July 22, 2007

Democrats Brace for Primary Fight
Between Criss and Yanez for Court

By Mike Hailey
Capitol Inside Editor

A primary battle that some Democrats hoped to prevent appears to be shaping up between State District Court Judge Susan Criss and state Appeals Court Judge Linda Yanez for the seat on the Texas Supreme Court currently occupied by Justice Phil Johnson.

While judicial races have failed over the years to generate substantial excitement outside of legal circles, the stakes are high in the fight for Place 8 on the state's highest civil court because it arguably represents the Democrats' best opportunity to break the Republican monopoly on statewide offices in Texas since the rise and fall of the so-called Dream Ticket in 2002.

Yanez - a judge of the 13th Court of Appeals and former Harvard Law School professor - was a member of the Democratic ticket that drew national acclaim five years ago before collapsing at the polls amid the GOP's statewide sweep. Yanex lost to a Republican incumbent, Mike Schneider, who'd been appointed to the Texas Supreme Court several months before the election by Republican Governor Rick Perry. Schneider, who received an appointment to a federal judgeship two years later, held Yanez to less than 42 percent of the vote in the 2002 race.

While Yanez was falling short in her statewide bid that year, Criss was winning re-election to a second term as on the 212th District Court bench in Galveston County with 54 percent of the vote against Republican Miles Whittington, a Galveston lawyer and municipal judge in Kemah. Criss improved the margin of victory when she beat Whittington again last year with support from 55 percent of the November voters.

Criss - the daughter of Galveston County Democratic Party Chairman Lloyd Criss - fared even better against Democratic opposition in her first two bids for the district court bench. She won the party's nomination in 1998 without a runoff in the face of opposition from Bob Moore and Elisa Vasquez. Four years later, Criss claimed the nomination again while running as an incumbent with almost 73 percent of the vote in a rematch with Vasquez, a Dickinson lawyer.

The Supreme Court contest will give Criss an opportunity to run a race in which her last name won't be as much of an asset as it has been in her bids for the district court bench. As a state representative for 12 years until leaving the House in 1991, Criss' father emerged as leading advocate in the lower chamber for organized labor. Lloyd Criss, a former labor leader himself, chaired the House Labor & Employment Relations Committee before leaving the House in 1991.

As a lobbyist for casinos in 1995, Lloyd Criss had a head-on confrontation with then-Lieutenant Governor Bob Bullock when he accused the powerful Democratic leader of giving prefererable treatment to dog and greyhound track owners when a casino bill died in a Senate committee. Criss contended that Bullock had pushed senators to kill the casino measure because his close friend, Parliamentarian Bob Johnson, had two sons who lobbied for racetrack interests. Criss lambasted Bullock as a dictator while Bullock called Criss a disgrace. After Johnson suffered a fatal heart attack about a week later, Bullock refused to comment when asked by reporters if he thought Criss' outburst might have contributed to the parliamentarian's death.

Despite the clash, Lloyd Criss went on to become both a county chair and member of the State Democratic Executive Committee and is also on U.S. Senator Hillary Clinton's Texas steering committee for her White House campaign.

Since winning a seat on the district court bench, Susan Criss has presided over high profile cases such as the legal battle stemming from the explosion at the BP Refinery near Houston and the bizarre murder trial of billionaire Robert Durst. She's the district director for the National Association of Women Judges and chair of a Gulf Coast MHMR on jail diversion programs for mentally ill defendants in criminal cases.

Yanez was appointed to the South Texas appeals court in 1993 by Democratic Governor Ann Richards - and she held the job by winning elections in 1994 and 1998 without opposition. Yanez was able to run for the Supreme Court in 2002 without giving up her appellate court seat.

Yanez has been a trailblazing jurist as the first Hispanic woman to ever serve on an appeals court in Texas and the first woman to ever hold a seat on the 13th Court of Appeals. She's represented the Mexican American Legal Defense Fund and the Mexican Consulate Generals office and served as a member of the United Nations' committee that concentrated on refugee issues.

Yanez has locked horns on a personal level with the Border Patrol, which she accused of using racial profiling of Hispanics after an incident involving her daughter. Yanez entered the field of law after being fired from her job as a school teacher when she became active in the Raza Unida Party. She's taught law at both Harvard and the University of Valencia in Spain.

Some Democrats have been concerned that a full-fledged battle between Yanez and Criss could drain resources that the primary winner will need in a general election battle with Johnson. But there are only three Supreme Court seats on the ballot in 2008 - and two of those are held by Chief Justice Wallace Jefferson and Justice Dale Wainwright - who are both African-American.

Johnson is one of the high court's newest members, having been appointed to the bench by Perry in 2005. Johnson was elected to the 7th Court of Appeals in 1998 and became chief justice after defeating Democrat Floyd Holder in 2002. Johnson won his current job when he claimed 76 percent of the vote against a Libertarian opponent with no challenge from Democrats in 2006.

Democrats are counting on a strong showing in Texas next year as a spillover result of national unrest over the Bush Administration's foreign policies. Democrats failed to capitalize on the national political mood when they did not field a strong statewide ticket in 2006. But they gained some momentum by picking up six state House seats at the polls last year and hope that will carry over into 2008.