This is very important. It is one of the most important topics I will ever have covered in a blog. I am writing to let all of my readers know that the largest power grab in my lifetime in the state of Texas is about to land in your lap. It is an assault facing our Texas democracy. If the assault is successful, and your children ask you how it is that we watched the ramparts of our democracy and justice system be destroyed, you will be able to tell them. Senator Robert Duncan (R) of Lubbock, Texas is trying hard to destroy 150 years of an independent court system accountable directly to the People. Here is what is going on.

Senator Robert Duncan is the state senator from Lubbock, Texas. For the past three sessions he has worked very hard to take away the right of the People of Texas to vote for their judges. He wants to take that right away from the People and vest it in the the governor. The Governor will then appoint a “committee” made up of his friends (biggest donors) who will then select the judges who will sit in your courts and determine your fates. These judges will owe their positions not to you, but to the Governor and his friends. The instruments of this power handover are S.B. 782 and S.B. 992, both authored by Sen. Robert Duncan.

S.B. 782 is called “Appointment and Retention of Justices and Judges.” In short, the bill stands for the proposition that there will no longer be judicial races between competing candidates. Instead of running and being voted in by the People, the Governor will select and appoint the judges. At the end of the judge's term, the judge will go on the ballot and the voters will ONLY be able to vote to “retain” or "not retain" the judge. If the voters choose to not retain the judge, the judge is released and the position is again filled by the Governor.

The law now provides that if there is a vacancy in a district court between elections, the governor appoints the judge. That judge then has to run, against others if others throw in their hats, to keep his seat at the next election. In the case of a vacancy at the county court level between elections, commissioner’s court makes the appointment and again, the judge must run, against others if others join the race, to keep his seat at the next election.

Senator Duncan has made sure that he is going to close the gap of having any local body, i.e. commissioner's court, control who gets a bench not only by eliminating elections but by converting county courts to district courts thereby making almost all courts subject to appointment by the Governor. Senator Duncan is striving to achieve this conversion through S.B. 922, which he also penned. At the very end of the bill (it is 57 pages long), the language addresses the conversion of county courts to district courts. Sec. 9 says that there shall be studies which will generate reports regarding “…converting to district court those statutory county courts...”

The Governor these days is Republican Rick Perry. This bill is obviously a ploy by certain members of the Republican Party to consolidate power by conferring on the Republican governor’s office the immense power to select judges.

I hope my Republican readers do not lose themselves in the stupidity and short sightedness of party politics on this one. Today it is the Republicans who are in power but tomorrow it could be the Democrats. The result is the same. You as the voter will have lost forever your right to control your judges, who are now accountable to you, and by extension, limit your access to your own courts.--You NEVER get lost rights back. Don not forfeit your children's rights by letting Duncan and his cronies take away your power.

Interestingly, I called Senator Duncan’s Lubbock office this morning to get his contact information. A simple matter one would think. A female answered the phone. I told her that I was writing a blog about the Senator and that I needed the address of his office. She told me that she would transfer me to the press secretary. I told her that I just needed the address and “if you could please give me that information.” She told me “no.” I said that I would be sure to include that in my blog. She then hung up on me. Click.

Stuart Leeds then called Senator Duncan’s office about thirty minutes later and got a female on the phone. He asked for her name and she refused to give it. He then asked to speak to her supervisor and she hung up on him. Click.

Senator Duncan wants to take away your right to choose your own judges. If his senate office secretary in the district hangs up on the public (who pays her salary), won’t even give her own name to a member of the public or the physical address of the senator’s office, can you imagine that any person Senator Duncan helps select to be judge will be any better than the secretary?

Here is Senator Robert Duncan’s number, 806-762-1122. And while his rude secretary, whose salary you are paying, is hanging up on the public, the senator is in Austin stripping you bare of your rights. Keep in mind that for 150 years, long before Senator Duncan and his ilk were ever on the scene, Texans made sure that the People chose almost every official in office by popular elections. Traditionally, the Governor of Texas has been one of the weakest governors in the country. Why? Because almost every official in the state is elected and therefore owes the governor nothing. Texans, however poor, bedraggled by the hardships of frontier life, hostile Indians, economic ups and downs, depressions, recessions, have always, up until the last 6 years, understood that there are three branches of government: The judiciary, the executive and the legislative. They have always understood, even back in the days of one room school houses, that those branches must be separate but equal and that the more separate they are, the more equal they are. Texans have always understood how priceless it is to be able to boot out a bad judge at the next round of elections and choose the next one. Texans have always understood the value of being able to have a jury trial for everything from complex litigation to a divorce suit where property division and child custody matters are at issue to a traffic ticket for speeding. It is a check and balances by the People those other less sage states such as California, Colorado, New Mexico, et. al., have taken away from their own populations.—You should hear the moans from lawyers and citizens who find themselves in court in those jurisdictions. I have had California lawyers tell me how wonderful it is that in Texas the PEOPLE choose their own judges. I have heard lawyers talk about how bad it is that they in their states can’t have a jury trial on many matters and that they are stuck with the decision of the judge who is often bad and beholden to others, how they can’t get rid of these bad judges because they have the appointment-retention system. And now we’re next, thanks to Senator Robert Duncan and his cronies. There will be more on this.

