As weve discussed, there is consistently a three-to-four point range between the top-scoring Democratic judicial candidate and the lowest-scoring one. Hidalgo trailed Beto by six points in HD133 and seven in HD134. HD145 30.61% 66.55% 2.83% 0.01% Not much else to say at this time for 2024, but I will note that at least some of the Democratic judges whose election is being challenged by a sore loser are raising funds for their legal defense. I think the Trib story contains the most relevant bit of information: The Election Day problems were unlikely to have been substantial enough to swing the results of the Harris County judges race, according to Bob Stein, a political science professor at Rice University. Judge Singh is represented by Anthony Drumheller. Its still super early, there will be plenty more where this came from. Judicial Candidate Petitions; Certain judicial candidates in Bexar, Dallas, Harris, Tarrant and Travis must file additional petitions (PDF). HD141 18.77% 81.23% Christian 181,355 319,465 36.86% 53.91%, Candidates Houston Not Hou Hou% Not% CC3 226,675 133,751 Houston furniture magnate Jim Mattress Mack McIngvalehas filed a lawsuit against the Harris County Elections Administrators office accusing it of refusing to turn over public records related to theNovember 2022 election, adding to an array of GOP litigationaimed at the countys elections process. HD141 20.56% 79.37% 0.07% A study funded by the Texas Indigent Defense Commission in 2015concludedthat attorneys could only reasonably handle at most 128 felonies or 226 misdemeanors a year. Experts cited myriad reasons for the continued silence around the case: The FBI search may have yielded no evidence, indictments could be sealed, the case could still be developing or there may have been delays because law enforcement did not want to interfere with the recent November elections. Basically, the discussion was going on in consideration of the ordinance that had been passed by the City Council of Killeen and the actions of the result of that particular vote, Bell County District Attorney Henry Garza told the Herald. HD137 40.29% 59.71% Vacancy of the Hon. HD150 60.64% 37.11% 2.25% Experience: Sherlene Cruz has worked 16 years in the criminal justice system. The debate is about the extent, not the existence. The 2022 Texas Primary Election is fast approaching. JP8 59.30% 37.90% 2.80%, Dist Paxton Garza Lib TPR has more. HD131 6,091 25,170 Whitmire drew a two-year term, and Zaffirni drew a four-year term. Now you can just go somewhere else. HD150 35,089 21,326 HD133 36,406 22,666 Activists in Harker Heights, which is also in Bell County, are planning to force another vote on the issue, though that may wind up being moot, depending on how this goes. The HBA presents the results of its 2019 Judicial Evaluation Questionnaire below. I dont think well face that kind of concentrated spending in 2024, but it will be a Presidential year, so anything goes. Phelan ruled in favor of Geren both times. I Am Not A Lawyer, but I dont know offhand of any successful recent efforts to split up a ballot proposition like this. Ive heard reports of machines that didnt work, ballot shortages, voting locations suddenly closing. CC4 115,688 120,613 JP5 147,814 135,680 Democrats would still be running the elections. Stones letter agreed with that assessment and accused San Antonio officials of abuse[ing] their discretion by certifying and including this charter amendment on the ballot., In awritten responseto TALs petition Tuesday, Segovia defended his decision to place the amendment on the ballot as written because city officials plausibly read the proposed charter amendment language to encompass only one subject as required by statute.. Im sure each and every one of you are happy with what you drew, right? Lt. Gov. That is nonsense and not our job.. Third, I kind of suspect that in the same way that the TEA probably doesnt actually want to take over HISD, the SOS probably wants no part of administering Harris County elections. Luong then practiced law with two civil trial law firms in Houston. JUDICIAL PRIMARY RACES. CC4 114,966 121,049 5,955 Im going to look back at the four most recent elections to see if we can put some numbers on that. On Friday the anti-abortion group Texas Alliance for Life Inc. (TAL) filed a petition requesting that the city reject the proposed ballot language, which it says violates astate lawprohibiting multi-subject charter amendments, and require each issue to be listed and voted on separately. The best the Uvalde parents can hope for is a state ban on straw-person sales, which is already a federal crime. You may have heard me say something like this in the past, but were going to have to change our state government if we want things like this to go differently in the future. Now, given the vast sum of money spent by wingnut richies to smear Democratic judges, it may be that