David Schenck, the new presiding judge on Texas’ Court of Criminal Appeals , is on a mission to make sweeping changes to the rules governing judicial elections in the Lone Star State.
Right now, Schenck points out, anyone can donate to a judge’s political campaign in Texas, even if they are in the middle of a case the same judge will decide . There are few restrictions on how much they can give. And nothing in the law or ethics rules stops judicial candidates, including sitting judges, from asking those people for contributions directly.
“We need to do something about this,” Schenck, a Republican, said in an interview shortly before he took the bench in January…