I want to raise an issue that I have bitched about for years, but which needs further bitching from me.
It deals with the partisan election of judges in Texas. Yes, judicial candidates in this state run as Democrats and Republicans. They donât run necessarily on their judicial philosophy, which should be the determining factor on whether to elect these men and women. Oh, no. They run as partisan politicians.
For the life of me I do not understand why we cannot shed the party labels for judicial candidates.
For nearly four decades watching Texas politics up close and personal I have seen fine men and women drummed out of office because they were of the âwrong party,â or the party that wasnât in control of the political landscape. Good Republican judges and candidates would lose to inferior Democratic opponents in the old days because they ran as members of the âoutâ party. Then the tide turned in Texas and we have watched qualified Democratic judges and judicial candidates losing to numbskull Republicans for the same reason; Republicans dominate politics in this state and Democrats are still trying to get a foothold.
I have asked judges and those who want to be judges a question ever since I arrived in Texas in early 1984: What is the difference between Democratic justice and Republican justice?
So help me, I cannot remember a single cogent answer to that question. Not a single judge or judicial contender has been able to answer that one for me. I hope during the upcoming election season to be able to ask future candidates for judicial office that question.
Judicial candidates should run on their philosophy and how they interpret the law. I am not a lawyer, but I know enough to be able to discern the difference between a liberal judicial candidate and a conservative one. Whether those differences comport with partisan labels is utterly beside the point.
I know full well my argument wonât hold much sway with those in power. I will keep harping on it, though, until I no longer can harp on anything. Texasâs partisan election of judges does not do justice to the judicial system.
John,
I share your passion on this issue. Itâs for this reason that I have taken the first of two steps to get my name on the November 2022 ballot as an Independent for the position of Chief Justice of the First Court of Appeals in Houston. That first step was to file a declaration of intent to run with the Secretary of State. That had to done to be done by December 13th.
The second step is harder. I need to collect 500 signatures from registered voters who did not vote in the 2022 primary elections. I canât begin collecting signatures until the day after the primary elections. And then I have a little over 100 days to get it done.
The laws are set up to make it very difficult to get on the ballot as an Independent. I believe the last time anyone ran as an Independent for an appellate-court bench in Texas was 1990. I donât think itâs ever been done in Houston.
Anyway, it is absolutely stupid that judges are Democrats or Republicans. My quest may be a quixotic one, but I at least want to bring this issue to light.
Also, I am taking no money from anyone. Judges taking money is absolutely gross.
This is all about trying to change the system.
Good luck, Ted, in your quest to bring sanity to our judicial election system.