A significant portion of the races on this year’s election ballot are for judicial positions, ranging from local justices of the peace to state appellate courts to Texas Supreme Court and Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.

Texas is one of only two states that has two, rather than one, courts of last resort. The Texas Supreme Court is the final arbiter for all civil cases; the Court of Criminal Appeals is the final arbiter for all criminal cases.

Before cases reach either court of last resort — if appealed — they are heard in a state appellate court. The state is divided into 14 court of appeals districts, and each court hears primary appeals from trial courts within its district.

San Angelo is in the 3rd Court of Appeals, which spans 24 counties, including Travis County, where Austin is.

The court is often described as the most important or influential intermediate appellate court because it rules on the cases that arise from state agencies in Austin.

“It really is the most important court in the state,” said Democrat Kurt Kuhn, who is running against Republican Melissa Goodwin for an open seat on the court.

“Because it sits in Austin, it hears all the cases of all the government agencies. If you care about the environment or education or agriculture or water or public corruption — any of the issues we care about as Americans — this is the court that they go to. This court affects every single Texan every day, whether they know it or not.”

During a recent visit to San Angelo, Kuhn said he has seen the court’s reputation deteriorate throughout the past decade as the turnover rate and backlog has increased. When he heard that Justice Jan Patterson was not going to seek re-election for the Place 4 seat, he said he felt “an obligation” to run.

Goodwin said she decided to run for the 3rd Court because of the diverse issues it hears. It is responsible for reviewing the decisions made by criminal and civil trial courts in the district.

“It’s got everything. That’s the beauty of it,” Goodwin said during a recent visit to San Angelo.

“It’s not just civil, it’s not just juvenile, it’s not just criminal, it’s not just administrative — it’s all of it. That’s what’s fun.”

Goodwin, who practices law privately at an Austin firm, was appointed by Gov. Rick Perry in 2007 to serve as judge of the 427th District Court of Travis County, which was created by the state Legislature in 2007. She served on that court for a year before making an unsuccessful re-election bid.

The 45-year-old St. Mary’s law school graduate started out her career at the Texas Criminal Court of Appeals, where she worked as a briefing attorney under Lawrence Meyers, the first Republican elected to the court.

After that, she practiced law privately and later was elected as a justice of the peace in Travis County, where she served one term and made another unsuccessful re-election bid.

Goodwin says after a few years in private practice, she is ready to get back to the bench.

She says she likes being a judge because it involves dealing with the law “from the perspective of hearing everything from the one side, hearing everything from the other and then trying to sort it all out,” rather than advocating for one side or the other.

“I’m just excited about getting back to that,” she said.

Kuhn, who has been endorsed by three former members of the Texas Supreme Court, who are all Republican, has practiced appellate law at an Austin-based firm for the past decade and teaches appellate advocacy at the University of Texas School of Law. He began practicing appellate law privately after working as a clerk for a Republican-appointed federal district judge and a private international law firm in Dallas.

Later, the 40-year-old Yale Law School graduate became one of the state’s first assistant solicitor generals when the office was established under U.S. Sen. John Cornyn when he was Texas’ attorney general.

Kuhn says the 3rd Court’s backlog is the result of an increased partisan environment in the judiciary that is hurting the court’s efficiency.

“The reality is, we need to make these races less partisan so when the court gets together, it can work together,” Kuhn said.

Kuhn says practicing appellate law has taught him that experience trumps party affiliation entirely.

“I worked in the White House, and I worked for Sen. John Cornyn. In neither of those instances did it ever matter what the politics were,” he said. “I have to run as a Democrat, but I’m running not to be a Democrat but to be a judge,” Kuhn said.

Goodwin, who said she successfully dealt with a backlog problem as a justice of the peace, blames the problem on the court’s high turnover rate.

“There has been so much transition on that court,” Goodwin said. “I don’t know what the true situation is, but that’s something that has to be addressed.”

