Nine (So Far) Vie to Fill Court Vacancy

Gov. Rick Perry has been in office for nearly nine years, but is only now faced with his third opportunity to appoint a judge to the Travis County District Court bench. The seat on the 353rd Judicial District Civil Court opened up in May with the untimely death of Judge Scott Ozmun, who was elected last year.

Who Perry will pick is still anybody's guess – to date, at least nine Austin lawyers have applied for the job – but in considering who he will choose, Perry will have to decide whether he's more interested in finding a temporary caretaker or someone who might actually have a chance to be elected to the all-blue Travis County bench. "It is an intriguing set of circumstances," says Austin state Sen. Kirk Watson.

Among those who have applied for the job are Claude Ducloux, a private practice civil attorney who writes a humor column for the Austin Bar Journal and is known for his sidelines as a singer and actor; Jeff Rose, Attor­ney General Greg Abbott's deputy first assistant, who previously served as the chief of the A.G.'s General Litigation Division; Madeleine Connor, who has earned an odd reputation in Austin Dem circles – she ran as a Repub­lic­an for the 299th District Criminal Court against Judge Charlie Baird, and then as a Democrat against Ozmun in last year's primary; and attorney Ernest Garcia, appointed in 1998 by then-Gov. George W. Bush to the county's 126th District Civil Court but defeated in the 2000 general election by Judge Darlene Bryne, who still holds that seat. (The race was close and Garcia called for a recount; he lost by 809 votes.)

Republican-appointed judges have not fared well in Travis County. Two of Bush's appointees – Garcia and Frank Bryan – were ousted when election time rolled around, as were both of Perry's picks: Patrick Keel, beaten by Judge Stephen Yelenosky, and Melissa Goodwin, bested by Judge Jim Cor­o­nado. Only one Bush appointee, Judge Julie Kocurek, has been able to penetrate the blue wall to earn votes to keep her seat on the 390th District Criminal Court, and she has since switched parties.

So if Perry wants to find a judge who will remain on the bench after 2010, he'll have to choose wisely. Although Goodwin lost her seat to Coronado, she was very popular with the Austin bar and enjoyed a reputation for being reasonable and fair-minded. Arguably, her only problem was the "R" next to her name in an election year that was all about the Dems. "This is an interesting situation for the governor, because if he appoints someone strictly because he wants to appoint a Republican, he has to know that the county will work hard to defeat that candidate and will probably be successful, if past experience tells us anything," says Watson.

Because this will be an interim appointment, there will be no formal Senate confirmation prior to election time – which makes Watson's role as Austin's senator that much more important. The Senate has a longstanding tradition of offering members the privilege of vetting appointees who affect their districts. It isn't a formal rule or codified in law, but it is an "informal formality," says Watson, that officials – including the governor – take seriously. "I haven't always agreed with the governor, but I also find his office very understanding of that privilege," he says. Watson says he's spoken with some of the candidates, but won't disclose any details about whom he's met or what they've talked about. "I try not to talk about people under consideration, out of deference to the people that have applied," he says.

The county's civil courts are busy, and Watson says he doesn't want to see the seat go unfilled for too long, "but we want to make sure we do it right." And while he doesn't know that Perry will ultimately pick someone that he would "support politically," he hopes the governor chooses "somebody I can sign off on."