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      December 30, 2005

      December 17, 2005

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 SARAH ECKHARDT

Candidate for Travis County Commissioners Court, Precinct 2

 Texan, Multi-Tasker, Student of the Law and Theater

Sarah Eckhardt is living a legacy with roots deep in Texas soil, one that begins with a German family coming ashore at Galveston in the early 1800s. One member of the family became a cattleman associated with the King Ranch. Eckhardt’s grandfather, a physician, practiced in Austin, where her father, labor lawyer, state legislator and U.S. Representative Bob Eckhardt, was born in the family home at 28th and San Gabriel streets.

 Her mother, Austin resident and memoirist Nadine Eckhardt, worked in the State Legislature and for Lyndon Baines Johnson during his U.S. Senate years.

 Sarah Eckhardt was born in Houston, where her father served the 8th Congressional District.

 After school in Houston, she moved to Manhattan, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in fine arts from New York University and worked as a professional theater artist in the company founded by Pulitzer Prize-winning author David Mamet and Academy Award-winning actor W.H. Macy. At the same time, she was owner and manager of the successful NYC bistro Nadine’s Restaurant (named for her mother).

 In 1994, she returned to Texas and earned a master’s degree at the University of Texas LBJ School of Public Affairs and a degree at the UT School of Law — both in the same year. While studying law, she took part in the Juvenile Public Defenders Clinic and raised funds for legal public service internships through Texas Law Fellowships. 

 For eight years, as a prosecutor in the Travis County Attorney’s Office, she represented the State of Texas in many cases involving DWI, theft, drug possession, assault, family violence, protective order violations, mental health commitments, environmental enforcement, animal cruelty and neglect, and bond forfeitures.

 One case concerned the Austin Independent School District falsifying 1998 school ratings. Many of her cases were family violence cases that included pursuing civil protective orders for the victims as well as criminal convictions and counseling for the perpetrators. Recently her cases have involved a new strategy for the collection of bond forfeitures that brought Travis County more than $3 million in three years. 

 Eckhardt’s latest project is producer-manager-performer for Texas Folklife Resources’ pilot production of “Border Radio,” a live musical variety radio show that included Rick Trevino, Kinky Friedman and Lavelle White and is expected to air as a series on public radio.

 Eckhardt is married to Kurt Sauer, a lawyer and her best friend. They have two children, Hank and Nadine, who keep them hopping, laughing and learning. She expects they’ll live in Travis County for the rest of their lives and hopes the children will make it their adult home.

 On Dec. 1, 2005, Eckhardt honored her late father with a fund-raiser, co-hosted by Sissy Farenthold, for The Committee on Texas Natural Resources to noted his environmental impact as a member of the Texas Legislature and as a U.S. Congressman, such as authoring the Open Beaches Bill and championing the creation of the Big Thicket National Preserve.

 For more information, visit www.saraheckhardt.com.

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