Experience, reputation count in court races
1st Court of Appeals, Place 5: Terry Adams (R)
We recommend Republican candidate Terry Adams for a full term on the court where the experienced and respected attorney has served since Gov. Greg Abbott appointed him in July.
Adams’ Democratic opponent, former municipal court judge Amparo Monique Guerra, is a Rice University graduate with an impressive resume but she can’t match Adams’ 30 years of appellate experience. Adams, 60, has been a primary attorney on more than 200 appellate cases argued at every level, including the U.S. Supreme Court.
In addition, Adams was a briefing attorney for the Texas Supreme Court, is on the State Bar Court Rules Committee, was editor-in-chief of the law review at South Texas College of Law and is on the law school’s advisory committee.
We don’t say Adams is the perfect candidate — and his strong support from highly politicized, tea party-aligned politicians might have given us more pause had his legal resume not been so convincing. His broad experience and reputation for being an even-handed, accomplished attorney go a long way with us. We heartily endorse him.
1st Court of Appeals, Place 3: Russell Lloyd (R)
We recommend a vote for 1st Court of Appeals incumbent Justice Russell Lloyd, 72, a solid, hard-working presence on the court who brings 40 years of varied legal experience to the job.
He has worked as a prosecutor and a civil trial lawyer and was a judge in state district court for 10 years where he presided over several highprofile class-action suits. They included the famous breast implant lawsuit led by Houston lawyer John O’Quinn .
Lloyd, a Republican who won his seat in 2014, usually does reasonably well but not great in the State Bar of Texas annual judicial evaluation of lawyers.
He won points for judicial objectivity in June when he wrote a decision favoring a landowner over Houston pipeline operator Enterprise Products Partners, which he ruled was improperly trying to use eminent domain to pay a low price for a pipeline easement.
The plaintiff’s attorney called it a victory for Texas landowners.
Lloyd will not complete his term if he wins because state law requires judges to retire at age 75.
He is running for re-election against Democrat Veronica Rivas-Molloy, who graduated from the University of Houston Law Center, worked as a law clerk for U.S. District Judge Ewing Werlein Jr., then at Baker Botts and for the last 10 years at Jones Walker.
14th Court of Appeals, Chief Justice: Tracy Christopher (R)
With two strong candidates running to replace departing incumbent Kem Thompson Frost as chief justice of the 14th Court of Appeals, we recommend a vote for current sitting Justice Tracy Christopher.
The Republican Christopher, 64, writes well-crafted opinions, has been on the 14th since 2009, was a state district judge for 15 years before that and practiced law for 13 years before she was appointed to the bench.
With her experience and smarts, she can easily transition to chief justice, where she would add court administration to her legal work.
Democratic challenger Jane Robinson has a formidable academic background including Dartmouth College and Duke University School of Law, has practiced law for 20 years and is certified as an appellate specialist by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization.
In other words, though our recommendation is a vote for
Christopher, Robinson knows appeals and would probably also do this job well.
Fortunately, Christopher will get to keep her place on the bench should voters choose Robinson for the chief’s position.
14th Court of Appeals, Place 7: KenWise (R)
We recommend incumbent Justice Ken Wise for another term on the 14th Court of Appeals, where he has served since Gov. Rick Perry appointed him in 2013. Wise, 52, is a competent justice, an amiable presence on the court and a Republican who, with some regularity, leans toward the middle of the road in his decisions.
Even some Democrats give him a thumbs up, which is a rarity in these polarized times.
Wise was formerly judge of the 334th Judicial Court, which is the administrative judge of Harris County, and also judge in the 152nd District Court.
He earned a bachelor’s degree from Texas A&M and a law degree from the University of Houston Law Center and has his own podcast about Texas history, called Wise about Texas.
His opponent is Democrat Tamika “Tami” Craft, a lawyer in private practice who also works part time as an administrative judge for the Texas Education Agency and an appellate attorney for the Texas Workforce Commission.
Craft earned her law degree from South Texas College of Law. She said she’s “a fighter for justice” and pledges that should she win to become “the first African-American ever elected to the 14th Court of Appeals” she’ll respect the Constitution and protect the role of juries.
With his experience and his solid performance over time, we think Wise is the best candidate.
61st District Court: Erin Lunceford (R)
We recommend Republican Erin Lunceford for judge of the 61st Civil Court, a position she was appointed to by Gov. Greg Abbott and held for 18 months before Democrat Fredericka Phillips defeated her in the 2016 election.
Lunceford,
59, had a fairly good reputation on the bench but lost to Phillips in that year’s local Democratic sweep.