Asked if there are any other problems facing the court she would address if elected, Goodwin points to some criminal cases the court has decided in which civil judgment standards have been applied.

“Importing civil standards, civil tasks and standards of proof into the criminal context causes problems, and I’d like to take a closer look at that,” Goodwin said. “It shifts burdens, and that creates problems under the Constitution.”

See the original article in the San Angelo Standard-Times.

The Austin-based 3rd Court of Appeals, now evenly split between Democrats and Republicans, would swing to a 4-2 GOP advantage if Melissa Goodwin can defeat Kurt Kuhn in November’s election.

Both candidates stress their experience: Goodwin as a former judge who also worked as a lawyer for the state’s highest criminal appellate court ; Kuhn as a board-certified appellate specialist who teaches the subject at the University of Texas Law School .

But in a district where close races are the norm — the last seven winners, four Republicans and three Democrats, received an average of 51.6 percent of the vote — Democrat Kuhn is banking on support that crosses party lines.

Three former Supreme Court justices, all longtime Republicans, are supporting Kuhn as the most qualified candidate and sponsored a September fundraiser for him in downtown Austin.

Former Justice Scott Brister, who left the Supreme Court last year, said Kuhn’s “smarts, skills and experience” made him one of the state’s leading appellate lawyers. Fellow Republicans Tom Phillips, a former chief justice, and Craig Enoch, who left the court in 2003, also endorsed Kuhn, who runs the appellate practice group for the Brown McCarroll law firm.

“I have to run as a partisan because it’s a partisan election, but I’ve tried really hard to run a nonpartisan race,” Kuhn said, adding that the bipartisan backing “sends a strong signal about who’s clearly the most qualified candidate. I’m the only one in the race who actually is an appellate lawyer. It’s what I do for a living.”

Goodwin, however, is not conceding the fight over experience, noting that she’s the only 3rd Court candidate to have served as a judge.

Gov. Rick Perry appointed Goodwin to a newly created District Court bench in 2007, but Travis County voters replaced her with a Democrat 15 months later. Goodwin also served as a Travis County justice of the peace from 2003 to 2007.

“As a judge, I presided over civil, criminal and juvenile trials and administrative proceedings,” Goodwin said. “You have the luxury, and the duty, to listen to all sides and call the fairs and the fouls. It will make me a much better appellate judge.”

Goodwin also spent her first eight years as a lawyer working as a staff attorney and briefing attorney at the Court of Criminal Appeals , the state’s highest criminal court. She said working up cases and writing draft opinions gave her an appreciation for the nuances of appellate law.

Goodwin, however, enters the campaign’s final weeks at a distinct financial disadvantage, having raised a little more than $95,200, including a $25,000 loan, compared with almost $305,000 for Kuhn. As of Sept. 23, Kuhn had almost $146,000 available; Goodwin had about $31,300.

The winner will replace Justice Jan Patterson, a Democrat who had hoped to move to a District Court bench but lost in the March primaries.

No third-party candidates are vying for the 3rd Court, which handles appeals from 24 counties, including Travis, Williamson, Hays and Bastrop.

See the original article in the Austin American-Statesman.

In the Central Texas judicial community, Republican Melissa Goodwin and Democrat Kurt Kuhn are causing a much bigger stir than Gov. Rick Perry or Bill White.

The two candidates for the 3rd Court of Appeals are campaigning in a battleground district of 24 diverse counties for the seat Justice Jan Patterson is vacating. Whoever wins will walk into a backlogged court many appellate lawyers describe as “not too collegial.” Kuhn is ahead in fundraising and headline-making endorsements. He’s raised nearly $300,000 and still has about $146,000 on hand. Goodwin has raised about $60,000 and has about $30,000 on hand. Still, she has Republican fervor and the resulting down-ballot effect on her side.

Goodwin  has served as a district court judge in the 427th district of Travis County, and justice of the peace in Travis County Precinct 3. She also worked at the Court of Criminal Appeals as a staff attorney. She currently practices civil, criminal defense and administrative law at Pots & Reilly, L.L.P. in Austin and Marble Falls.

