Early Court Of Criminal Appeals Libertarian Candidate?

Given that there are few Texas blogs that have anything to do with politics, criminal justice, law or elections that aren’t on our radar here at Capitol Annex, we thought we’d share with you this interesting tidbit we read over at I Was The State, the blog of criminal defense attorney Robert Guest, who is evidently considering a Libertarian candidacy for a Court of Criminal Appeals seat:

I have been contacted about running on the Libertarian Party ticket for a judicial office in Texas. I am very interested and will probably enter the race for a seat on the Court of Criminal Appeals. Not for political power or because I need a job. No Libertarian has ever been elected statewide in Texas and private practice is working out just fine. I want to use the opportunity to spread ideas and get more readers. I have not run for any office since being elected Secretary of the InterFraternity Council at UT-Arlington.

Running for office to get more blog readers. Now that is a concept any blogger can surely endorse.

This does bring up another interesting point, however. You will recall that last year, Libertarians in Texas fielded more candidates for office than in any other election cycle in recent memory. In fact, as you told you last year, some of the Libertarian candidates in state House races actually “overperformed,” meaning they beat expectations and came ahead of anticipated trends in terms of the number of votes they garnered.

The question now is, “are the Libertarians planning another large crop of candidates?” If the answer is “yes,”(and I suspect it is), Democrats and Republicans running in marginal districts could be in a tight spot when it comes down to the “drain” of anywhere from half a percent to three percent Libertarian candidates typically pull from D’s and R’s.

Traditionally, it’s always been believed that Libertarian candidates drain more votes from Republicans than from Democrats. In Texas, though, it’s probably true that the drain is about three-quarters from Republicans and a quarter from Democrats.

When you look at the possibility of 10-15 House districts which could be in play and very close races in the next cycle, those few percentage points could mean a lot.

Tweet This Post   Ping This Post

Bookmark It