Endorsement watch: Still to go

As we enter the last week of early voting, here are the races in which the Chron has not yet made a recommendation:

1. Railroad Commissioner

2. US House, Districts 07 and 10

3. State Senate, District 17

4. State House, District 133

5. District Clerk

6. HCDE Trustees

7. County Commissioner, Precinct 3

8. Family Court and Probate Court

9. Justice of the Peace, all precincts

10. Constable, all precincts

The Chron took a big step towards getting the total number of races to go down by making endorsements in the district civil courts. They picked five Democrats out of the sixteen benches:

Alfred "Al" Bennett for 61st Judicial District: A University of Texas law school graduate, Democrat Bennett will bring a record of community service as well as diversity to the civil courts. He is an adjunct professor at the Thurgood Marshall School of Law.

Kyle Carter for 125th Judicial District: A native Houstonian with seven years' legal experience, Democrat Carter served as general counsel to the Texas Legislative Committee on General Investigation and Ethics.

R.K. Sandill for 127th Judicial District: A young lawyer who focuses on labor and employment law, Democrat Sandill offers varied civil litigation experience to serve on a judiciary dominated by former defense firm attorneys.

Jaclanel McFarland for 133rd Judicial District: McFarland has practiced law in Houston for more than three decades. A Democrat, she promises to keep politics out of her rulings.

Robert Schaffer for 152nd Judicial District: Democrat Schaffer has practiced law for nearly a quarter-century in Houston and has served as the president of the Houston Trial Lawyers Association.

All five appear to be in races with judges who have been elected before, so the Chron has gotten over whatever reluctance it may have had there. As for the rest of the races, there are eight days remaining, and as you can see ten categories of races. I suppose they could combine Constables and JPs, or maybe SD17 and HD133, but unless they plan to skip something, they'll need to throw a couple of these together to get them all done by next Tuesday. Which do you think will be the last races to be endorsed?

Posted by Charles Kuffner on October 27, 2008 to Election 2008