I’ve never been a big fan of electing judges, but that’s what we do in Texas.

Today’s runoff for the Texas Supreme Court offers a Grade A example of why it’s a bad idea. Rick Green, a former legislator from Dripping Springs with no judicial experience, is running against Debra Lehrmann, a 22-year veteran of the bench from Fort Worth. Why this contest even went to a runoff is beyond me.

These two candidates were the top two finishers in a crowded Republican primary; Justice Harriett O’Neill is retiring at the end of her term, thus the open seat brought out a number of challengers.

Green arguably may have been the least qualified of the bunch, but here he is in the runoff.

Texans have been watching over many election cycles good judicial candidates getting beat by inferior opponents for a number of reasons that have nothing to do with qualifications. Most of them have lost because merely because they’re Democrats, which is the curse of political death in such a Republican-leaning state. Others have lost because they have “foreign-sounding” surnames; that’s been the case in Republican primaries.

Electing judges is the Texas way. But surely we need to do a better job of educating ourselves as to the qualifications and philosophy of those who seek to do the serious job of adminstering justice in a fair and impartial manner.