Sunday, October 17, 2010

Early Voting Begins Tomorrow

Monday, October 18th is the start of Early Voting. As one of my commenters mentioned below, given the confusion following the fire that engulfed the voting machines and who knows what else might cause confusion, the earlier you vote the better. You can vote wherever there is an open polling location during early voting.

The ballot for Harris County is apparently about five freaking miles long, but I hope you will take the time to go through each race one by one in making your selections.

Straight ticket voting is not responsible voting, and there are some great candidates on both sides of the ballot. As usual, the races that affect us at the CJC are going to be fairly far down the ballot. It is worth the extra time to work your way through it, folks!

Frankly, I'm hopeful that the vast majority of the incumbents will be returned to their benches on the judicial side. There are several folks running that have never seen the inside of the courtroom, and have no business being on the bench. Make sure to vote accordingly.

For what it's worth, here are my recommendations:

District Clerk: Loren Jackson (D)

County Court at Law # 1 - Paula Goodhart (R)
County Court at Law # 2 - Bill Harmon (R)
County Court at Law # 3 - Natalie Flemming (R)
County Court at Law # 4 - John Clinton (R)
County Court at Law # 5 - Margaret Harris (R)
County Court at Law # 6 - Larry Standley (R)
County Court at Law # 7 - Pam Derbyshire (R)
County Court at Law # 8 - Jay Karahan (R)
County Court at Law # 9 - Analia Wilkerson (R)
County Court at Law # 10 - Sherman Ross (R)
County Court at Law # 11 - Diane Bull (R)
County Court at Law # 12 - Robin Brown (R)
County Court at Law # 13 - Don Smyth (R)
County Court at Law # 14 - Mike Fields (R)
County Court at Law # 15 - Jean Hughes (R)

180th District Court - Marc Brown (R)
182nd District Court - Jeannine Barr (R)
183rd District Court - Vanessa Velasquez (R)
184th District Court - Jay Burnette (D)
185th District Court - Susan Brown (R)
208th District Court - Loretta Muldrow (D)
209th District Court - Michael McSpadden (R)
228th District Court - Marc Carter (R)
230th District Court - Belinda Hill (R)
232nd District Court - Mary Lou Keel (R)
248th District Court - Joan Campbell (R)
262nd District Court - Denise Bradley (R)
263rd District Court - Jim Wallace (R)

313th District Court -- Glenn Devlin
314th District Court -- John Phillips
315th District Court -- Mike Schneider

Whoever you end up voting for, just please vote. It matters.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

You left out your rec in/for the 230th

Anonymous said...

I thought Mark Bennett thought John Clinton didn't have much courtroom experience ?

Anonymous said...

Consider voting for John Donovan - 113th Civil District Judge

He's a good guy.

http://www.judgejohndonovan.com/welcome

Murray Newman said...

Anon 10:37 p.m.,
Thanks for the head's up. I left off the 230th and 232nd. That's what happens when I try to do things off the top of my head. I've fixed it now. I appreciate the notice.

Anon 11:10 p.m.,
Mark does believe that about John Clinton. He and I disagree on things some times. I try not to hold it against him.

Anonymous said...

Just voted. Not bad. Little bit of a line but it was after the typical 7 - 9 work schedulers. Please spread the word - painless if done during early voting. Also, it was special to see a friend who just became a citizen vote for the first time. God Bless You All.

Sage

Anonymous said...

9:43, I canceled out your votes on all criminal benches.

Rage

Anonymous said...

Your recommendations remind me of the first time I was able to vote. As a college freshman I thought only idiots voted straight one party or the other. So I went through and voted in each and every race in which I was knowledgeable. And guess what? They were almost all of one party.

I realize the ballot is long and there may be other races in which you are not as partisan but it defeats the purpose of urging people not to vote straight party when almost all of your recommendations are for one party. Actions do speak louder than words. Looks like voting straight Republican will save a lot of time.

Luckily, Judge Burnette and Ms. Muldrow already have jobs. I hope Loren Jackson has a backup plan if/when the straight ticket voters sweep him out of office.

Anonymous said...

I hope the voters and fellow lawyers have a backup plan as to how the heck we're going to adapt to life how it was before Loren Jackson came into office.... I rely too heavily on his technologies to see it go back so while I did vote straight, I made sure to go back and vote for him. As a community of lawyers/paralegals, etc. we DO have the power to make a difference in these races and if everyone just does what I did, we'll keep great Judges and keep a great District Clerk who saves me a great deal of actual money every day! I've met the other guy... what an absolute idiot...

Episode Seven: The Voters Awaken - A One Act -Sci-Fi Play

SCENE:  The Death Star orbits over Downtown Houston. [INTERIOR] The Imperial Council Chambers. EMPRESS OGG sits at the head of a long table ...