“The biggest difference between us is the judicial experience,” Goodwin said. She added that her JP experience taught her how to reduce backlog.

But, Kuhn says his experience as an appellate lawyer is what counts. He is a partner and chair at Brown McCarroll and adjunct professor of appellate advocacy at the University of Texas School of Law.

“I’ve handled complex administrative appeals,” Kuhn said. “My opponent has no real experience as an appellate advocate, and that’s why my campaign has crossover support from Republican justices.”

Kuhn received endorsements from former Supreme Court Chief Tom Phillips and former Supreme Court Justices Scott Brister and Craig Enoch. Brister said his endorsement wasn’t necessarily against Goodwin; he just doesn’t know her, and he respects Kuhn’s work.

Travis County GOP spokesman Dave Nalle said the endorsements must be tied to the former justices’ current work as trial lawyers and that Goodwin is one of the only GOP candidates on the ballot universally liked among the Republican Party.

Kuhn’s supporters tout his advantage of being a household name in the appellate community.

“Goodwin has criminal law experience, and I don’t want to downplay that,” said Austin appellate lawyer Todd Smith. “But the consensus among appellate lawyers is that Kurt is the better-qualified candidate.”

Both candidates have to put a lot of miles on their cars in hopes voters will recognize their names at the bottom of the ballot on Nov. 2. With 24 counties to cover, the district isn’t easy to call when it comes partisan politics. True blue Travis County is the most populous, but none of the other 23 voted in favor of Barack Obama in 2008.

Currently, three of the sitting judges are Democrats (including Patterson), and two are Republican. The sixth spot on the court is empty–vacated by Justice Alan Waldrop in September–and will be filled by a governor’s appointee, picked by the November winner in the Perry-White contest.

Chad Ruback, a Dallas appellate lawyer, said the 3^rd Court of Appeals is the only one out of the 14 in the state where being a Republican or Democrat can’t help or hurt you.

“Small matters like endorsements can actually make a difference,” Ruback said.

Another potential game-changer is a complaint filed with the Texas Ethics Commission against Goodwin, concerning a $25,000 campaign loan from her in-laws (over the state limit of $5,000). According to the Austin Chronicle‘s Jordan Smith, Goodwin repaid more than $20,000 of the loan to return to compliance. The complaint is still pending, but Goodwin says she didn’t do anything wrong, according to the Chronicle.

In the grander scheme, however, Republicans are expected to be out in full force for this election. Kuhn admits that it’s not the best year to be a Democrat, and while he characterizes Texans as independent voters, straight ticket voting is often the Lone Star way.

The Republican candidate has attended some Tea Party meetings – something Kuhn targets as a sign of her partisan campaign style. But Goodwin doesn’t see the connection.

“Any citizen gathering is something we should be going to, whether it’s an AFL-CIO picnic or a Tea Party meeting, 100 people or 1,000,” she said.

In the last decade, the court has built a poor reputation when it comes to case backlog, but Chief Justice Woodie Jones has made improvements since the beginning of this year. Some say it’s a matter of funding, but turnover and turmoil from the death of Justice Mack Kidd, Justice Bea Ann Smith’s retirement and Justice Waldrop’s resignation hasn’t helped. No one likes to talk specifics, but the current justices don’t exactly pal around.

The future of the 3rd Court of Appeals has people talking just as much as the campaign. The winner of this tough race won’t have much time to celebrate before taking the bench on a court with justices who don’t even hold conference together.

See the original article in the American Independent.

All Texas courts are important, but the Third Court of Appeals matters more than most. Because Travis County is among the 24 counties, including Tom Green, the district encompasses, it is the first appellate stop for all cases emanating from state government.

In the Place 4 race for the six-member court, Democrat Kurt Kuhn offers better credentials than his opponent, Republican Melissa Goodwin, a former Travis County district judge and justice of the peace.

