If so, then you probably should make an effort to attend tomorrow evening’s Candidate Petition Signing Party:
The ‘party’ is not restricted to judicial candidates but that is the primary purpose.
And I would encourage you to attend. Because in the big picture, you can save the Republican candidates as a whole tens of thousands of dollars.
But I would also encourage you to not sign any petition presented to you be an incumbent judge. Why?
Glad you asked.
The incumbent judges that represent the Harris County Republican Party are lazy. And laziness begets complacency. And complacency begets terrible judicial outcomes.
Do yourself, the Harris County Republican Party and the entire population of Harris County a favor.
Don’t sign a single petition for an incumbent. Make them get up off their asses, travel around the county and attend the dozens of meetings held each month by Republican grassroots activists.
Don’t believe me that incumbents are lazy? Check out this screed from Probate Court 3 Judge Rory Olsen:
Over the more than three decades that I have been associated with the Harris County Republican Party, I have attended my fair share of judicial petition signing parties – as an activist and as a judicial candidate. The last few events that I have attended have been models of efficiency. Each event has been held in the ballroom of a centrally located hotel. There was adequate parking. Food, beverages and a place to sit and socialize were all provided. Candidates were able to get most – if not all – of the signatures needed for their nominating petition. The signatories had a good time.
Obviously this is a system that has worked well over the years. There was great coordination between the party and the judicial candidates. If not perfect, the system was close to it.
Unfortunately the current chair of the Harris County Republican Party, Paul Simpson, without discussing the matter with the judges beforehand, announced on June 20th that he was going to abandon the tried and true system of the past in favor of holding a signing party at the current party headquarters.
So instead of holding our next signing party at a well-known, easy to find venue like the J.W. Marriott, the event will be held at the county party headquarters, which is located in a hard to find, dimly lit, industrial area to the north and west of downtown Houston.
If a prospective signer were to succeed in finding the place, he or she might have to struggle to find a parking place. Once inside the building, the prospective signer would notice the cramped space and the décor that looks like it was borrowed from the set of the modern version of “Battlestar Galactica.”
What will happen if the bad location lowers the turnout? No worry there! There will be more signing parties at the even more obscure satellite offices of the county party.
Bottom line: Instead of holding one, nice successful event, the judicial candidates will be forced to attend multiple events scattered around the county.
Obviously Judge Olsen got his way and Chairman Simpson moved the party to a more ‘acceptable’ location. After all, only the mind-numbed masses would dare go to a meeting on the set of Battlestar Galactica.
As someone who has spent many hours attending multiple events around the county over the years, I can assure you that traveling around our very large county is not fun. And I can also assure you that I will never vote for someone that isn’t willing to do the same thing. Dude doesn’t want to put forth an effort to garner votes yet expects people to come out to a “nice, successful event” to support him. Jackass. As our President would say, what a loser!
It is past time to stop automatically supporting incumbents in the Republican Primary. The least you should do is ask a few questions.
I understand that it is very difficult when it comes to judges. I’ll be the first to tell you that I’m not qualified to pick them. Lord knows I regret many of my past votes for candidates on the ballot. But lord help us all if you rely upon the attorneys that make up the Bar in Harris County to pick judges. I’ve never met a more incapable group of people in my life to make those decisions.
Here is my advice. Find a challenger to every single incumbent. Sign their petition so that they can at least be on the ballot. Then flip a coin when it comes time to vote. I promise, we’ll all be better off.
That’s a mighty broad brush you have there, Dave.
Care to compare calendars? Since being sworn in, I’ve attended hundreds of Republican events all over this county, just to be sure folks know how much I love what I do, and to encourage one and all to cheerfully answer their juror summonses. And, that doesn’t include dozens of career day and other elementary, middle and high school events. Or the Rotary, civic association and business breakfast club meetings.
C’mon, Dave, give a guy a break. If you like, I’ll greet you at the Courthouse any morning when I arrive, which is almost always before 7:30 AM. Better yet, come on out to the petition signing event and let’s chat.
Yes, Judge Landrum,
You do get out amongst the unwashed masses. And because of that you will never have a problem filling your petition forms.
I don’t expect that you would respond publicly to Judge Olsen’s screed.
I think that during the time that I have observed you, you have upheld the best of what it means to be a good Republican judge. I also think that you could withstand a primary challenge based upon your record.
As for calendar challenges, undoubtedly you would win.
DJ
I agree with what David said!
