The Texas Democratic Party has recruited a full slate of candidates for the 2016 statewide offices. Although there is no certainly that all of them will qualify for the March primary ballot, it is likely that they will. The 2015 Texas legislative session passed SB 1073, which removes the requirement that primary candidates for statewide judicial offices need a petition to get on the primary ballot. Therefore, they can all get on the Democratic March primary ballot with just a fee.
This is bad news for the Libertarian Party and the Green Party. Both parties remain ballot-qualified in Texas by polling at least 5% for one of the statewide races, every two years. But the only races in which they are able to poll as much as 5% have been races in which no Democrat was running. For example, in 2014, the highest percentage for a Libertarian in a statewide race with both major parties also in the race was 3.39%. The highest Green percentage for a statewide race with both major parties was 2.03%. Thanks to political scientist Mark P. Jones for this news.
I had checked a couple of days ago, and no Democrats had filed for any seats on the Court of Criminal Appeals. Typically, the minor parties check for which seats won’t have Democrats and file for those. It appears that the last minute applications was a deliberate tactic.
I had not noticed SB 1073. There had been stand alone bills to remove the petition requirement for certain judicial offices (statewide plus in larger counties), but had got hung up in the rush at the end of the session.
SB 1073 had started out more modestly, by adding an email address and campaign website to candidate applications. These were to be displayed on the SOS website, but this is not happening yet. The senate passed this simple measure by a 30-0 vote.
In an 8 minute meeting held at the chair’s desk, the Elections Committee approved a complete substitute, which among other things eliminated the judicial petition requirement. The amended measure was put on the local and dissent calendar, and readily run through the House, with the senate concurring in the amendments.
The petition was not really a barrier to a candidate who had the approval of the PTB. In larger counties, the parties would hold signing parties, where you could sign any judicial candidate’s petition and they would have notaries available to notarize each petition sheet. Statewide there was a distribution requirement of 50 per appeals court, which would only be a barrier to someone running on their own.
I think in the past, the Democratic Party may have had deliberately left some positions open in order to help the Libertarian Party keep on the ballot. They would be less interested in keeping the Green Party around.
Certain aspects of SB 1073 violate equal protection. There is no reason it should be easier to know the candidates running for nomination by certain parties and not others.
The Libertarian Party seeks to poont fingers and blame others for their own failures.
They simply need to look in the mirror to see who is responsible for their problems.