A self-described “appellate nerd,” Kuhn’s career has been focused on that part of the law. Board certified in civil appellate law, Kuhn is a partner in the Brown McCarroll firm in Austin and leads its appellate work. He was assistant solicitor general under then-Attorney General John Cornyn, representing the state in civil and criminal appeals, and teaches appellate advocacy at the University of Texas School of Law.

He is considered the superior candidate by three former Republican Supreme Court justices, including former longtime Chief Justice Tom Phillips, who have endorsed Kuhn.

Too, they probably were motivated to support Kuhn because they think his presence can help get the court back on the right track. The court previously headed by San Angeloan Marilyn Aboussie once enjoyed an excellent reputation, but no longer.

The Third Court is marked by high turnover, a troubling backlog of cases and partisan rifts that interfere with its work.

Kuhn recognizes that he can’t change those conditions on his own, but he pledges to set an example of writing thoughtful, well-researched opinions in a timely fashion and working cooperatively with others on the court regardless of their party affiliation.

Kuhn’s background, record and temperament suggest he could be an excellent addition to the Third Court of Appeals.

See the original article in the San Angelo Standard-Times.

Judicial races

3rd Court of Appeals, Place 4: Kurt Kuhn

In the contentious 3rd Court of Appeals race, we have been disappointed by Melissa Goodwin’s run to the hard right, and we believe Kuhn will maintain necessary balance on the court.

See the original article in the Austin Chronicle.

See the original article in the Hays Free Press.

One of the saddest stories in the history of the Texas judiciary is the current state of the 3rd Court of Appeals.

Once considered one of the best — if not the best — intermediate appellate courts in the state, the 3rd Court has been battling high turnover, slow output and loss of respect.

The collegiality past justices of the 3rd Court of Appeals enjoyed and took pride in fostering is largely a thing of the past, which impedes the court’s improving, but still sluggish, productivity.

The court gets a close look from the business and legal communities because disputes arising from state agency regulations and administrative law end up there.

The selection of a successor to Justice Jan Patterson, who is leaving this year, will be crucial in determining the pace of the court’s recovery.

The race to fill the post Patterson is vacating pits Republican Melissa Goodwin, a former Travis County district judge, against Democrat Kurt Kuhn. On paper, they are a close match, but we believe Kuhn offers a better combination of legal knowledge, skills and temperament — qualities the court needs to restore its lost luster.

Kuhn, 40, is an appellate law specialist and partner at the Brown, McCarroll law firm. His peers respect him, as his showing in the State Bar poll shows. Kuhn also has demonstrated in campaigning for the job the ability to reach out to Republicans.

Legal and political eyebrows shot up when Kuhn announced endorsements from former Texas Supreme Court Chief Justice Tom Phillips and former Supreme Court justices Craig Enoch and Scott Brister, all Republicans.

The Texas Municipal Police Association also has endorsed Kuhn.

That ability to reach across judicial partisan lines is impressive, especially when you consider that retired Supreme Court justices rarely get publicly involved in a judicial race.

That kind of respect is what the court could use right now, along with a shot of energy that a new face and set of eyes will bring to a court that sorely needs help. The court covers 24 Central and West Texas counties, with San Angelo and Austin serving as its West-East anchors. Criminal and civil appeals from those counties end up in a stack to be assigned to the court’s six judges. And for too long, those stacks didn’t move far.

Some of the court’s problems can be assigned to high turnover, election defeats, one death and retirements.

Personality conflicts that contribute to poor communication between the justices who have been left further hinder productivity. And just when the court was regaining some ground, Justice Alan Waldrop resigned in the middle of his six-year term. The governor has yet to name a replacement. Whoever gets the appointment will have to run for re-election in two years.

The American-Statesman’s Chuck Lindell reported in January that the 3rd Court disposed of 82 of its oldest cases, including eight that had been awaiting disposition since 2004.

