Usually, the Republican Party sticks together through thick and thin. The e-mail scandal involving District Attorney Chuck Rosenthal has unified many in the party.

Just not the way Rosenthal would have hoped.

"It's disturbing,” said former district judge and district attorney candidate Pat Lykos.

"Chuck should resign,” writes another district attorney candidate and former prosecutor Jim Leitner.

“Clearly very disturbing,” exclaimed Harris County Tax Assessor/Collector Paul Bettencourt.

“We just can't stand for this kind of cancer to grow on county government. It must be cut out,” said county judge candidate Charles Baccarise. "I believe that he has lost the moral and ethical responsibility to continue the duties of his office."

Even County Judge Ed Emmett is demanding Rosenthal step down.

Beyond the calls for immediate resignation, there is now an official investigation into the use of county computers to send, forward and pass along sexually explicit, racially insensitive material as well as the use of county equipment to conduct political campaign business.

Leitner is the only Republican who filed to run for district attorney before the original deadline. That means he could file a lawsuit to put Rosenthal back on the ballot.

That could essentially put him in a better position politically.

“I absolutely don't want to do anything that hurts and causes any more hurt than we have already had to suffer,” Leitner said. “So I have not made a decision.”

Lykos is committed to staying in the race. She has run for the office before, losing to Rosenthal in the GOP primary.

“There is a pall over the office and that is why you need outside changes,” Lycos said. “I am going to transform the district attorney’s office and make it the best in the nation.”

So, what about the Democrats?

They think this scandal could expose many other Republican office holders.

“It reinforces this perception that has been out there for some time that there is an arrogance of power of those who have been in power for a long time,” said Gerry Birnberg, the chairman of the Harris County Democratic Party.

A growing chorus is calling for an end to Rosenthal's power long before Election Day.

The Democrats are also contemplating a lawsuit in an attempt to remove Kelly Siegler and Lykos from the GOP ballot. They claim Rosenthal’s withdrawal from the race was not legal because his resignation letter was not notarized.

Interestingly, a key figure in the race for district attorney has remained mostly silent through all of this. That is former Houston Police Chief C.O. Bradford, who will be the Democratic Party’s nominee for the post in the November general election.

He seems to be following an age-old political idea that if the incumbent and his or her party is taking a beating stay out of the way.