Texas Supreme Court incumbents have edge in GOP primary

With so much attention being paid to the presidential race, a nasty race for U.S. Senate and several crowded congressional contests, the Texas Supreme Court might get even less notice than ever in this year's primary elections. But the state's highest civil court affects average Texans even if they don't realize it, deciding key questions involving such topics as water rights, oil and gas disputes, liability for personal injuries and insurance claims.

Three of the nine justices on the all-Republican court are seeking re-election, but Justice Nathan Hecht, the court's senior member running in Place 6, won't face any opponents until November.

Place 2

Don Willett, 45, had worked for George W. Bush in Austin and the White House, in the U.S. Justice Department and for Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott when Gov. Rick Perry appointed him to the court in August 2005. Willett barely beat former Justice Steve Smith in 2006 to keep the seat.

Smith, 50, a justice in 2002-04, is running again as an underdog against big-moneyed interests and jurists who substitute their policy preferences for those of elected legislators.

Each candidate has credentials to recommend him but also carries baggage.

Willett's campaign website tries to portray him as the court's most conservative member. But if, as Empower Texas head Michael Quinn Sullivan claims, Willett works diligently to "advance individual liberty, promote personal responsibility and protect property rights," then he's advocating a perspective, even if you agree with it, rather than taking cases as they come.

Willett, however, calls himself the court's most independent voice and points out he has sided against one of his biggest campaign donors.

Smith, who grew up in south Fort Worth and graduated from the University of Texas at Arlington, is raising little money, relying on his website to spread his message. He says he's a true judicial conservative who has experience working in the Texas Legislature as well as on the bench.

But Smith has been a hard-line activist as a lawyer: He was the original architect of the Hopwood lawsuit that for a time barred consideration of race as a factor in Texas college admissions, and he's challenged Texas' law allowing in-state college tuition for students brought into the state illegally as children.

The Star-Telegram recommends Don Willett in the Republican primary for Texas Supreme Court Place 2.

Place 4

Justice David Medina, 53, appointed by Perry in November 2004, is typically one of the lower producers on the court. His campaign website sports a goofy photo of him in judicial robes with his dukes up as he is about to punch the camera.

And in 2008, a Harris County grand jury indicted Medina and his wife on charges related to a suspicious fire at their home. The district attorney got those indictments tossed, and Medina's wife was reindicted, but that was dismissed in 2009.

Still, Medina has experience his GOP opponents lack. His jurisprudence largely has been fair. And he wrote a persuasive dissent in the court's recent wrong-headed ruling on the Texas Open Beaches Act.

John Devine, 53, of Tomball is a perennial candidate who has lost two bids for Congress and one for the state House. In 1995-2002, he was a state district judge in Houston, where his claim to fame was refusing to remove a painting of the Ten Commandments from his courtroom.

Joe Pool Jr., 56, of Dripping Springs is general counsel for Trans Texas Holdings Corp. and chairs the board of an oil and gas producing company he founded. His background doesn't seem suited to deciding the kinds of legal questions the court faces.

The Star-Telegram recommends David Medina for the Republican nomination for Texas Supreme Court Place 4

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