Mike Keasler

In the statewide race for Place 6 on Texas’ highest criminal court, the Court of Criminal Appeals, Austin defense attorney Keith Hampton lost his bid to unseat incumbent GOP Judge Mike Keasler, taking just 37% of the vote. But Hampton was not at all disappointed by the race he ran: “It may be the defense lawyer in me,” he says. “I did everything I could: I worked hard.” For sure, the CCA has been an all-but-impossible nut to crack for Dems since they lost their last seat on this court – when retiring Travis County Judge Charlie Baird lost this same seat to Keasler in 1998. Since then the court – like the state Supreme Court – has been the sole domain of Republicans, and, at least for now, it will remain that way. Hampton is a pragmatic optimist and feels that his loss is nothing more than a motion of the wave of GOP voters who have made the 2010 midterm election theirs. “I’d feel bad if I’d screwed it up or had forgotten to do something,” he said. But he didn’t; it’s just the way the numbers crumbled. But, he said, just because things haven’t gone the Dems’ way in 2010, it would be a mistake to consider them out for the count. “Democrats do not give up,” he said.

Court of Criminal Appeals, Supreme Court

CCA, Place 2 Travis County Statewide
Lawrence Meyers (R)* 111,579 65% 3,284,652 83%
J. Randell Stevens (L) 60,492 35% 682,753 17%
CCA, Place 5
Cheryl Johnson (R)* 115,702 66% 3,202,128 83%
Dave Howard (L) 58,766 34% 659,914 17%
CCA, Place 6
Michael E. Keasler (R)* 91,618 40% 2,902,673 60%
Keith Hampton (D) 126,771 55% 1,755,784 37%
Robert Ravee Virasin (L) 11,056 5% 142,377 3%
Supreme Court, Place 3
Debra Lehrmann (R)* 97,140 42% 2,902,993 60%
Jim Sharp (D) 124,749 54% 1,805,837 37%
William Bryan Strange III (L) 10,501 5% 138,579 3%
Supreme Court, Place 5
Paul Green (R)* 92,271 40% 2,898,517 60%
Bill Moody (D) 128,149 55% 1,786,005 37%
Tom Oxford (L) 10,954 5% 144,009 3%
Supreme Court, Place 9
Eva Guzman (R)* 94,460 41% 2,917,667 60%
Blake Bailey (D) 123,537 53% 1,722,332 36%
Jack Armstrong (L) 13,167 6% 197,580 4%

This article appears in November 5 • 2010.

A note to readers: Bold and uncensored, The Austin Chronicle has been Austin’s independent news source for over 40 years, expressing the community’s political and environmental concerns and supporting its active cultural scene. Now more than ever, we need your support to continue supplying Austin with independent, free press. If real news is important to you, please consider making a donation of $5, $10 or whatever you can afford, to help keep our journalism on stands.

SUPPORT US