He says he’s in it to win.

District 18 State Rep. Terry Harrison, D-McAlester, says he is going to be a candidate in 2010 for the District 18 district attorney’s post, which covers Pittsburg and Haskell counties.

As a result of his decision, Harrison said he will not seek re-election to the state House seat he’s held for the past seven years.

However, Harrison said he will complete his current two-year term in the state legislature, which extends through next year.

If he is elected to the district attorney’s office, Harrison would become the DA for Pittsburg and Haskell counties in January 2011 — which would be after his current two-year House term has ended.

“Obviously, I made a commitment to the voters of House District 18,” Harrison said.

“I take that commitment seriously and I’m going to finish the job.”

Still, he’s excited about his upcoming race for DA. Harrison, who will have served as the District 18 representative for eight years by the time his current term ends, has never lost a race.

Although he faced a tough contest in winning the House seat in his first campaign, no one has stepped forward to challenge him in the last two election cycles.

Harrison’s decision not to seek re-election to the House seat he currently holds is expected to result in a flurry of activity among potential candidates for that post.

Meanwhile, Harrison said he will be ready for whoever he might face as an opponent for the district attorney’s office.

“I’m serious about winning this,” Harrison said. “I’ve never lost an election and I’m going to work hard to win.”

Harrison said he has been asked by many people to run for the district attorney’s post — everyone from business people and blue collar workers, to law enforcement officers at the local, county, state and federal levels.

“I want every law enforcement agency in Pittsburg County to be on the same page as the DA’s office, for maybe the first time in a decade,” Harrison said. “We all want to stop crime and put bad people in jail.

“There is a lot of animosity between the DA’s office and law enforcement,” Harrison said. “I’m here to bring everyone back together.”

He won’t be facing an incumbent in his campaign for the District 18 district attorney’s post.

Incumbent District 18 District Attorney Jim Bob Miller has been prohibited from running for election in 2010 through a deferred prosecution agreement Miller made with state Attorney General Drew Edmondson’s office.

Miller agreed not to run for another term and the attorney general agreed not to prosecute him. The agreement did not require Miller to resign.

The agreement became known in early September after a state Multicounty Grand Jury completed its probe into allegations of misconduct by Miller’s office.

Allegations against Miller concerned his attempts to subpoena identifying records of up to 35 bloggers who had posted comments critical of him on the McAlester Watercooler Web site.

To settle the state’s concerns, the attorney general’s office agreed to a deferred prosecution on a charge of “common barratry,” attorney general’s spokesman Charlie Price said at the time. “Common barratry” is defined by law “as exciting groundless judicial proceedings.”

While Harrison said he plans to be tough on career criminals and violent offenders, he said there may be better alternatives for some lawbreakers than going to prison.

“If they’re mean, if they’re career criminals, if they’re violent, they’re the ones we need to put into prison for a long time. There are a certain amount of criminals that way,” Harrison said.

But there are other criminals who have an addiction, he noted.

“They steal to feed that addiction,” said Harrison.

Many of those who are addicted — as well as society as a whole — could be better served by getting them treatment, rehabilitation or into a drug court program, rather than simply locking them up, he said.

Breaking the cycle of addiction can lead to breaking the cycle of crime in many cases, Harrison contended.

Harrison said he doesn’t know of many cases of people kicking in back doors because they’re too lazy to work — but it’s happened many times by people trying to steal something so they can buy drugs.

“You do whatever it takes to stop that addiction,” he said.

Harrison said his wife, McAlester attorney Amy Harrison, will be his campaign chairman and his mother, Charla Faye Harrison, will be his campaign treasurer.

Amy Harrison said campaigning for the district attorney’s office shouldn’t distract her husband from his state House duties, because House members are usually campaigning for re-election every two years anyway.

Terry Harrison concedes that many political observers considered his House seat to be “safe” — meaning he probably could have been re-elected until term limits in 2014 would have prohibited him from running again.

Harrison said he doesn’t believe he should have held onto the seat just because he could.

“Just because it’s ‘safe’ doesn’t mean it’s the right thing to do,” he said.

“Often, the right thing to do is outside your comfort zone.”

Harrison said family factors were also a major influence on his decision to run for district attorney. He and Amy have two sons, Carson and Nathaniel, and are expecting a third child in February.

Both his parents live in Pittsburg County and Amy’s father, Allan Mitchell, works with them in the Harrison Law Firm.

Harrison is well aware that he will have to give up his practice in the law firm if he becomes district attorney. He said his wife and her father will continue to operate the Harrison Law Firm.

Harrison also referred to his perception of the current situation in the state legislature.

“I am so tired of party politics,” said Harrison, who is the minority whip in the House.

“When I was first elected as a state legislator, you never heard me say ‘Democrat’ or ‘Republican.’ Right was right and wrong was wrong.”

The Democratic Party is now in the minority in the state House.

“The last legislative sessions have been brutal — having the Republican agenda pushed down our throat,” Harrison said.

He said he’s ready for things to look “black and white again” — not colored by the political battles in the state legislature.

“You either broke the law or you didn’t,” said Harrison, about his “black and white” reference.

Harrison said he figures if he’s going to have to spend so much of his time arguing, he might as well do it prosecuting criminals — not arguing with the other party in the state Legislature.

“At the end of the day, the bad guy is in jail,” Harrison said.

Harrison said that he wants the same thing that most Pittsburg County residents want — he wants the county to be as safe and free from crime as possible.

After all, Harrison noted, he and his family live here too.

“I have a vested interest in it,” he said.



Contact James Beaty at jbeaty@mcalesternews.com.