In the hotly contested race to replace retiring Judge Bonnie Hellums in the 247th Family Court, I’ll be voting for Judge M. L. Walker in the Republican primary.
I first met Judge Walker in 2009 when she was running in her first campaign. She seemed quiet and unassuming, relying upon her experience to carry her to the top. Obviously she was naive about Republican primary politics. My wife was especially impressed with her after they had an hour long discussion about the family courts and her vision of how she wanted to run a court.
She is supremely qualified for the job – reviewing her credentials and educational experience shows that. The other two candidates in the race simply can’t compete on that basis. Nor can they compete on her experience behind the bench as an Associate Judge. The results of the Houston Bar Poll certainly bear that out, as summarized by my friend (and future Supreme Court Justice) Leif Olson:
– In the HBA’s 2014 qualification poll, Walker’s Well Qualified/Qualified/Not Qualified numbers were 218/74/54. She received more “well qualified” votes than any other non-incumbent candidate for any of the family-court races. I have to qualify that with “non-incumbent” because the only family-court candidate who outpaced her at all was District Judge Lynn Bradshaw-Hull. Similarly, her “not-qualified” numbers are lower than any other candidate save for Charley Prine, who had 53 such votes—only one fewer than Walker.
– The results for the 2013 Evaluation Poll for Walker were similar, as shown by her Outstanding/Acceptable/Poor results in each category. Follows the law? 68/22/10. Rules decisively and timely? 67/24/9. Courteous and attentive in the courtroom? 73/17/10. Impartial? 68/21/10. Efficient use of lawyers’ time? 61/27/12. Works hard and is prepared? 69/22/9. And the overall analysis, by percentages? Excellent – 58, Above Average – 20, Average 12, Below Average – 4, Needs Improvement – 6. That overall “Excellent” rating, by the way, is higher than all but one of the associate judges and higher than all but three of the district judges: Judy Warne, David Farr, and Roy Moore (who is ahead of her by less than a percentage point).
– 2010 was an election year and so had a qualifications poll. Walker’s well/qualified/not split was 238/108/104. That was almost twice the “well” votes of the next-highest candidate and roughly 40 fewer “not” votes than the next-lowest candidate. (For comparison, the candidate who won was at 57/120/242, but received some—ahem—endorsements.) That was a busy year; there were 40 candidates rated across all family-court races. Only 11 of them received more “well” votes (most of them current or former district judges); only three received fewer “not” votes than she did.
Being an Associate Judge in a Family Court is arguably the hardest of all judicial positions. You must follow the policies set by the elected judge even when you disagree with them and have other ideas. Most importantly, you have to be consistent and follow the law. Judge Walker’s bar poll results indicate that the lawyers that practice in front of her hold her in high esteem.
The biggest “charge” against Judge Walker is the fact that she has stated publicly that she voted for Barack Obama in 2008. That is also one of the charges levied against another candidate in the race, Melanie Flowers. I sat down with both candidates and asked them about their vote. Neither of them took the easy road – they could have said, as many other candidates have (think Rep. Sarah Davis) that they voted for Obama as part of the Rush Limbaugh fun that year. Both ladies were very open and said that they believed that Obama offered the best hope for the future of their communities and the country as a whole. As well, both ladies said that they had learned from that mistake. Indeed, Walker told me that “fool me once shame one you…fool me twice shame on me” is very applicable”.
I think that if we, as a party, hold a single vote for Barack Obama as a litmus test of who we vote for while ignoring the life achievements and overall quality of the candidates that are on the ballot, we deserve the caricature of being small minded that our opponents paint us as. If we overlook the cultural significance of that vote, we do ourselves and our party no favor.
I’ll be voting for Judge M.L. Walker because I think that she is by far the most qualified person for the job in this race. I encourage you to learn about each of the candidates and think that if you do, you will join me and Judge Walker’s broad list of supporters in that vote.
Candidate websites: