Looks like Don Willet, the Perry crony appointed to the State Supreme Court last year, had taken a page out of Martha Wong’s playbook by listing endorsements he didn’t have among his supporters on his campaign page.
The campaign Internet site of Supreme Court Justice Don Willett claims support from seven Texas newspapers that have actually endorsed his Democratic opponent, Bill Moody.
Willett, a Republican appointed to the court by Gov. Rick Perry, said the Internet site was a mistake. He said the endorsements were left over from the GOP primary.
“Since my appointment 436 days ago, I’ve been zipping around the state at warp speed, and apparently my campaign hasn’t updated the supporters page of my Web site since before the March primary,” he said.
The newspapers’ names were removed from the site within two hours after reporters first began calling Willett.
Democratic consultant Glenn Smith, director of the Texas Progress Council, filed a complaint with the State Commission on Judicial Conduct.
Willett’s Web site lists support from the Houston Chronicle and the San Antonio Express-News, along with the Austin American-Statesman, The El Paso Times, The Dallas Morning News, the Victoria Advocate and the Waco Tribune-Herald.
This BOR diary shows what those newspapers actually said about the general election and Willet’s far superior opponent, Bill Moody. Though the Willet page does now reflect reality, I should note that the Morning News made its endorsement on September 13, so it’s not like his campaign didn’t have any time to do the necessary updates. It shouldn’t have taken this long, but better late than never, I suppose.
That story is getting a lot of play today. Hope it will draw attention to this down-ballot race.
Moody is a great candidate, probably the first challenger to a Republican supreme court incumbent to receive endorsements from the Houston, Dallas, San Antonio, Austin, El Paso, and Fort Worth newspapers.
This is an important race. There are a few Republican moderates on the Texas Supreme Court (Jefferson, O’Neill, Medina, and sometimes Wainwright and even Brister), and the addition of a highly-qualified Democratic moderate could help swing this Court away from the far right end of the spectrum, where it has been stuck for 12 years. Green and Johnson are very new to the court and don’t seem to have found their voices yet. They could yet become thoughtful moderates.
But Willett is thoroughly partisan. This endorsement controversy also reflects poorly on his basic competence and sense of accountability.
If he were better qualified, he wouldn’t be “zipping around the state” full-time looking for Republican votes. It seems that we taxpayers are paying him a full-time salary but he’s not spending enough time at his desk in Austin.