“Even so,” wrote Lindell, “the six-judge court had fallen so far behind that its docket still contains 39 cases that were filed more than two years ago, a wait time considered unacceptably long by most appellate professionals.”

Things are getting better, said Chief Justice Woodie Jones, but noted the court is a long way from its former glory. Jones and the other court members need help, and Kuhn is the best equipped to provide it.

See the original article in the Austin American-Statesman.

There are two things about the 3rd Court of Appeals race on which the candidates for the open Place 4 seat – Democrat Kurt Kuhn and Republican Melissa Goodwin – completely agree. The first is that the court is extremely important – the most important intermediate appellate court in the state. The second is that the great campaign challenge is explaining to voters why that is so. “People don’t pay a lot of attention [to judicial races], and this is a large district,” says Kuhn, who has logged more than 40,000 miles on his truck since announcing his candidacy in 2008. Goodwin, who has also clocked thousands of miles, agrees: “Explaining to [voters] why they should care about [the court] and getting voters beyond the, ‘Well, I kind of care …’” is the most challenging thing about this race, she said over the phone as she headed down the road to a Blanco campaign event.

The 3rd Court is one of 14 intermediate appellate courts across the state, and while it’s based in Austin, it considers cases from a 24-county region – stretching from Sterling and Irion counties in the west to Bell County in the north, Milam County in the east, and Comal and Caldwell counties in the South. The district comprises more than 1.4 million registered voters, yet in a good year, fewer than a third of those will actually cast a vote. There’s an inevitable downballot fatigue on judicial races, and when voters see unfamiliar names, those disinclined to vote straight-ticket will simply not vote in those races at all.

That makes both candidates anxious to get the word out, because of the importance of the 3rd Court. Aside from the typical civil and criminal appeals, the 3rd also hears cases brought from state agencies – everything from administrative appeals involving licensing disputes and water and electrical regulation to, importantly, public corruption cases. In short, this court routinely makes decisions that have statewide ramifications. “This is the most important court in the state because of the cases it hears,” says Kuhn. “They are cases that affect every single Texan.”

Kuhn and Goodwin have markedly different legal qualifications. Kuhn is an appellate lawyer by trade (he currently works in the appellate practice group at Brown McCarroll), is board certified in civil appellate work, and was previously an assistant solicitor general, representing the state on appeal in both criminal and civil matters. He has routinely practiced in front of the state courts of appeals, including the Texas Supreme Court, on up through the federal system, including the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals. Kuhn says he is uniquely qualified to join the court and assume his share of its large docket. As an appellate judge, “you have to explain how the case fits into the law and how the law fits into the case.” It means a lot of time spent “reading and writing,” much like his current job.

Goodwin, a former Precinct 3 Travis County justice of the peace, was appointed by Gov. Rick Perry in 2007 to serve as one of the county’s felony criminal district judges. (She ran for election to that seat in 2008, but, in stalwartly blue Travis County – and in the deeply navy blue local courthouse – she lost to her Democratic challenger.) Since then she’s been working at Potts & Reilly LLP, where she is a partner; her practice includes appellate, administrative, and criminal cases. Goodwin says her broad range of experience – importantly including her time on the district bench hearing criminal cases – makes her the best candidate. A good bit of the 3rd Court’s docket is criminal appeals, and she points to her bench criminal experience as unique – while dismissing altogether Kuhn’s criminal appeals experience.

For example, at a recorded Aug. 18 appearance at the Reclaim Our Constitution’s Vision rally in Warda, Goodwin declared that Kuhn has “no prosecutorial experience, he has no judicial experience, and he has little to no courtroom experience.” She also claimed that “he has no criminal experience whatsoever. And to me, that’s a problem.”

“Let me get this right,” responded a man in the audience. “We’re … potentially hiring somebody into that job that has no experience? Kind of like the president!” The partisan crowd erupted in applause and laughter. “You know, when you find these things out … go tell 10 friends for me,” said Goodwin.

