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February 9th, 2010:

Two judicial candidates file lawsuit over ballot order

Feb 9th, 2010
by Charles Kuffner.
3 comments

sigh

Two lawyers seeking Democratic nominations as county court judges today each filed a pro se suit against Gerry Birnberg, chairman of the Harris County Democratic Party, alleging they will be “irreparably harmed” because they aren’t listed first in their races on the primary ballot.

Dennis Slate, a Houston solo, alleges in a petition he filed in Harris County 164th District Court that, as a result of a primary ballot drawing conducted by Birnberg on Jan. 7, his name should be first on the primary ballot for County Criminal Court No. 13. However, Slate alleges in Dennis M. Slate v. Gerry Birnberg, et al. that his primary opponent, John V. O’Sullivan, is listed first on the official Democratic Primary ballot that Slate alleges was made public on Feb. 4 by Harris County Clerk Beverly Kaufman and her office.

Meanwhile, in Javier Valenzuela v. Gerry Birnberg, et al., also filed today in Harris County 334th District Court, Javier Valenzuela alleges he should have been listed on the ballot before his primary opponent, Damon Crenshaw, because of the Jan. 7 primary ballot drawing. Crenshaw and Valenzuela are seeking the nomination for judge in County Civil Court-at-Law No. 3.

Slate and Valenzuela each allege in their petitions that Birnberg has “refused” to correct the errors on the ballot, and they allege they will be “irreparably harmed” by the ballot order.

“It is a well known fact that many times candidates in the first position will receive additional votes based entirely on them being located in the first position,” Valenzuela alleges in his petition.

I’ve heard that, and though I’ve not seen any studies, I believe it’s likely to be true. I can’t evaluate these suits on their merits, but I will say that it’s ridiculous to me that in the age of electronic voting machines we’re still drawing for and arguing over ballot position. There’s no good reason why they can’t be programmed to randomize the ballot order so this issue is moot. Yes, I know, the eSlate machines we have are not able to do that, but as Sue Schechter noted in her interview, we’ll be getting ready to buy their replacements soon. I for one would like to see this capability made a requirement for the next machines. If that means existing elections code needs to be altered to allow for it, then I hope someone will take it up in the next Legislature. There’s just no reason to go through this.

White holds big lead in Dem primary poll

Feb 9th, 2010
by Charles Kuffner.
3 comments

The headline and content of this Trib story is about another strong showing by GOP gubernatorial candidate Debra Medina in a poll, this one by Public Policy Polling, but that’s not what interests me. I’ll get to that in a minute, but this is what caught my eye from the memo:

There is less drama on the Democratic side- Bill White leads Farouk Shami 49-19.

PPP surveyed 400 likely Democratic primary voters and 423 likely Republican primary voters from February 4th to 7th. The margin of error for the Democratic survey is +/-4.9% and for the Republicans it’s +/-4.8%. Other factors, such as refusal to be interviewed and weighting, may introduce additional error that is more difficult to quantify.

Far as I know, this is the first publicly released poll that includes Farouk Shami, and as you can see, it suggests he is not competitive with White. All of the poll data is included – text of questions, demographics, and so forth – and nothing in particular stands out as odd to me. The sample is 32% Hispanic, 19% African-American, 46% white, 3% other, which strikes me as reasonable. Shami does best among Hispanics, losing by a 23-39 margin. If there’s one more piece of data I wish this poll had, it would be a geographic breakdown. Does Shami do better in, say, South Texas than elsewhere? We don’t know.

The other data point of interest is that the no-name candidates, especially the ones with Hispanic surnames, barely register. Felix Alvarado got 5%, Alma Aguado 2%, Clement Glenn 1%, and that’s it. Alvarado and Aguado have the potential to force a runoff if they pick up enough stray votes from folks who have no familiarity with the topline candidates, but there’s no indication in this data of that – Alvarado and Aguado combined for 13% of the Hispanic vote, which isn’t enough to cause trouble. If this poll is accurate – and all the standard disclaimers apply – then Dr. Murray’s prediction of White winning comfortably in March looks good. Again, it’s just one data point, so apply salt as needed.

As for the Republican side, Medina’s 24%, which is well within striking distance of KBH’s 28%, certainly looks impressive and would make my repeated predictions of her not beating Ron Paul’s showing in 2008 look foolish. I’ll just note that 51% of respondents were not sure what impression they had of her, which suggests to me that her support is still pretty soft and may fade over time. Or I’m just deluding myself and she’s the story of the year in Texas. Who the hell knows with Republican primary voters? More from Burka, who seems to be mesmerized by Medina for reasons I can’t quite fathom.

UPDATE: BOR has more.

