Houston lawyers love Appeals Court Judge Jane Bland and Texas Supreme Court Justice Jeff Brown, but they are not fans of Justices Jimmy Blacklock and John Devine.
The Houston Bar Association’s newly released 2018 Judicial Preference Poll shows that lawyers in the Bayou City strongly support incumbent judges running for re-election next month – and especially if those judges have an R by their name.
The poll of 1,825 HBA members shows that Houston lawyers prefer incumbents about two-to-one over their challengers in nearly every judicial race involving state civil district court judges and appellate court judges.
The HBA poll shows that the only Democrat in the civil district court elections to receive more votes than the Republican challenger is Donna Roth, who faces Michelle Fraga in the open 295th District Court race. And even that race is close – 52 to 48 percent.
In the other open judicial seat, the 189th District Court, Republican Sharon Hemphill leads her opponent Scot “dolli” Dollinger 52 to 48 percent.
The Houston district judges to get the most support, according to the HBA poll, are Judge Randy Wilson of the 157th District Court and Judge Jeff Shadwick of the 55th District Court.
The most popular Houston judge by far is Judge Jane Bland of the 1st Court of Appeals in Houston. Judge Bland received 1,051 votes or 80 percent of those voting.
Judge Martha Hill Jamison of the 14th Court of Appeals scored the second highest vote count in the poll – 959.
The lawyers in the HBA poll support Justice Brown in his re-election bid for the Texas Supreme Court against Kathy Cheng by a 71 to 29 percent margin.
However, Houston lawyers overwhelming want to replace Supreme Court Justices Blackcock and Devine with their Democratic opponents, according to the poll.
The Houston Bar poll differs vastly from similar judicial election polls in Dallas, where the lawyers overwhelming support Democratic candidates for seats on the civil district court bench.
Click here for the full HBA judicial poll results.