February 20, 2019      12:05 PM

Chairman Leach signals substantive discussion ahead about nonpartisan judicial elections

"I think there is general agreement that partisan elections are the worst" said Chief Justice Hecht; Rep. Farrar counters, noting Democratic gains in 2018: “It’s just not lost on me that all of the sudden there's a lot of interest in how we elect judges.”

As he gets to work as the newly-installed Chairman of the Texas House Judiciary & Civil Jurisprudence Committee, Rep. Jeff Leach, R-Plano, on Wednesday signaled that his panel will delve into the thorny issue of whether the election of judges should be nonpartisan.

"This conversation is going to have to be a bipartisan conversation,” Leach said during an exchange with Texas Supreme Court Justice Nathan Hecht, who was appearing before the committee after calling for the change during his State of the Judiciary address earlier this year.

"Judges welcome accountability and we want to make sure it's the best it can be," Hecht told the members of the committee.

Rep. Matt Krause, R-Fort Worth, asked Justice Hecht if he could point to other states that have tackled the issue effectively.

Hecht could not but argued that’s not an excuse for inaction.

By Scott Braddock

Copyright February 20, 2019, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved