Democrat candidate for sheriff Willie Tompkins, who has been offered numerous attempts to come on this show, implies his opponent Parnell McNamara is unfit to be sheriff. 

Why?  His great uncle was police chief at the time of Jesse Washington lynching in Waco.  In 1916!

Tompkins also challenged one of McNamara’s political assets — his family’s long law enforcement history — by noting his great uncle was Waco police chief in 1916 during the infamous Jesse Washington lynching. 

“Mr. McNamara knows that he’s not qualified,” Tompkins said. “He’s been riding on his name for years.”

Oh.  So we're all responsible for what our ancestors did or did not do nearly 100 years ago?  Have any of Mr. Tompkins ancestors ever done anything bad?  My ancestors owned slaves.  What does Mr. Tompkins make of that? 

(In fairness, the implication about McNamara's great uncle is not a direct quote rather a Trib account of what he said.  So I'll give him the benefit of the doubt if he wants to correct any of this.)

The implication here is the current McNamara is hanging on to the coattails of a family that helped inflict so much pain on the black community in McLennan County.  As if that's the family's mission! 

If that's the kind of logic Mr. Tompkins is going to use, that we're somehow currently responsible for what our lineage did 96 years ago, then he's the one who's not fit to be sheriff.