Democratic State Supreme Court candidate William Moody, the official statewide Democratic candidate of the Dallas Morning News, is running an unusual campaign. More to the point, he’s walking an unusual campaign.
Judge Bill Moody of El Paso is running one of the more unconventional races for a seat on the Texas Supreme Court: He’s walking 1,017 miles, from the New Mexico border to Orange at the Louisiana border, in an effort to meet people the old-fashioned way.
“One of the reasons why I’m walking is that I think that the politicians and the people are losing connection,” Moody said several days ago as he reached the halfway mark of his epic campaign walk.
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Moody, 56, has been a state district judge for 19 years. He was a career prosecutor before advancing to the court. Moody ran unsuccessfully for the state Supreme Court four years ago when he challenged incumbent Chief Justice Wallace Jefferson in a traditional campaign.
“You fly into the cities and get off the airplane looking for the TV cameras and the $5,000 check and that’s about it. Everybody gets left out,” Moody said. “There’s a lot more to it than this.”
For Moody, that means logging between 23 and 27 miles a day. His cell phone allows him to thank supporters from the last town he visited, set up meetings for his next stop or chat on radio talk shows.
One of his favorite lines: “If you think it takes a long time to drive from El Paso to Austin, you ought to try to walk it.”
Moody plans to walk up Congress Avenue on Tuesday, with stops in the state Capitol and the Supreme Court building, where he hopes to land after the Nov. 7 election.
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“That’s the way our campaigns in Texas used to be done, but that’s not the way you do it now, if you have a choice,” [SMU poli sci prof Cal] Jillson said. “Gimmicks usually aren’t something you pick because you want to. It’s what’s left to you when you calculate your options.”
But Betty Allen of Fredericksburg doesn’t think Moody’s walk is a gimmick.
“A gimmick to walk in this weather, in this heat? I admire him very much,” she said after chatting with the judge.
“That’s a long walk. He’s got to be a strong believer in his cause to do this,” said Pedro Salinas of Fredericksburg.
That’s nice of y’all to say, but Jillson is right. This is a gimmick, though I don’t mean for that to sound as pejorative as it does. It’s hard to get coverage on a downballot race like this, which he has done, and he still managed to get the DMN endorsement. Good for Bill Moody, and long may he walk.
When Lawton Chiles first ran for the U.S. Senate from Florida he walked the state. Everyone at first said it was a gimmick but he won despite being greatly outspent and starting with no name recognition. That was a 1000 mile walk that got him his nickname Walkin’ Lawton. I don’t know if it was a different time then.