Chief justice urges nonpartisan posts

Texas Supreme Court Chief Justice Nathan Hecht called on the Legislature to do away with the state’s current system of electing judges in partisan races during his State of the Judiciary Address on Wednesday.

“No method of judicial selection is perfect,” Hecht told the joint session of the House and Senate. “Still, partisan elections is among the very worst methods.”

Texas is one of a handful of states that requires judges to declare apolitical party in elections. Hecht said that system should be cast aside in favor of nonpartisan races in which candidates would not be required to have party affiliation.

During the 2018 midterm elections, more than 400 Democratic judges unseated incumbents around the state as turnout surged and a majority of voters opted for the “straight-ticket” voting option. Hecht, a Republican, lamented the election results, saying Texas lost “seven centuries” of judicial experience.

“When partisan politics is the driving force, and the political climate is as harsh as ours has become, judicial elections make judges more political, and judicial independence is the casualty,” Hecht said.

The system of straight-ticket voting, which allows voters to quickly choose all the Republican or Democratic candidates on their ballot, is in the process of being phased out by 2020. He endorsed two bills that would create more stringent qualifications for judges.

“Qualifications did not drive their election,” Hecht said of the hundreds of new judges. “Partisan politics did.”

Texas is well known for sweeps on judicial seats. In 1994, for example, 19 Democratic judges in Harris County were swept out of office when Republicans led by Newt Gingrich took control of the U.S. House of Representatives. It went the other way in 2008, with 22 of 26 Republican judicial incumbents losing their posts as Democrat Barack Obama won the White House. pcobler@express-news.net