We’re endorsing Lunceford because Phillips, former vice chairwoman of the Texas Democratic Party, has not impressed on the bench. In the 2019 Houston Bar Association Judicial Evaluation , 39 percent of respondents said she needs improvement overall and on the law.
Now Lunceford is running to get her old job back and hopes the lack of straight-ticket voting will mean more votes for her than she received in 2016.
Lunceford is the stronger choice in this race, and she gets our endorsement.
80th District Court: No recommendation. 127th District Court: R.K. Sandill (D)
We recommend that incumbent Civil Judge R.K. Sandill, 44, be re-elected in the race for the 127th Civil Court.
He can be brusque from the bench and sometimes is accused of playing favorites, but overall he works hard and is highly respected.
In the 2019 judicial evaluation, 57 percent of respondents rated him excellent or very good.
Conversely, his opponent Nile Copeland is a perennial candidate — three times for judge and once for county treasurer — who gets bad marks in judicial evaluations.
In 2018 Sandill made an unsuccessful bid for a seat on the Texas Supreme Court.
To his credit, he ran on a platform of moderation against Justice John Devine, who gained notoriety in Houston when he fought to keep the Ten Commandments on display in his courtroom.
This is an easy one — Sandill is smart, active and a good judge. We recommend him strongly.
129th District Court: Michael Gomez (D)
We recommend a vote for 129th Civil District Court Judge Michael Gomez, a well-regarded Democrat who is seeking his fourth term on the bench.
Gomez, 46, a lifelong Houstonian and a graduate of Rice University and University of Houston Law Center, has a reputation for being deliberative, thoughtful and fair.
He loses some points for taking his time to make decisions, but got an “excellent” or “very good” rating from 59 percent of respondents in the local 2019 evaluation.
Will Archer is a veteran attorney on the ballot in this race for the Republicans, but if he is running a campaign, it’s a lowprofile one. In 2016, he was an unsuccessful candidate against Democrat incumbent Larry Weiman for the 80th District Court.
Gomez is the easy choice in this race and gets our endorsement.
133rd District Court: Jaclanel McFarland (D)
We recommend Democratic Judge Jaclanel McFarland for re-election to the 133rd Civil District Court in her race against Republican Sheri Y. Dean, a former judge seeking to get back on the bench.
McFarland, 68, a Baylor University and Baylor Law School graduate, with 40 years of legal experience, was first elected to the 133rd in 2008 and is seeking her fourth term in that position. Dean was the judge in the 309th family court for two terms before she lost her bid for re-election in 2018.
McFarland, who went to graduate school at the University of Oxford in England, is known as being pleasant on the bench but a bit like your friendly but disorganized aunt who can take too long to get things done.
That was likely a factor in her mixed results in the 2019 evaluation in which 44 percent rated her excellent or very good, but 33 percent said she needs improvement.
Dean, too, tended to get mixed results from lawyers who practiced in front of her.
A check of her Harris County court activity shows dozens of family law cases and only one civil case in the last few years.
Both candidates have strengths and weaknesses but we don’t see a compelling reason for change in the 133rd. McFarland gets our endorsement.
164th District Court: Michael Landrum (R)
We recommend Republican Michael Landrum, who Gov. Greg Abbott appointed judge of the 164th Civil Court in August, be elected to a full six-year term in November.
Landrum, 68, was judge in the 113th District Court and widely admired but lost his seat in 2018.
His defeat was bemoaned by lawyers who said he was one of the best in the courthouse and known for being nonpartisan and careful.
His Democratic opponent, Cheryl Elliott Thornton, has practiced law for 33 years and is also a serious candidate. Currently a senior assistant county attorney for Harris County, she also served as general counsel to Texas Southern University and as an administrative law judge and assistant attorney general of Texas.
She made unsuccessful runs for Place 7 Harris County Justice of the Peace in 2016 and 2018.
We believe Landrum’s experience and reputation as an able jurist make him the best choice for voters in 2020.
165th District Court: Bruce Bain (R)
We recommend Republican Bruce Bain for judge of the 165th District Civil Court because change in that courtroom can’t come fast enough. The incumbent, Judge Ursula Hall, a Democrat, has been cited
repeatedly by appellate courts for sloppy or neglectful work. In February, the Texas Lawyer reported on a decision by the 14th Court of Appeals that her nine-month delay in issuing a ruling on a company’s request to be let out of a suit amounted to abuse of her discretion. The court found three other instances where Hall had been so slow in issuing rulings as to be unreasonable.
The previous July, Harris County’s other appeals court issued four rulings in a single day against Hall, each accusing her of delays in a case involving hospitals.
Bain, 62, is known as competent, has 35 years of legal experience and two previous campaigns for a judicial seat. He promises things will be different in the 165th if he wins.
