© 2015 The Texas Lawbook.
By Natalie Posgate
(Feb. 16) – No idea who to vote for in the upcoming judicial elections in Texas?
A handful of non-partisan lawyer organizations across the state have endorsed the candidates they deem most qualified and their choices are a mixture of incumbents and challengers, Republicans and Democrats.
The Dallas Committee for a Qualified Judiciary (CQJ), a non-profit in its 36th year that boasts membership of prominent lawyers and non-lawyer community leaders, endorsed 13 candidates as qualified to serve as judges in the eight judicial races that will be on Dallas County’s upcoming primary ballot. Judicial races for this year’s primary include positions in civil district courts, criminal district courts and the 5th Court of Appeals.
Candidates had to participate in CQJ’s evaluation process to be endorsed. They were required to complete in-person interviews, detailed questionnaires and submit recommendations. The CQJ then considered the candidate’s professional qualifications, including professional competence, integrity and judicial temperament.
Professional competence includes his or her experience, expertise and certifications and most significant cases handled throughout his or her career.
The Houston Association of Women Attorneys, a non-profit founded in 1976 that consists of local women attorneys, judges and law students, endorsed 12 civil district, appellate and Supreme Court of Texas judicial candidates this month for the upcoming primary races. The AWA also endorsed candidates for the Court of Criminal Appeals, criminal district courts, District Attorney, County Attorney, County Civil Court at Law and Justice of the Peace races. The AWA’s endorsements are based off a process similar to the CQJ’s.
The State Bar of Texas also released non-endorsement-based poll results earlier this month regarding Texas Supreme Court and statewide courts of appeals races. State Bar members voted on their preferred candidate for each race.
The CQJ, AWA and SBOT only looked at contested races for their endorsements and polls. For some judicial races, the organizations endorsed both the Republican and Democratic candidates.
For business-law focused purposes, The Texas Lawbook only examined the results for the civil and appellate judicial candidates.
For full endorsement and poll results, click here for CQJ’s, here for AWA’s, and here for SBOT’s.
The Houston Bar Association also released a poll today that is similar to the State Bar’s poll, except it includes all judiciary races in Harris County that are up for election. You can view that here. The Austin Bar Association’s poll is here.
A Dallas Bar Association spokeswoman said that the DBA does not release such polls.
If you see any inaccuracy in any article in The Texas Lawbook, please contact us. Our goal is content that is 100% true and accurate. Thank you.