Kuhn says that kind of misleading charge distinguishes Goodwin’s campaign from his own, and – in his campaign appearances, at least – he’s resisted the impulse to go negative. Judicial races, and particularly 3rd Court races, have become entirely too politically charged, he says. “You have to have faith that when somebody puts on the robe,” he adds, “they’re going to be fair.”

The Partisan Angle

The 3rd Court has traditionally been a focus of much political hand-wringing. Consid­er this fun fact: With the midterm resignation last month of Judge Alan Waldrop, the court is short a judge, and Waldrop’s Place 2 will be filled for the next two years by gubernatorial appointment. There remain just five sitting judges – and curiously, each has run a race against a colleague. The court is currently split down the middle with three Demo­crats (Justices Jan Patterson and Diane Henson and Chief Justice Woodie Jones) and three Republicans (Justices Bob Pem­ber­ton and David Puryear and, unless Perry is defeated in November, whomever he chooses to fill Waldrop’s spot).

In recent years, the split has created a constant partisan tug-of-war. Tinkering with the politics of the 3rd Court is among the main reasons that Place 4 Justice Patterson lost her bid in the March Democratic primary for a seat on the Travis County civil district bench. After last year’s untimely death of Judge Scott Ozmun, Patterson sought Perry’s appointment to that seat. She wasn’t successful – and she left many Democratic supporters wondering what she was thinking. Had Perry agreed to appoint her to a district court seat, he would then have been able to appoint another Republican to the 3rd Court. Accordingly, Democrats dealt Patterson an overwhelming defeat in favor of local attorney Amy Clark Meachum.

So party politics loom large in 3rd Court races, where the voting demographic runs from liberal Downtown Austin to the much more conservative edges of West Texas. Kuhn says he has made a decision to run a bipartisan campaign that focuses entirely on his qualifications. (That doesn’t mean others won’t raise the issue of partisan “balance,” as Democratic Rep. Mark Strama did during a rally last week at the Broken Spoke.) Kuhn’s done well with contributions – with more than $126,000 on hand at the end of the June reporting period – and scored key endorsements in July from three Republican former jurists from the Texas Supreme Court: former Chief Justice Tom Phillips and Justices Scott Brister and Craig Enoch. “Kurt Kuhn is undoubtedly the best candidate for this very important court,” Phillips said. Kuhn said that the three men had always told him that in the final analysis, “it’s not about politics but about who is the best candidate. So I called them on it.” It’s part of his concerted effort to move away from partisan bickering of any kind, says Kuhn. “I am running not to be a Democrat but to be a judge.”

Outside ‘Goofy Town’

Substitute “Republican” for “Democrat,” and Goodwin says the same thing. Indeed, on the district court bench, Goodwin enjoyed some crossover support from the Democratic lawyers who practiced before her – not a small feat for a Republican in Travis County. Entering this election cycle, that could help her. While the greatest concentration of 3rd Court voters is in Travis County and along the I-35 corridor, it is not possible to win without decent support from voters in the rural counties – a challenge for Democrats. Goodwin says that it’s been tough for her because running as a Republican from Austin means she gets it from both sides; Travis County voters are wary of her GOP credentials, while voters in more conservative areas question whether she’s Republican enough. “I’ve taken my lumps in this town for being a Republican. I’ve gotten some battle scars,” she says. “That hurt,” but, “once I put the robe on, I worry only about the law.” Her contributions have lagged considerably behind Kuhn’s – she had just more than $8,500 on hand as of June 30 – but she’s been able to pick up several notable endorsements, including that of the Austin Police Association PAC.

Goodwin has also gotten flak from the courthouse crowd for her appearances this summer at tea party functions and for on occasion referring to Austin at these events as “Goofy Town.” She says that while the criticisms that she’s been playing too much to partisan sensibilities hurt, neither does she run from the tea party connection. “I always thought of myself as a very conservative jurist,” she said. “People who are from the tea party …. What they consider to be a conservative jurist and what I consider a conservative jurist are the same: taking the law and considering the facts and letting the chips fall where they may.” If elected, she says, that’s exactly what she’ll do – consider only “what the law says or what the facts dictate.” She says she repeated the “Goofy Town” phrase she heard on KVET 98.1FM radio but that she meant it in a tongue-in-cheek, if not “self-deprecating,” way. “I’m a Republican from Travis County – that makes me a little bit of an oddball. It was not to slam this community,” she insists.

