{"id":26198,"date":"2017-11-15T19:48:31","date_gmt":"2017-11-15T19:48:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=26198"},"modified":"2017-11-15T19:49:15","modified_gmt":"2017-11-15T19:49:15","slug":"judicial-turnover-part-of-the-political-process","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=26198","title":{"rendered":"Judicial turnover: part of the political process"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Republicans in Congress aren’t the only politicians fleeing the unflinching glare of public service.<\/p>\n

About a half-dozen Texas Republicans have announced they won’t seek re-election. I think the total of GOP lawmakers who won’t seek re-election numbers more than 20. There’s a smattering of national Democrats, too, who are bailing out of Congress.<\/p>\n

Much closer to home, we’re seeing a similar exodus from the judicial bench. It’s producing the likelihood of a lively election season right here in Amarillo, Texas — in both Randall and Potter counties.<\/p>\n

The outbound lane extends as well to Amarillo’s municipal court, where Judge Sonya Letson — a former Potter County attorney — has announced her intention to enter “quasi-retirement.” There will be no election there, since the City Council appoints the municipal judge.<\/p>\n

But look at what’s occurring.<\/p>\n

* Randall County Court at Law No.2 Judge Ronnie Walker is bowing out. He attracted three GOP challengers before<\/em> he announced he wouldn’t seek another term, which makes me wonder: What did the judge do — or not do — to attract such a crowded field of challengers?<\/p>\n

* Potter County Court at Law No. 1 Judge Corky Roberts is retiring, too. A Republican primary field of replacement candidates is lining up to succeed him.<\/p>\n

* Potter County Court at Law No. 2 Judge Pam Sirmon is bailing out as well. Her office is likely to attract plenty of ballot action when the GOP primary occurs next spring.<\/p>\n

Even though I am not a big fan of electing judges — especially on partisan<\/em> ballots — I am going to be fascinated to see how this field of contenders will seek to say they are the best choices for voters.<\/p>\n

The rule of thumb in Texas has been — as I’ve witnessed it for more than 30 years covering these offices — that incumbents rarely draw opposition. When a vacancy occurs, then all bets are off.<\/p>\n

Many lawyers I’ve known over the years have aspired to be judges. One of the more interesting answers I ever got from a judicial candidate came from lawyer Ana Estevez, who was running for a district court judgeship in Amarillo. Estevez was born in South America. I mention that because I asked her about her political aspirations. “I can’t become the president of the United States,” she said, ” so I want to be named as a justice on the Supreme Court.”<\/p>\n

She is not bashful.<\/p>\n

Let the 2018 campaigning begin. I do love Election Season … even when it includes judge races.<\/p>\n\n

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Republicans in Congress aren’t the only politicians fleeing the unflinching glare of public service. About a half-dozen Texas Republicans have announced they won’t seek re-election. I think the total of GOP lawmakers who won’t seek re-election numbers more than 20. There’s a smattering of national Democrats, too, who are bailing out of Congress. Much closer … Continue reading Judicial turnover: part of the political process<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,14],"tags":[849,1941,2600],"class_list":["post-26198","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","category-political-news","tag-capitol-hill","tag-gop","tag-judicial-elections"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26198","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=26198"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26198\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26201,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26198\/revisions\/26201"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=26198"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=26198"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=26198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}