A very wise man once told me the most important races on the ballot are the judicial races. These judges wield enormous power, issuing decisions affecting the Texas Railroad Commission’s influence over gas utility rate schedules, the application of property tax exemptions to Community Housing Development Organizations (CHDO), Houston Fire Department breach of settlement agreements, and the treatment of marriages and how assets are divided in the event of divorce.
From the Dallas Voice, November 2013:
The Texas Deputy Attorney General for Legal Counsel argued before the Texas Supreme Court on Tuesday that state law requires marriages to be recognized before a divorce can be granted.
The Supreme Court took up the issue of gay marriage, considering whether the law allows same-sex divorce despite it not recognizing same-sex marriage.
The two cases involving two couples married in Massachusetts, Dallas couple H.B. and J.B. and Austin couple Angelique Naylor and Sabrina Daly, were consolidated for arguments.
Meanwhile there’s the gleeful reactions among Parker supporters this week after she …oh, wed is not the right word..a better phrase is pulled a publicity stunt…in California.
She’s never really wanted to make this a political issue,” Rice University Political Scientist Mark Jones said.
Well guess what! She DID make this a political issue; and the issue isn’t helped by Republicans running around Texas screaming “eeck–gay marriage—-eeck”—–the issue the Republican Party is facing is their failure to articulate the issue of using our court system to force legislative respect for lifestyle choices.
Parkers’ publicity stunt is an affront and insult to the intelligence of Texas voters that believe in traditional marriage. To show such disrespect for the sanctity of marriage by using it as a publicity stunt & political tool to force legislative respect for a lifestyle choice is downright repulsive to me.–and even worse we have Republican candidates running for office that can’t articulate the issue.
So as you’re out on the campaign trail and you meet candidates for the Texas Supreme Court..or any court for that matter, ask the candidate about the cases that come before the Court; the judicial races are the most important races on the ballot.