Dallas CQJ Releases List of Qualified Judicial Candidates for 2010 Democratic Primary

The non-partisan Committee for a Qualified Judiciary is announcing its slate of candidates in contested primary elections who have earned a rating as qualified to hold office in the Dallas County judiciary. The primary election in Dallas County will be held on Tuesday, March 2, with early voting beginning on Tuesday, Feb. 16.

[USPRwire, Tue Jan 26 2010] The non-partisan Committee for a Qualified Judiciary is announcing its slate of candidates in contested primary elections who have earned a rating as qualified to hold office in the Dallas County judiciary. The primary election in Dallas County will be held on Tuesday, March 2, with early voting beginning on Tuesday, Feb. 16.

The only contested judicial primary elections are in the Democratic Party, therefore Republican Party candidates were not evaluated at this time. The CQJ will evaluate judicial candidates of both parties for the November 2010 general election prior to the early voting period, which begins on Oct.18.

The CQJ invited each of the 40 candidates who filed in the 17 contested races in the Democratic Party primary to participate in the CQJ’s evaluation process, and 37 of the candidates responded. Candidates were evaluated based on their legal abilities, integrity, judicial temperament and commitment to the fair and impartial administration of justice.

In addition to personal interviews, the CQJ’s evaluation panels reviewed public records as well as questionnaires submitted by the candidates, and conducted reference and background checks. In many of the contested races, each of the candidates was found to be qualified.

A total of 30 judicial candidates have been endorsed as qualified by the CQJ in the Democratic primary. In alphabetical order, by Court, they are:

68th Judicial District Martin Hoffman
134th Judicial District David Kelton, Dale Tillery
203rd Judicial District Susan Anderson, Teresa Hawthorne
Davey Lamb
254th Judicial District David Hanschen, James Martin
256th Judicial District David Lopez
265th Judicial District Manny Alvarez, Mark Stoltz
291st Judicial District Susan Hawk
363rd Judicial District Tracey Holmes
304th Family District Court Nicolas “Nick” Quezada
Criminal District Court No. 7 Mike Snipes
County Court at Law No. 5 Mark Greenberg, Gerald Livingston
County Criminal Court No. 2 Lennox Bower, Julia Hayes
County Criminal Court No. 5 Hector Garza, John Loza, Etta Mullin,
Ann Rust
County Criminal Court No 7 John Carlough, Elizabeth Crowder
County Criminal Court No. 8 Joseph Ramirez Miller, Tina Yoo
Count Criminal Court of Appeals No.1 Kristin Wade
County Probate Court No. 1 John Peyton, Brenda Hull Thompson

The CQJ consists of 145 attorneys, business and civic leaders from all parts of Dallas County. The Committee was formed more than 25 years ago to provide useful, non-partisan information that allows citizens to make informed voting choices. More information about the CQJ may be found at www.cqjdallas.org.