Judicial positions are the hardest political positions for voters because the issues are not those that we face everyday. With this series of Judicial Questions and Answers, I hope to give Harris County Republican voters the same type of information that Democratic voters have had for some time by way of Charles Kuffner's Off the Kuff political blog.

Mr. Kuffner has graciously allowed me to use his standardized questions for this exercise. This morning, I sent out this message to all candidates in contested judicial races on the Harris County Republican Party 2010 Primary ballot.

Dear Candidate,

Hi, my name is David Jennings and I write about Harris County politics on Big Jolly Politics. I have been doing a series of posts about various races, letting the candidates get their message out in their own words. You can view an example here: HCRP Chair Candidates: The Issues in Their Own Words.

Because of the different nature of judicial races, I'm doing something slightly different. I'm joining in with Charles Kuffner of Off The Cuff and asking each candidate the same set of questions. Charles has done this in the past and it has been very effective, but he only features Democratic candidates. I want Republicans to have the same exposure. He has already posted 14 of them, you can view the responses here: 2010 Judicial Q&A's.

Here are the seven standardized questions (note that I added a question about the Republican Primary):

1. Who are you, and what are you running for?

2. What kind of cases does this court hear?

3. Why are you running for this particular bench?

4. What are your qualifications for this job?

5. Why is this race important?

6. Why should people vote for you in the primary?

7. Why did you choose to run in the Republican Primary versus the Democratic Primary?

Any responses will be published verbatim without commentary or editing, exactly as those on Off the Kuff. The responses will be published in the order received.

If you do choose to respond, and I certainly hope that you do, it would be helpful to include a picture and all of your campaign information, such as website, facebook, twitter, youtube, etc.

Thanks for your time,

David Jennings

Big Jolly Politics

832-922-5693

Note that I sent the questions only to those candidates in contested races. If you are a candidate in an uncontested race and would like to participate, by all means feel free to send me your information. I will merge any question and answers received into the 2010 Primary Election pages.

The more information voters have, the better, especially since the races are considered partisan. Murry Newman notes the irony in having judges in partisan races while the City of Houston Mayor's race is considered non-partisan over at his blog, Life at the Harris County Criminal Justice Center.

In a case worse than the Farb/Palmer combination, you have people like Terry Lowry -- a Religious Right Activist who has proven himself to be the pimple on the butt of the Republican Party time and again. You may remember this dim-witted rodent from the 2008 political campaign. He was the one that Pat Lykos paid to support her in his National Enquirer -esque "LinkLetter", which is a publication he puts out in support of candidates who give him money. His petty game is to attempt to slander his candidate's opponent into submission.

Heh. I kind of like that description of the despicable one. Unfortunately, I think that these races are not going to be non-partisan any time soon and besides, non-partisan races are not immune from the very thing that Murray points to. Anyone remember Annise Parker and the Cowboy Logic wing going nuts?

Hopefully, most Republican judicial candidates will turn away from Mr. Lowry and his tactics and speak directly to the voters. I'm going to give them every opportunity I can.