HARRIS COUNTY, Texas – The final three weeks to the election are heating up in the Harris County District Attorney's race between incumbent Devon Anderson and challenger Kim Ogg.
Ogg has decided to take an investigation that you first saw on Channel 2 and make it her main attack against her opponent.
Meanwhile, Anderson said she doesn't play politics with this job.
"I'd like to tell Devon Anderson: jail is for rapists and other violent criminals. It's no place for innocent victims like my daughter," said a mother voting for Ogg in a new campaign ad.
That mother appears in a silhouette in the ad and is also the woman Channel 2 first profiled in July. She’s the mother of Jenny, a rape victim who was jailed after she had a mental breakdown while testifying against her attacker.
"I felt it was the easiest one which I could contrast and assure the public that if I'm elected DA, I would never use such tactics," Ogg said in an interview with Channel 2 on Tuesday. Such tactics "are not necessary and they are so harmful to real people."
Anderson responded in a separate interview that "If (Jenny) had been allowed to leave, the judge would have instructed the jury to find the defendant not guilty and he would have been back out on the street."
Anderson said if she could do it over again, she would have her office take more actions to protect Jenny.
When the story broke, Anderson initially stood by her prosecutor's decision. She said the trial against Jenny's rapist was going on around the holidays and he simply could not find a spot for Jenny to be housed.
3 weeks to go before election day! Have recent TV ads for the Harris County DA race swayed your vote for...
— Jake Reiner (@Reiner_Jake) October 18, 2016
"(The prosecutor) went ahead with the jailing option thinking and being assured that she was going to get mental health treatment in the mental health unit and that did not happen for whatever reason," Anderson said.
"I think Devon Anderson's jailing of an innocent rape victim, more than any other issue in the campaign, shows the difference between us as candidates," Ogg said.
Mark Jones is a political science fellow at Rice University. He says this race could be a toss up come Nov. 8.
"Harris County is the one county where countywide races are up for grabs and both the Democrat or Republican could conceivably win," Jones said, referring to the county's swing status.
Both candidates agree: they want voters to decide based on policies, records and judgment when they head to the polls in three weeks.
Ogg said she has a plan to save money if she is elected.
"I think we can do that from the district attorney's office by simply shifting the priorities off low-level drug offenders and onto high-prioritizing violent offenders," Ogg said. "This will make us safer."
Anderson counters by saying the county's top prosecutor can't pick and chose which laws she wants to go after.
"I follow the law and I think you have to have that as the district attorney," Anderson said. "I also don't play politics with this job and I think that's been very clear especially in the last year ... I'm willing to make tough decisions and I'm willing to follow the law even if it costs me politically and that is the kind of district attorney you need in Harris County."