was at least as big a challenge as undervoting was. Were still working on the first part of that equation. Its rattlesnake season in Texas. Not enough to swing any individual district only the two swing Commissioners Court precincts are that close to begin with, and the Dems prevailed in all three races here anyway. This was an interesting year for multiple reasons the first non-Presidential election since the huge shift towards Democrats in 2018, the first time these judicial incumbents were running for re-election, tons of money being spent by Republicans and their backers to smear Criminal Court judges, the high-profile County Judge race that was closely tied to that same campaign spending, the first non-Presidential year with no straight-ticket voting, coming in a year with the extra-long ballot and so on. HD142 27.56% 72.44% CC3 227,110 133,538 At this point, three months out, they seem as plausible as Bigfoot sightings, but lets take Cindy Siegel at her word and assume the existence of 2600 actual people who were actually unable to cast a ballot on Election Day. In a statement, Menefee confirmed his office will file a lawsuit against Hegar. Education: Texas A&M University-College Station and South Texas College of Law-Houston, LEARN MORE ABOUT THE CANDIDATES RUNNING FOR TEXAS GOVERNOR, LEARN MORE ABOUT THE CANDIDATES RUNNING FOR TEXAS ATTORNEY GENERAL. Judges cant take pro bono help to defend selves. The Bell County attorney is authorized to file suit against the city of Killeen and its agents to enforce Texas Local Government Code section 370.003 by seeking declaratory relief in district court against the city of Killeens actions as unconstitutional; and seeking injunctive relief in district court against the city of Killeen from enforcing either the special order or ordinance; and seeking injunctive relief against the city of Killeen from punishing police officers for enforcing marijuana laws under the Health and Safety Code, Penal Code, and Code of Criminal Procedure, according to the authorization. A native Houstonian, Jen graduated from Barnard College at Columbia University and earned a master's degree from University of Texas at Austin's LBJ School of Public Affairs. In 2017, Cruz was recruited to be one of the founding attorneys in the Harris County Public Defenders Office Bail Hearing Division. Many millions of dollars in advertising was able to move the needle a bit in a handful of races, but thats it. It would also ostensibly ban the use of chokeholds by police, ban the use of no-knock warrants, create additional requirements to obtain a search warrant, and remove the officers discretion in whether to issue a citation or arrest for some low-level crimes. HD126 63.64% 36.36% Thats too many cases for one lawyer to handle, Harris County chief public defenderAlex Buninsaid of Ortizs caseload. Experience: Hilary Unger worked more than two-and-a-half decades as an Assistant District Attorney, as a public defender, and as a private attorney in both New York and Texas where she helped economically-disadvantaged clients. We have 26-pay-period accounting and Comptroller Hegar should know that, the judge said. Stones letterdisagreed, and asked the Texas Supreme Court to take swift action against the proposal in its entirety. HD129 61.26% 38.72% 0.02% Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. HD150 60.90% 39.10% HD131 6,114 24,275 906 It is fair. When this happened, there was a lot of talk at the federal level about making changes, so we really hit the ground running toward that. HD144 12,051 13,606 In Chambers and Liberty, anything we can do to help slow down the small but steady Republican advantage will help. JP3 34,843 42,072 1,833 HD137 35.76% 61.22% 3.02% HD135 17,148 22,783 We need to turn that around. Experience: Linda Mazzagatti worked for seven years as the Harris County Assistant District Attorney. There were more people who skipped these races than did so for Railroad Commissioner, the last of the statewide executive offices, but not that much more. HD127 60.47% 37.36% 2.18% While in her private practice she was chosen as a Texas Super Lawyers Rising Star in 2017 and 2018. JP5 50.61% 47.07% 2.32% Beto versus Abbott I dont know if we will get Constable/JP redistricting, but there are always some interesting primary contests here, and even with the same maps we could have interesting November races in Precincts 4 and 5. The other difference is that the surplus in Harris and Fort Bend far exceeded the deficit from the eight bad counties, and all ten candidates won. This means I will need to stay vigilant for future references to his possible candidacy. Democrats in the state are also watching Rep. Colin Allred (D-Texas); state senator Roland Gutierrez, who represents Uvalde, the town devastated by a school shooting; and state Rep. James Talarico, who sparred with Fox News host Pete Hegseth in 2021, according to a Texas