Were they democrats who got elected? Shifting rules is a sad reality of politics. Not shocking at all.
They will always cheat, lie and distort anything to not be fair They NEVER want fair. . .they want power They are not honest, they are disgusting Rocket River
I dont understand how you can mix the system and give some people voting rights and not others and not violate the "all men have equal rights" bit in the state Constitution. Seems like it needs to be all one or the other.
I m not sure if there is more to this story but if it was it appears to be, I do not agree with this one at all.
I'm not sure how accurate this article is but nonetheless more info on the subject here... https://www.facingsouth.org/2019/11/texas-considers-ending-judicial-elections-democrats-gain-ground
I would like to hear more about this but if this is what it appears to be, a move by the GOP controlled legislature to restrict the ability of urban (and presumably blue) areas of the state to elect their own judges then this fits a pattern of the nationwide GOP. We’ve already seen how in states like WI and NC they have tried to change the rules to restrict incoming Democratic governors.
The "merit selection" system with a committee sending a list of candidates to the Gov to appoint and be confirmed by the Senate seems to me to be the best system. Direct election of judges has always struck me as a bad idea.
I usually think direct election of judges is a bad idea. I think restrictive and selective election of judges is an even worse idea.
Well yes, it goes without saying that this scheme is horrible. I'd love to see a full list of the reasons why the GOP thinks this is ok. Abbott has already gone hard after local control in Austin and various other cities (plastic bag bans, development regulations, etc...), it's only a matter of time until he and his cronies do it statewide, if we let them.
Maybe a compromise would be appointments at a county level with local ABA or Trial Lawyers chapters providing the recommendation. The electoral process definitely puts jurists in an awkward role between bizarre fundraising appeals and intellectually dishonestly reconciling their legal opinions with popular sentiment and campaign promises; but the fairly stark and pronounced ideological divide between state level officials and local officials of the largest communities makes this idea somewhat suspicious.
In practice it isn’t any better. Merit is arbitrary and you end up just getting people politically connected or socially connected on the list and the person nominated just does the bidding of the body that selects him. I have seen inside of the process first hand and it nasty.
Its messed up they are going after large urban areas. It makes sense however. The issue is no one knows these people. Harris county has a boatload of judges. On the same note people in smaller areas have a better chance of actually knowing the candidates. That being said i think what happened with the black female judges in Houston obviously grabbed attention This goes back to the Texas constitution like a lot of states passing the buck on making decisions to voters instead of elected officials. In 1845 intentions were well grounded
