Federal Judiciary

Reason #157 why judicial elections make no sense

From yesterday's Houston Chronicle (seriously):

The straight-party Democratic voting that ushered in a new batch of civil and criminal district judges in Harris County was not the biggest surprise. But the fact that four Republican judges survived Democratic challenges left courthouse observers to speculate how they did it.

The most common theory is that voters were wary of Democrats with uncommon names.

The GOP judge with the highest percentage of votes was civil Judge Sharon McCally, whose opponent was Ashish Mahendru. Other Democrats who lost were Mekisha Murray, Andres Pereira and Goodwille Pierre. They lost to incumbent judges Mark Kent Ellis, Patricia Kerrigan and Joseph Halbach, respectively.

"How common a person's name is has always been a factor in judicial races," said civil District Judge Mark Davidson, who lost the bench he's had since 1989. "Up until 1987, people named Smith ran 14 times and won 14 times." Smiths have lost a couple of times since.

Davidson and others said the names matter because judicial races are just too hard for voters to research. One factor is low media coverage. Another is that judges can't say much that distinguishes themselves, since they can't comment on the cases they handle.

'Nuff said!

Full post as published by Supreme Dicta on November 07, 2008 (boomark / email).