Democratic strategist. No matter how you get there, bullshit still walks. HD130 46,145 18,886 963 5 JP3 36,215 40,683 If theres collateral damage, so be it. Every two years, the HBA conducts a Judicial Evaluation Questionnaire, in which members are asked to evaluate elected and appointed judges on a number of professional and ethical questions, based on personal, firsthand knowledge. HD133 34,548 25,581 About 40K people on average skipped these three races, compared with a bit less than 23K for RRC. HD129 58.28% 38.03% 2.50% 1.19% CC4 113,958 122,094 4,918 8 See here for the background. Experience:Kate Ferrell entered private practice in 2016 and worked as an associate attorney before opening The Law Office of Kate Ferrell. Nelson was promoted to Chief Prosecutor in both misdemeanor and felony divisions, where she supervised junior Assistant District Attorneys and had a caseload of serial Sexual Assaults, Capital Murders, Injury to Child (fatality), and Murders. JP4 57.09% 39.45% 2.41% 1.05% County races appear towards the bottom of the ballot, after all of the federal and state races. Theres no overall downward trend. 2023-301111; Will Archer v. Judge James Horwitz. This story is mostly about Ted Cruz and whether he might run for President again in 2024; the tone of the story is that he probably wont. JP2 21,364 29,906 1,317 HD127 40,530 24,529 JP8 49,209 27,703 And if I flap my arms and think happy thoughts, I could fly. CC1 71,640 196,243 6,241 17 Paxton encouraged his supporters to launch a pressure campaign and flood the court with calls and emails demanding,unsuccessfully, thatthey reverse the decision. In 2022, the county passed a shortened seven-month budget that was in effect until the new schedule began in October. For context, here are the Harris County turnout numbers from the last three open Mayoral races: I should note that in 2003 there was the Metro referendum, and in 2015 there was the (unfortunate and infuriating) HERO repeal referendum, in addition to four Harris County ballot propositions. In the Texas 2022 gubernatorial race, Democrat Beto O'Rourke holds an 8% lead over Republican Greg Abbott among Harris County likely voters (50% to 42%, with 7% undecided). Harris County 482nd Criminal District Court Judge: Democratic challengers Sherlene Cruz, Alycia Harvey and Veronica Nelson. Dist Mealer Hidalgo W-I The initiative follows the Gallery Furniture ownerslawsuit filed last weekaccusing the Harris County Elections Administrators Office of refusing to turn over public records related to the election. The Rutherford County Commissioner Craig Harris announced Judge McFarlin's retirement plans in a letter during Thursday night's commission meeting. Thats exactly what happened in 2020, as noted above. Cities can only nibble around the edges of that, and at their own peril in a state like Texas. After a minute, I decided to go with the obvious, which was to separate the counties into those that are good for the Dems and those that are not, and see what that told me. HD148 45.64% 54.36% Greg Abbott on Nov. 8. The website, called Hard to Vote, leads with a recorded message from McIngvale: Do you believe you were denied the opportunity to vote in the November 2022 election? HD146 23.77% 76.21% 0.03% I think the methodology will be clear. CC3 63.17% 36.83% Its certainly possible that these laws arent as good at actually suppressing the vote as theyre intended to, but thats beside the point. Briones 819,495 331,782 0 667,234 At this level, this is just weird. HD137 8,017 12,261 612 350 She has 32 years of experience in Harris County, state, and federal criminal and civil courts and has presented thousands of cases to citizens on grand juries. Each of them should be deeply embarrassed and these claims should not be taken seriously by the public, said Harris County Attorney Christian D. Menefee. JP1 30.69% 66.39% 2.92% Lets make this happen. HD150 62.32% 37.68% Looking at what Ive written here, I need to do a post about third party votes, too. CC3 214,555 146,441 8,815 HD143 8,631 15,710 The 2022 Tennessee gubernatorial election was held on November 8, 2022, to elect the governor of Tennessee. But we have a public defender now, and yet we still have judges who make a whole lot of appointments to the same handful of attorneys. Which comes back to the budget question. Download this stock image: FILE -Pam Gaskin talks about her mail-in primary election ballot at her home Monday, Jan. 31, 2022, in Missouri City, Texas. Miller 184,139 324,228 37.39% 54.64% Beto versus Abbott Sherman Eagleton, Constable Precinct 3 Judge Craft is represented by Steve Kherker. Solicitor General Judd Stone submitted a letter to the court Wednesday callingthe proposala grab-bag of provisions that flagrantly violates a state law prohibiting multi-subject charter amendments. Honestly, I have no problem with what was passed. HD134 34.64% 63.12% 2.24% HD143 8,856 14,935 These