ustxtxb_obs_1996_11_22_50_00032-00000_000.pdf

JUDGE NOT. For anyone trying to .get elec.led to a Texas judicial seat, a good reputation and plenty of endorseinents aren’t as important as an R next to your name on the ballot. “I don’t think a Democrat, in the next four years, IS going to have a snowball’s chance of beating, a Republican” in a statewide judicial race, said Frank Maloney, the respected incumbent Democrat who lost his Court of Criminal Appeals seat to Republican District Judge Torn Price of Dallas in the November ‘5 election. Speaking to the 7’exas Laivyer, Maloney noted that weak voter turnout in the more 13enlocratic parts of the state aided Republican candidates, who won every contested statewide judicial seat, including four on the Supreme Court 448igUAI AA706r6 ,;:AAA \\I\\ to and three on the Court of Criminal appeals. Tom Luce, who chairs the state task force on judicial reform, says its too early to predict how this election’s outcome will influence the task force’s findings. Proponents of reform will have to overcome the opposition of certain Republicans, like Governor George Bush, who prefer the status quo. B ut support for nonpartisan elections comes from both sides of the fence and notably from Republican Supreme Court Chief Justice Thomas Phillips. “The longer we keep this system,” lie says, “a lot of good judges of both parties will lose,” our boss is Dallas rnlce Johnson;. that is. In a scathing report on Johnson’s management style, the Dallas Observer noted that fifty staffmernbers have resigned or been fired from her 18-person Capitol Hill office in four yearsa turnover rate twice that of other 1992 1-louse freshmen from Texas.. Based on interviews with over twenty current and former employees, the Observer article paints Johnson as “a meanspirited woman who chews up and spits out employees with abandon.” Sources complained that Johnson requires all staff to stay at the office until she leaves for the day, and that she makes the staffers serve as chauffeurs, clean her apartment, \\A\\, INAVM Asoba*41668A , on .c..W0. 11100..,-: ..’,140.0401A\\itI A tAt v*AVANO\\,\\ ‘4,A\\N t u e N Ay ,pg444 BE AN ANGEL BLESS YOUR FRIENDS WITH THE DEVILISH TRUTH ABOUT TEXAS NEWS, POLITICS AND CULTURE. $32. All additional gift subscriptions are $27. Send a one-year gift subscription to: NAME ADDRESS CITY, STATE, ZIP YOUR NAME ADDRESS CITY, STATE, ZIP ENTER OR EXTEND MY OWN SUBSCRIPTION CHECK ENCLOSED BILL ME The Texas Observer 307 W. Seventh St. Austin, TX 474-1175 fax NOVEMBER 22, 1996 32 THE TEXAS OBSERVER