Goodwin also carries more substantive baggage as she heads into the final weeks. A complaint filed with the Texas Ethics Com­mis­sion about a $25,000 loan from her in-laws is pending; the law doesn’t allow for loans in excess of $5,000 from family members not related by blood. Goodwin says she doesn’t believe the loan is improper and that her attorney has drafted a response to the complaint filed by Texans for Public Justice. Nevertheless, she has repaid $20,274.26 to her in-laws (keeping the allowed $5,000). According to Craig McDonald of Texans for Public Justice, Goodwin could still face disciplinary action.

Beyond such campaign details, the political environment has changed dramatically in the 23 months since late 2008, when Kuhn announced his campaign. “There was no tea party when I started this; Obama was popular. But now,” he shrugs, the game has changed. Still, he’s running hard to the finish, as is Goodwin. “Throughout all of this, the politics don’t matter once you get in there,” says Goodwin. “I have no question in my mind that personal politics won’t come into play. Not for me.”

See the original article in the Austin Chronicle.

Like most judicial candidates — both Democratic and Republican — Kurt Kuhn likes to de-emphasize his party affiliation. But it’s not just because he wants voters to see him as an objective interpreter of the law — or because he’s a Democrat scared of hurting his election chances in a red state.The candidate for Texas’ 3rd District Court of Appeals, a 24-county district that includes San Angelo and Austin, says the increased partisan environment is hurting the court’s efficiency, resulting in a backlog of cases.

“The reality is, we need to make these races less partisan so when the court gets together, it can work together,” Kuhn said during a campaign stop in San Angelo on Thursday afternoon.

The 40-year-old Yale Law School graduate says practicing appellate law taught him that experience trumps party affiliation entirely.

“You don’t want that in a judge. You don’t want sometime to predetermine how a case should come out because of party,” he said.

Kuhn began practicing appellate law more than a decade ago after working as a clerk for a Republican-appointed federal district judge and a private international law firm in Dallas. In 1999, he became one of the state’s first assistant solicitor generals when the office was established under U.S. Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), who was then serving as the state attorney general.

“I worked in the White House, and I worked for Sen. John Cornyn. In neither of those instances did it ever matter what the politics were. … I have to run as a Democrat, but I’m running not to be a Democrat but to be a judge,” Kuhn said.

“I’ve been doing this my entire professional career, and I’ve never seen a single case where party affiliation should make a difference to how you decide the case.”

Kuhn has practiced appellate law at an Austin-based firm for the past decade and teaches appellate advocacy at the University of Texas School of Law.

Kuhn will face Republican Melissa Goodwin in the Nov. 2 general election. Goodwin has served as a Travis County Justice of the Peace, 427th District Court Judge in Travis County and as an attorney for Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, the final appellate court for all criminal cases in Texas. She practices appellate, civil, criminal and administrative law at an Austin-based law firm.

Kuhn says he’s running for the Third District Court of Appeals because it is the most important appellate court in the state, but that in the last decade “it has become way more partisan, it’s had the worst backlog of any appellate court in the state” and faced other issues that have led to inefficiency.

Kuhn said when he heard that Justice Jan Patterson was not going to seek re-election, he felt an obligation to give the Place 4 seat a shot.

“It really is the most important court in the state,” Kuhn said. “Because it sits in Austin, it hears all the cases of all the government agencies. … The truth is, if you care about the environment or education or agriculture or water or public corruption — any of the issues we care about as Americans — this is the court that they go to. This court affects every single Texan every day whether they know it or not.”

See the original article in the San Angelo Standard-Times.