Obviously, Judge Olsen (@OlsenRory) is upset because going to someplace where he may be forced to spend time speaking with his constituents and earning their votes, rather than whiling away his time tweeting and re-tweeting pictures of cats is terribly disappointing. He has our sympathy. That Gary Polland published Olsen’s whiny harangue demonstrates his fevered and desperate search for anything and anyone that casts Paul Simpson in a negative light. Pathetic doesn’t even begin to describe it.
Wow, you weren’t kidding. https://twitter.com/olsenrory?lang=en
Your advice is to not sign any incumbent judge’s petition just because you don’t approve of what Judge Olsen said? That’s absolutely ridiculous. Judge Olsen is absolutely correct, the logistics of having a signing party at the GOP headquarters would be a nightmare trying to park the car, and trying to navigate the cramped headquarters. I’ve been to these signing parties, and they are always held in a much larger room, and even at that, they are still packed. And yes, people who take time out of their day to rotate through lines to sign hundreds of petitions would appreciate having a little space to socialize and to even have a snack and a drink (since these typically take place during the dinner hour). Thanks, but I think I’ll make a more reasoned decision as to whose petition I decide to sign.
LOL, keep on keeping on Karen. Good luck trying to actually change anything.
David your instincts are good but on this particular subject you have it exactly backwards on why we have the event. The petition signing event was created for party activists at their request, not to avoid them.
In the past, judges got their petitions signed by visiting law firms and meeting with lawyers. Or, often, they simply gave petitions to friends at law firms and had them get signatures which meant the judges didn’t actually meet anyone. Some judges went out to Republican clubs as you suggest but the complaint was that grassroots activists never got to meet all the judges. So the judicial petition signing event was created to have a way for judges and activists to meet each other all at once, and to make sure judges looked to activists, not lawyers, for their signatures. The petition signing event is also a good party building tool, like Lincoln Day. It’s a good thing.
Finally, I urge everyone to support your incumbent Republican judges because we’re good at our jobs. So, come to the petition signing event and meet us. I’ll be at table 1. I think I have the second position at the table.
Judge Shadwick,
I agree with you that the petition signing event is a good thing for the party. In fact, I said as much and encouraged people to attend.
Obviously I painted with a broad brush, as Judge Landrum noted, and certainly not every single incumbent should be voted out. And I didn’t say that they should. But I’ll stick with my premise that every single incumbent should have a primary opponent because, in my opinion, that would give us better Republican judges.
Guys like Olsen have been in office so long that they haven’t a clue what is happening with the party’s activists. They might, every four years, stick their head in the door of a meeting and wave. That is not good for the party no matter how it is spun. And again in my opinion, it isn’t good for justice.
The truth is that people are reluctant to primary an incumbent judge because it is an uphill climb for various reasons, chief among them finding support from other attorneys. Apparently the pervasive opinion at the courthouse is that if you support a challenger to an incumbent, and the incumbent prevails as 99{997ab4c1e65fa660c64e6dfea23d436a73c89d6254ad3ae72f887cf583448986} of them do, the incumbent will be vindictive towards you and that will result in a harder time representing your clients. I know that you know this so I’m pretty much preaching to the choir here but many voters don’t understand how the courts work. It’s a horrible system unless you happen to get appointed or win an open seat and become the incumbent.
So yes, voters, go to the party. Enjoy the company of like minded people. It’s a lot of fun. And if you do find that rare beast, a challenger to an incumbent, sign their petition and help them get on the ballot. You’ll be glad you did even if you end up voting for the incumbent.
And incumbents, do what a few of your peers already do – get out and meet the party’s activists at one of the hundreds of meetings that will be held between now and the primary. Learn that they aren’t the unwashed and that they really do have a few things to contribute besides a signature on your petition. You’ll be glad you did.
DJ
Maybe you should look at Judge Lisa Millard. Been supported by the party over 20 years but never supports the party, except to contribute money to the republican advertising when she runs because it personally benefits her. She ordered a couple to speak only Spanish in their home some years ago. During the last term, she ordered a man (a black man) to jail for child support contempt, though he already paid it current. She had the option to find him in contempt without jail time, or even order him to jail and suspend the jail time unless he got behind again. She was catering to the attorneys on the case – check who contributes to her already massive campaign account. Why does the party get rid of judges that support conservative values, and let judges who play the good-ole-boy system stay in office?
Maybe the Republican party should take a look at gavelbangers.com and compare the judge they got rid of with the one(s) they kept. Kind of pitiful.