The Republican candidates for Harris County District Attorney went head-to-head in a debate sponsored by KHOU.com, the South Texas College of Law and the Harris County Criminal Lawyers Association.

Some of the questions asked in the debate came straight from KHOU.com users.

The downfall of the last DA cast a long shadow over the debate. Kelly Siegler, a 21-year prosecutor and the only current employee of the district attorney’s office was, at times, put on the defensive, especially when opponent Jim Leitner suggested that division heads, such as Siegler, also needed to leave the DA’s office in the wake of the e-mail scandal that forced Chuck Rosenthal to resign.

 “(To suggest that) all the prosecutors that have been doing the same thing I have for years, with low pay and low respect, we need to go because of what chuck Rosenthal did is ridiculous,” Siegler fired back after Leitner’s comments.

Criminal Court Judge Pat Lykos, a former HPD officer who worked her way thru college and laws school, argued to preserve all DA office e-mails

“They should never be deleted since they are government records,” she said.

And all of the candidates agreed that an independent investigation into the DA e-mail scandal should be conducted.

But the debate was more than just the e-mails.

Just last week an 11 News investigation revealed grand jury's are overwhelming white and the DA’s office had been submitting names for potential grand jurors to judges.

“It’s the intolerable DA office even involved in the picking and choosing of who is going to be grand jurors,” said Leitner.

Leitner, a former prosecutor and criminal defense attorney, and Lykos insisted the current system can work if executed properly.

Siegler and Doug Perry favor copying the federal model, which subpoenas grand jurors to serve.

Perry, a Houston Police Department captain and civil attorney used the debate to push for better communication with Harris County residents.

“(I would) immediately start a public information office to get out real time information,” he said. “All of the guidelines of our sentencing decisions, pretrial diversion will all be made public.”

Lykos did get a dig in at Siegler, who said she dismissed a black juror, not for his race but for his church. 

“I will not tolerate slurs on anyone’s congregations of faith to justify a preemptory strike,” Lykos said of a case in which Siegler asked for a juror to be struck because members of Lakewood Church were "screwballs and nuts."

The debate was an hour long and wide ranging in topics and everyone held their own.

Leitner concluded by noting Democrats turned out 5-to-1 on the first day of early voting Tuesday

He said the biggest issue for those at the debate was who can beat Democrat C.O. Bradford in the general election.

Incidentally, Bradford was invited to be a part of the debate, but as has been his custom, he declined.

For a profile of each of the candidates seeking office, click on their photos below:

Kelly Siegler, Republican

Doug Perry, Republican

Pat Lykos, Republican

Jim Leitner, Republican

C.O. "Brad" Bradford, Democrat