Judicial Q&A: Cheryl Elliott Thornton

Feb 9th, 2010
by Charles Kuffner.
1 comment

(Note: I am running a series of Q&As for judicial candidates in contested Democratic primaries. There are a lot of judicial races on the ballot in Harris County this election, and so this is intended to help introduce the candidates and their experiences to those who plan to vote in March. I am running these responses in the order that I receive them from the candidates. I will also be conducting some in-person interviews of candidates who will be involved in contested primaries for non-judicial offices. Please see my 2010 Election page for a full list of Q&As and interviews.)

1. Who are you, and what are you running for?

I am Cheryl Elliott Thornton, a native Houstonian who has practiced law for over 23 years. I graduated from Lamar High School in Houston, Trinity University (BA), St. Mary’s University in San Antonio (MA) and Thurgood Marshall School of Law in Houston, Texas. I am married to Peter Thornton, a professor at Texas Southern University. I am running for Judge, Harris County Civil Court at Law No. 2.

2. What kind of cases does this court hear?

This court hears cases in which damages range from $500 to $100,000; appeals from the justice of the peace court and Texas Worker’s Compensation; cases pertaining to defamation or slander; title to real or personal property; enforcement or recovery of real property; eminent domain and writs.

3. Why are you running for this particular bench?

I am running for a county civil court bench because this bench, jurisdictionally, outside of justice of the peace benches which are elected to district-wide, is the court closest to “the people” in terms of access. I am running for this particular bench because the current judge, who has been there since 2008, reportedly has not performed in the most judicious manner and, thus, this court should be changed while the administration is still young. I believe I can offer the lawyers and the public at large, a more judicious and/or respectful handling of the cases that come before it.

4. What are your qualifications for this job?

I have been a practicing attorney for over 23 years, primarily in the area of civil law. I have served as an administrative law judge for two State of Texas agencies. Further, I have the administrative capabilities necessary to run a court as evidenced by my experience as General Counsel for a university and as an Assistant Attorney General for the State of Texas. I have also been certified as an Ad Litem by the State Bar of Texas and have received legal training at Harvard University through the National Association of College and University Attorneys.

Further, in my community, I have served as chair of the Police Advisory Committee, chair of the Museum of Fine Arts Advisory Committee, Executive Board Member of the World Youth Foundation, member NAACP, Houston Bar Association, Houston Lawyer’s Association, National Bar Association and Interfaith Ministries.

5. Why is this race important?

This race is important, as are all judicial races, because Harris County needs good judges. I define good judges as those that do not make decisions based upon how a party looks, what a party’s net worth is, what is the color of their skin or what firm is representing them. Society needs judges who are fair and impartial, at the same time aware of the gravity of the cases before them. This race is important because society is crying out for judges who believe in fairness and judicial equality for all.

6. Why should people vote for you in the primary?

I not only have the needed legal experience as noted above, but I also have the most practical experience as evidenced by my involvement in community affairs. Unfortunately, the judicial system is overwhelmed with judges who have limited community involvement and limited broad-based experience. These types of limitations are why the courts are perceived as unapproachable and biased toward most of the people it serves. All of my experience is what is necessary to be able to fairly adjudicate the issues and people brought before this bench. The people need something more than just a litigator—they need a person involved in Harris County, a diversified practioner of the law, and a person experienced with all types of people in order to properly and equitably serve the people who come before the court. They need me, a person with 23 plus years of legal and community experience who has the judicial temperament to be the Judge of Harris County Civil Court No. 2. They need the best choice for that position–CHERYL ELLIOTT THORNTON.

The Mayor on Metro

Feb 9th, 2010
by Charles Kuffner.
1 comment

As we know, one of Mayor Annise Parker’s transition teams is looking at Metro. We won’t get their report till the end of the month, but here’s a peek at some of the things they’re thinking about.

Parker has signaled that she is not wedded to conventional wisdom about Metro, even suggesting eliminating fares to increase lagging ridership. While acknowledging that Metro would have to cope with the loss of fare revenues — $66 million in 2009, about 20 percent of its expenses — she said it is a discussion the agency needs to have.

The mayor, who appoints five of the nine members of Metro’s board, said she envisions a seamless network of transportation services that move people efficiently throughout the eight-county Houston region.

“The goal should be, wherever you get on our ultimate mass transit system, from commuter rail, to light rail, to bus, you get one ticket, you go anywhere in the region,” Parker said.

[…]

Eliminating fares, of course, would make cost-benefit analysis meaningless, since every route would be fully subsidized. But allowing passengers to ride for free might attract enough riders to reduce congestion for drivers and produce other benefits, Parker said.