are nuisance suits but the Judges and Lina have had to hire attorneys to represent them against the claims. If the margin is 60-40, the net gain is about 500 votes. CD38 66.07% 33.91% 0.02% ============================= The Evaluation opened on Nov. 1 and closed on Nov. 19. We have definitely seen races like this, certainly in elections going back to 2016 Hillary versus Trump, Biden versus Trump, Beto and the Lite Guv/AG/Ag Commish triumvirate this year and 2018. JP1 34.60% 63.28% 2.12% 0.01% ============================== Like Castro, Allred is in a (now, post-redistricting) blue district and hes building up seniority while also being seen as a rising star within the party. Texas Republicans spent most of the 2021 legislative session focusing on election security and this year, its a top priority for them again. JP1 58,125 125,740 5,522 HD137 7,704 13,091 643 Adrian Garcia, County Commissioner, Precinct 2 3. A person close to former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julin Castro said that he is weighing a run. (*as of 12/5/2021), Education: University of Houston and South Texas College of Law. So if I understand this correctly, the Elections Office could provide these documents on demand, but legally they dont have to until they get an opinion on it from the AGs office. HD133 57.46% 42.54% HD137 8,207 13,090 "If it was just mismanagement, it was just gross incompetence, wouldn't one think that the lack of paper would apply equally and uniformly across the map, so that there would be roughly an equivalent number of Democratic stronghold precinct neighborhoods as well as Republican precinct stronghold neighborhoods?" Dade Phelan had never met them. Results of the 2021 Judicial Evaluation Questionnaire. TEXAS SUPREME COURT, PLACE 3. We have until noon on Tuesday to respond to the Texas Supreme Court. Marilyn Burgess, District Clerk Appeals 520,019 549,533 48.62% 51.38% McTorry served in the Special Crimes Unit as an elite member of the Human Trafficking Division and Sex Crimes Division. Breaking it down this way revealed three things to me that I might not have noticed otherwise. What will it take to keep those ten appellate court benches we won in 2018? My post about the HD135 election contest ran on December 3, so it was filed at least one day before then. The Y-axis is the percentages. HD150 34,895 22,408 Im just eyeballing everything and not being too particular about it, this is close enough for these purposes. The League of Women Voters of Texas in astatement last weeksaid such legislation, if passed, is fraught for potential abuse, infringes on the rights of county governments to select their own elections administrator, and demeans the meaning of local governance.. Harris County 208th Criminal District Court Judge: incumbent Greg Glass and challengers Beverly Armstrong and Kim McTorry. During the election CIA knocked on 300,000 doors. Anyway. Morton left the Harris County DAs office to open a criminal defense practice, where he accepted appointments to represent indigent defendants. Judge Andrews is represented by John Raley. Bell County commissioners, along with the district attorney, are determined to settle the question of whether Killeens Proposition A is lawful, making the governing body the first in Texas to sue one of its own cities over decriminalization of misdemeanor possession of marijuana. 2022 Election. And more money will be hard to come by after the county adopted a lower-than-planned tax rate last year following a bitter political fight. He would almost surely run as a Dem in this heavily Democratic precinct. Now is not the time to re-litigate.. Breaking it up into its components means there will be multiple lawsuits instead of one. Please help. As an attorney, Martin opened her own law practice, focusing on felony criminal cases. You may view the entire Evaluation or you may view selected courts. A total of 384 appellate court seats were up for election in 2022. CC1 71,746 202,649 JP5 145,619 143,496 Tatum has maintained that while paper supplies ran low at some locations, the county has not been able to confirm whether any voters were turned away as a result. JP2 41.00% 55.97% 3.03% HD142 27.13% 72.87% CC2 99,401 100,543 Neither he nor Ted Heap seems to have gotten any better at math or more truthful in general, so most likely this will play out in similar fashion. Winning takes many forms, after all. 4. I know the job title is Harris County Dem Party Chair, but we abut a lot of other counties, and in quite a few places the development just sprawls over the border, making the distinction between the two of lesser value. JP3 47.74% 52.22% 0.04% Three freshmen senators drew two-year terms, including Democrat Morgan LaMantia of South Padre Island, who was in the tightest race in the Senate last year. Whether it will get a similarly chilly reception from City Council or Commissioners Court remains to be seen.