Welcome to Texas justice: You might beat the rap, but you won't beat the ride.
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- Blawg Wisdom
- Evan Smith, Editor-in-chief and publisher, The Texas Tribune
- The Austin Chronicle
- Emily Bazelon, Slate
- San Antonio Current
- Conor Friedersdorf, The Atlantic
- Erica Grieder, The Economist
- Pamela Colloff, Texas Monthly
- Doug Berman, Sentencing Law & Policy
- Marie Gottschalk, author of 'Caught'
- DallasBlog
- Scott Medlock, Texas Civil Rights Project
- Solomon Moore, NY Times criminal justice correspondent
- Donald Lee, Texas Conference of Urban Counties
-Attorney Bob Mabry, Conroe
- Corey Yung, Sex Crimes Blog
Tommy Adkisson,
Bexar County Commissioner
- Dirty Third Streets
- Texas Public Policy Foundation
David Jennings, aka "Big Jolly"
John Bradley,
Former Williamson County District Attorney, now former Attorney General of Palau
- To the People
Contact: gritsforbreakfast AT gmail.com
5 comments:
I'd like to think so, but I don't see it happening. The minority voters would have to maintain their enthusiasm for a ballot that didn't have Obama on it. Some of this year's Houston judicial races were won by razor thin margins, and that was Houston only. The 1st and 14th appellate districts include several other redneck counties that make this an uphill battle, for sure.
2008 turnout didn't wind up being that big overall at the end of the day, rage, though much of it shifted from election day to early voting. The judges' percentages in Houston, razor thin as they were, were more or less what was predicted in 2006 when nobody knew the identity of the presidential nominee.
Also, those were countywide spots, not just Houston, and they were going R until very recently.
Kuff argues that pro-D trends in Fort Bend and Galveston Counties may shift enough to counteract overwhelming R majorities in Brazoria County, e.g.. From the numbers he presents it's obvious that the trend is headed that way, the question is whether it arrives by 2010.
We can only hope.
The cynic in me says that unless the level of excitement for the 2010 race remains the same it won't happen.
Hopefully, this years race was the beginning of fundamental change.
This biggest problem as I see it is that people don't know these judges or what they stand for. What is their view ont he death penalty...how do they feel about minor drug charges, techanical revocations, substance abuse programs. Unless they make themselves and their views know, people will vote based on a name that they are familar with and have no idea of what the standards or beliefs of the person are.
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