Over the last two weeks, Republicans have sent in letters to the editor in support of my campaign. Please take two minutes to share them with your Republican friends.

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AUSTIN, TX – Former Texas Supreme Court Justice Jack Hightower weighed in today, endorsing Keith Hampton for Presiding Judge of the Court of Criminal Appeals. Hightower joins Hampton’s endorsement from Judge Morris Overstreet, the first African-American elected statewide, announced two weeks ago.

“I have known Keith almost his whole life,” said Hightower, who knows Keith from his hometown roots in his district (Burkburnett, Texas). “He was voted best qualified by my fellow lawyers and judges, and won Lawyer of the Year just in the last five years. He is an accomplished lawyer and legal scholar, and I don’t know why anyone wouldn’t vote for him.”

Justice Hightower served the Texas Supreme Court for almost ten years before retiring. He has previously served as District Attorney, Texas State Senator, and Congressman for a North and West district spanning 33 counties, from Wichita Falls to Amarillo. Continue reading →

AUSTIN, TX – Today, former Court of Criminal Appeals Judge Morris Overstreet announced his endorsement of Keith Hampton for Presiding Judge of the Court of Criminal Appeals.

“Keith is exactly what the Court needs right now,” Overstreet said. “He has the intelligence, judicial temperament and integrity to mark a new day for the Court.”

Judge Overstreet was the first African-American elected to a statewide office in Texas history when he became a Judge on the Court of Criminal Appeals. A former prosecutor and judge from Amarillo, Overstreet served the Court for eight years, during which he authored over five hundred opinions.

“Keith Hampton will bring a depth and scope of scholarship and experience that will enrich the Court,” Overstreet said. “And I have no doubt he will ensure intellectually honest opinions.”

Hampton is running against Judge Sharon Keller, the incumbent judge who was condemned by the State Commission on Judicial Conduct and punished with the largest fine in Texas history by the Texas Ethics Commission for her actions related to a death penalty case.

Posted: Brains and Eggs Blog
Sunday, August 19, 2012

Keith Hampton is the Democrat running for Presiding Judge of theTexas Court of Criminal Appeals. His opponent is the most reprehensible Republican serving in the entire judicial system in Texas, Sharon “Killer” Keller. There is no Libertarian or Green on the November ballot. In Hampton’s own words, here is one sentence about the incumbent.

(Keller) is the judge who shut the courthouse doors promptly at 5PM to a death-sentenced inmate, and agreed that poor people aren’t entitled to lawyers who remain awake during trial.

Keller tried to get Hampton removed from the ballot by challenging his petition signatures, but that effort failed. Hampton has outraised Keller over 60 to 1 in the most recent fundraising period. When Hampton ran for the CCA in 2010, he received broad bipartisan support, and that is once again the case in 2012. We have previously seen what happens when Republicans publicly reject Republican judges who betray the public trust.

Here’s Scott Henson at Grits for Breakfast, outlining the pitch-perfect strategy Hampton must pursue if he is to win.

Judge Keller, the self-styled, “pro-prosecution” judge, has so much baggage coming in it’d be hard to know where to attack first. The findings of facts against her by the Commission on Judicial Conduct were damning and provide ample fodder for campaign attacks. (Her punishment was overturned as illegal but the findings of fact on the merits remained untouched in a circus-like tragi-comedy that embarrassed the court and the state.) Keller was also fined by the Ethics Commission $100,000 for failing to disclose a vast web of financial entanglements. (See the ruling [pdf].)

Even more than those dark moments, though, many of her opinions and dissents contain jaw-dropping pro-government assumptions that could be mined for anti-populist material that would make any good Tea-Party type cringe. Just as Governor Perry’s greatest political achievement has been to maximize power over state agencies through appointments of political allies, creating a (relatively) strong executive where Texas historically had a weak one, Judge Keller’s principal achievement as the CCA’s Presiding Judge has been to oversee (and arguably principally author) an expansionist accumulation of government power by law enforcement and prosecutors over nearly two decades. A comprehensive vetting of her opinions by a campaign researcher would yield lots of attack fodder. But (Hampton) must undertake that work, then use the information to construct and deliver political attacks: That’s the piece that I’m not sure is going to happen, though there’s still time.

Most recently, the state of Texas executed a man whose IQ of 61 defined him as retarded. Though the United States Supreme Court has ruled that mentally incapacitated people are not to be executed, Sharon Keller — and Antonin Scalia – made sure he was put to death anyway.

Keith Hampton is the only sane option for Democrats, Greens, Libertarians, and Republicans. Period, end of story.

Hampton has a Facebook page, and here’s his Twitter feed. Do what you can: volunteer, donate, advocate. We can’t begin to change much in Texas until we rid our government of fiends like Sharon Keller.

Posted by PDiddie, aka Perry Hussein Dorrell