“I will rule quickly and decisively. Justice delayed is justice denied,” he told the Texas Lawyer in September.
We hope voters are listening.
215th District Court: Fred Shuchart (R)
Judge Elaine Palmer of the 215th District Court has plenty of critics. Perhaps due to long memories over a bruising, nasty and successful campaign in 2012 against well-regarded Steve Kirkland, who then sat on the 215th, 40 percent of lawyers who responded to Houston Bar Association’s 2019 judicial evaluation survey said she needed improvement.
That 2012 race was financed in part by attorney George Fleming, who had lost a case in front of Kirkland that could have cost him millions — had he not later won on appeal. He strongly denied his support for Palmer was a matter of revenge. Four years later we strongly recommended Democratic primary voters replace Palmer in 2016. When they didn’t we urged voters in the general election to do the same.
She won then, too, against Republican lawyer Fred Shuchart.
Now she is seeking a third term, and against a familiar opponent. We once more recommend voters replace Palmer and elect Shuchart.
Palmer’s 40 percent “needs improvement” tracks her performance in previous evaluations. Her worst marks came under the category of “follows the law.” Also relevant: The Texas Ethics Commission reprimand from 2016 that found she had failed to file campaign expense reports during six cycles. They fined her $15,000.
She had plenty of campaign funds to cover the fine, but anyone who won office under the cloud of concern about influence ought to have been far more careful about following the rules her next time out as a candidate. Shuchart, 60, is a solid, accomplished lawyer and voters should choose him.
339th District Court: Te’iva Bell (D)
We recommend Democrat Te’iva Bell for 339th District Court judge over Republican incumbent Jesse McClure. Both have good reputations in the criminal courthouse. McClure was an insurance prosecutor when Gov. Greg Abbott appointed him last November to a vacancy on the bench, where he has been even-tempered, careful and efficient.
Bell, 40, having worked as a prosecutor, criminal defense attorney and public defender in her 15 years of practicing law, has broad, diverse experience and an excellent reputation in trial. For those reasons, we think she’s the best choice for voters Nov. 3.
Defense attorneys seeking a place on the bench often raise suspicions that they’ll rule in favor of defendants, but those worries are no more wellfounded than concerns by others that prosecutors can’t make fair-minded judges. For her part, Bell says she wants to reform the Harris County criminal justice system “in a manner to ensure ‘justice matters’ for all.”
We support that goal and we support Te’iva Bell for judge in the 339th District Court.
351st District Court: Natalia Cornelio (D)
We recommend Democrat Natalia Cornelio for judge in the 351st District Court.
She has been a federal public defender, a civil rights lawyer, a staff attorney at the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, the director of criminal justice reform at the Texas Civil Rights Project and much else. All of that experience has given her some interesting ideas about how to make our justice system more effective, humane and just.
Some are not so new, such as relying less on incarceration and more on sentencing alternatives that are less destructive to lives. But she suggests we should reframe the way we think about the different roles in the justice system.
“Justice should be restorative work between the victim, community and defendant,” according to her campaign website.
Cornelio, 38, played a substantial role in moving Harris County toward reduced incarceration when, working under County Commissioner Rodney Ellis, she helped forge a settlement agreement in the misdemeanor bail reform lawsuit in Harris County.
The settlement has not pleased everyone, but it ends a system that kept people in jail while charged with misdemeanors simply because they couldn’t afford to pay bail.
Her Republican opponent is attorney Arlene Hecht who works in the Harris County DA’s office and describes herself as “a strong Texan with a strong set of values” who will “work to promote truth and fairness with conservative principles and fair and equal justice for all.”
Cornelio thinks our justice system can change for the better. We agree and hope she gets a chance to prove it.
507th District Court: Alyssa Lemkuil (R)
Four years after voters decided to retire family court Judge Alyssa Lemkuil and install
Judge Julia Maldonado, we hope they will reconsider. We recommend this time they vote for Lemkuil, who is seeking to reclaim her old bench.
She had been on the court for less than a year when the voters removed her, having been appointed by Gov. Greg Abbott when the court was created in early 2016.
Lemkuil, 58, got very high marks from lawyers in the family law courthouse who praised her deep knowledge of the subject, which has been the focus of her legal career. She was an associate judge for three years in the 308th Family District Court from 2012 to 2015 and a child support prosecutor with the Harris County Domestic Relations Office for 10 years before that.
Maldonado, who ran unsuccessfully for three judge positions before her 2016 victory, has been criticized for being condescending and sometimes issuing harmful policies. Criticism of judges should be taken with a grain of salt, but she got a 43 percent “needs improvement” rating in the last evaluation.
We think it is time for a change in the 507th and so we endorse Lemkuil.