Attached is a letter candidate for city rep Trini Munoz has written to District 7 Voters. I think it is succinct, well written and packed full of very important information if you intend to vote in the city elections being held in May.--The El Paso Times and the people who run it have yet to write an article, and nor will they, outlining who is who and what the voting records are of the incumbents.

City Rep Steve Ortega is the one term incumbent in district seven. He is part of the Ray Caballero, Eliot Shapleigh, Jose Rodriguez click. As a result, he will be favored by the El Paso Times which will continue to ply you with the usual pabulum that Rep. Ortega is "progressive," etc. and therefore deserving of your vote.

Who exactly is Steve Ortega? He is an attorney. He is the nephew of Evelina Ortega, the law partner of Ray Caballero. I do not know if he is a practicing attorney as I have only seen him at the El Paso County Court house one time and never in any other court house.-- When Ray Caballero was mayor he tried very hard to seize by eminent domain private property around Thomason with the plan to turn around and give the property to private individuals. The Thomason neighborhood rose up against Ray Caballero and went to City Counsel almost every Tuesday to complain about the attempted taking of their land by the city under the name of a TIF. Out of this citizen group arose a leader, Vivian Rojas, whose grandmother's house was in jeopardy of being seized. Ms. Rojas was adamant that private property should only be taken for a worthy public cause and she soon became a thorn in Ray Caballero's side. Caballero would, as the mayor, frequently point Ms. Rojas out of a crowd and viciously, verbally attack her and accuse her of being against the "progress of the city." Ray Caballero would tell crowds of people that Vivian Rojas and her ilk were what ailed El Paso and kept it back. Ray Caballero's attacks on Vivian Rojas, who was a mere citizen speaking out and protecting her grandmother's property, were brutal and relentless.

Vivian Rojas stood up to Ray Caballero. She devised a campaign platform, collected money and gathered supporters and went out and ran for city rep and won in District 7. In the meantime, Ray Caballero lost his second bid for mayor to a nobody and a not very smart nobody, Joe Wardy, in a landslide defeat. Why did Caballero lose so badly? Because the people were tired of Caballero's taxing, spending, lying and property taking ways. Ray Caballero was very angry with Vivian Rojas and he has a long memory.

The next time Vivian Rojas came up for re-election, Ray Caballero put his law partner's nephew, Steve Ortega, up to run against Vivian. She lost to Steve Ortega by approximately 20 votes. During Vivian Rojas' term, she held the line on the tax rate and voted to undo the damage of Caballero's TIFS and was a huge proponent of individual property rights. She was even featured in People magazine as being part of the national movement fighting the tide of legalized theft by the government under the guise of Eminent Domain.

Also elected with the help of the El Paso Times and then editor Dionicio Flores (who abruptly disappeared from the scene last year) were Susie Byrd (Ray Caballero's campaign manager), and Robert O'Rourke, (Ray Caballero sycophant). Byrd, O'Rourke and Ortega along with Lilly Anne Morgan, who appears to be asleep half the time, have voted consistently to forward Ray Caballero's policies that the voters had so decisively shunned earlier. This of course includes continuing Caballero's policy of moving the power of the city to the hidden Public Service Board (PSB-Water Utility). Byrd and Ortega have been especially aggressive regarding keeping the PSB safe as well as hiking up taxes and fees on the citizenry. They are on a mission. They have also voted to condemn as blighted whole regions of town thereby starting the taking of private property by the eminent domain process.

Steve Ortega, et. al. are so arrogant with other people's money it makes your head swim. They do not hear the cries of the citizens who are being forced from their homes monthly in droves due to their inability to pay their property taxes which are the second highest in ENTIRE STATE OF TEXAS!

Let Steve Ortega defend his tax the people to death and let them eat cake attitude. Mr. Munoz' letter is interesting and should be read carefully.