“I don’t really care so much what they collect at the fare box,” the mayor said. “I’m not going to tell them to do this, but I am personally interested in exploring — unless we’re leveraging those dollars in some ways for other kinds of matches — dropping the fares to get more people on board.”

The idea of lowering or even eliminating fares has been advocated by Bill King recently. My understanding is that eliminating fares causes problems with getting matching federal funds, but I don’t know the specifics of that. I’ll reserve judgment on the rest of it, but I do have a concern how revenues would be made up if fares are reduced. It’s possible that a lower fare could increase revenue for Metro if ridership goes up enough, of course. The argument about better serving the community that depends on public transportation is a strong one, and as part of a commitment to make transit more pervasive and interconnected, it’s one I’m open to. I’m looking forward to seeing what the transition team has to say.

On a related note, the PBS series Blueprint America aired a show last night on Detroit’s efforts to build out a better transit network. You can see a preview of it here, and the full episode should be available online shortly. My thanks to reader Kirston for the tip.

Hey, Houston! Steal this idea!

Feb 9th, 2010
by Charles Kuffner.
1 comment

Something like this needs to happen here in Houston.

The BigApps competition, in which [New York City] made its data available to developers so they could make apps out of them that would be helpful to citizens, and offered prizes to the best entries, closed last night with a ceremony and the announcement of three grand prize winners, a popular favorite chosen by the public, and six honorable mentions. Some of them are available already on iTunes, and we expect the others will be soon.

The key to all this was New York making its data available so the apps creators could do their thing. I feel confident that if Houston did the same, and made sure that fact was known, our own app development community would jump on it. Even without a contest and a cash prize – though of course those things couldn’t hurt – we’d likely see some cool and useful stuff. But it all starts with making the data available, and making sure people know that it’s available.

Endorsement watch: DMN for Ratliff and Kinky

Feb 9th, 2010
by Charles Kuffner.
3 comments

The Dallas Morning News has a couple of endorsements of interest, one good and one puzzling. In the good one, they endorse challenger Thomas Ratliff in his GOP primary race for the SBOE against wingnut Don McLeroy.

McLeroy, a board member since 1999, undoubtedly cares about education. But this panel could use Ratliff’s more practical approach to keep its work focused on essential issues. He’s not an ideological brawler and could develop consensus.

Ratliff has had experience doing just that while serving on boards at his children’s public schools in East Texas. And he says he would listen to teachers and superintendents in determining what students should know. Setting standards is a key function of this board, and Ratliff, 42, would be more in touch with educators than McLeroy. While Ratliff shouldn’t become their captive, Texans are better served by someone who takes teachers’ points of view seriously in crafting curriculum.

We also prefer Ratliff’s emphasis on depoliticizing appointments of outside advisers, including those who handle the state’s sizable education funds. The board has run into problems in selecting investment advisers.

I think that first sentence is too generous to McLeroy, who as far as I can tell cares only about advancing his ideological agenda. The single best thing that could happen to the SBOE would be for Ratliff to beat McLeroy.

And in the puzzling one, they recommend Kinky Friedman for Ag Commish. Sort of. Actually, they just express dislike of Hank Gilbert and go from there.

Gilbert knows agriculture issues in vastly greater depth than Friedman, but he would lead Texas in the wrong direction in key areas. One is a move away from globalization and toward protectionism for farm products. He says he is not a big fan of crop subsidies, yet he thinks Congress caved to foreign nations that complained Washington was propping up U.S. producers too much.

Gilbert, 50, of Whitehouse, also opposes key parts of the state water plan. He would take the proposed Marvin Nichols Reservoir off the table as a possible water source for the burgeoning Dallas-Fort Worth area. He would bank on a less-certain strategy of shipping in water from other regions and building massive desalinization plants to purify brackish water.

Friedman, 65, of Austin, doesn’t get into such details. He says he’d hire experts to hash out policy so he could concentrate on being a spokesman for family farms and kindness to animals. That’s not a great model for the job, but a better one than Gilbert proposes.

Inspiring, huh? How seriously is Friedman taking this job and this election? Well, he’s got gigs scheduled in Dallas (warning: music) and here in Houston while early voting is going on. I guess hiring experts to do the actual work really frees a guy up to do what he wants. Hey, DMN, did it occur to you that you could just not offer an endorsement in the race? Sheesh.

Texas blog roundup for the week of February 8

Feb 9th, 2010
by Charles Kuffner.
Comments are off for this post

The Texas Progressive Alliance congratulates the city of New Orleans for the Saints’ stirring Super Bowl victory, and reminds them that the “hair of the dog” trick doesn’t really help with the hangover.

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