Harris County District Attorney Chuck Rosenthal rejected calls by the county Republican Party to give up his 2008 re-election campaign because of a scandal over affectionate e-mails he sent to his secretary.

“I’m going to run for district attorney and I am going to win,” Rosenthal said.

Fifteen members of the Harris County Republican party’s Advisory Committee voted unanimously on Sunday to urge Rosenthal to withdraw from the March 4 GOP primary.

“The consensus was this is a position of high trust, and when this position is questioned, when this position is breached, we feel like it’s important that we make a change,” said Harris County Republican Chairman Jared Woodfill.

KHOU-TV

District Attorney Chuck Rosenthal

Rosenthal didn’t know if he would have an opponent in the Republican primary.

“I certainly hope not. I don’t think they’ve got anybody with the qualifications to run against me,” he said.

The party has contacted about 10 potential candidates, Woodfill said.

He refused to name the potential candidates but said he is certain one or more challengers will register before Wednesday’s deadline.

Woodfill said Rosenthal had made a serious error in judgment and called the e-mails horrible.

E-mails from Rosenthal to his secretary, Kerry Stevens, surfaced last week as part of a federal civil rights lawsuit against the Harris County Sheriff’s Office.

They contain the phrase “I love you” more than a dozen times, and Rosenthal asks Stevens to let him hold her.

“The very next time I see you, I want to kiss you behind your right ear,” Rosenthal wrote Stevens in an e-mail dated Aug. 10, 2007.

“I always want to see you,” Rosenthal wrote in another e-mail. “You own my heart whether you want or not.”