A PAC funded by North Texas billionaires targets ‘soft on crime’ judges with questionable claims

  

It’s hard to miss the provocative advertisements popping up across North Texas — on television, in the mail and in YouTube videos — with one clear message as election day looms near: “soft-on-crime” Democratic judges in Dallas who let criminals out on the streets are to blame for crime in the city.

Similar ads are appearing across the state. The solution, according to these ads? “Tough-on-crime” Republican judges.

It’s part of a campaign by the Judicial Fairness Political Action Committee, which has supported Republican judicial candidates across the state. The group raised $8.3 million in only three months this year from Texas billionaires and companies who regularly support conservative candidates and PACs.

The PAC’s ads aim their criticism at decisions made about whether criminal defendants should be granted bail – which is a magistrate or district court judge’s responsibility.

But the PAC’s actual targets play a very different role in the judicial system, experts say.

According to its website, the PAC is only endorsing intermediate appellate court judge candidates across the state. Those judges have almost no role in deciding bail or presiding over criminal cases. But what they can do, experts say, is rule on cases that can impact big business.

Down-ballot judicial races typically don’t attract voter or media interest, so it might be difficult for voters to figure out who they want to put on the bench — and why they should care.

“Everybody knows Cruz versus Allred,” said Cal Jillson, a political science professor at Southern Methodist University. “And they may well know the legislators in their district. But when they get down into the judges — which is the bottom half of the ballot — virtually no voter knows both of the candidates in a judge race.”

Early voting ends Nov. 1 and election day is Nov. 5. Here’s what to know about a major player in Texas judicial elections this year.

Who’s funding the Judicial Fairness PAC?

The claims tying Democratic elected officials to higher crime rates aren’t new, but legal and political experts say the sheer amount of money and power being put into Texas judicial elections has ramped up.

The top five donors to the Judicial Fairness PAC each gave the group $1 million between July 1 and Sept. 26, according to the PAC’s Oct. 7 campaign finance report.

Among them is Ken Fisher, the billionaire founder and executive chairman of Fisher Investments, a financial advising firm based in Plano. Fisher and his wife gave $250,000 to former President Donald Trump’s 2020 campaign, Forbes reported.

Fisher said he relocated his company’s headquarters from Washington to Texas last year because Washington’s Supreme Court upheld state lawmakers’ decision to impose a tax on capital gains above a certain amount, which Fisher saw as an undercover form of income tax in a state that doesn’t have one. Fisher denied the move was a political one.

Ross Perot Jr., scion of one of Dallas’ wealthiest and most influential families, founded and chairs the real estate development company Hillwood, which donated to the Judicial Fairness PAC. Perot also donated to Trump’s 2020 campaign but supported Nikki Haley in this year’s Republican presidential primary.

Other notable donors who gave under $1 million include oil and gas company ConocoPhillips, Hilcorp founder Jeffery Hildebrand and Phillip Huffines, twin brother of Republican former Dallas-area state Sen. Don Huffines.

Phillip Huffines donated to Judicial Fairness PAC individually along with his real estate company Huffines Communities.

KERA reached out to Huffines Communities for comment. Don Huffines — co-owner of Huffines Communities — issued a statement on behalf of himself and his brother through a spokesperson.

“The Courts of Appeal are the last line of defense for keeping our communities safe, and we are committed to educating citizens that a vote for Democrat Judges is a vote against public safety,” Don Huffines said.

Other donors listed did not respond to requests for comment.

When parties in civil and criminal cases are unhappy with a lower court’s ruling, the next step is to make an appeal to one of the state’s 15 intermediate appellate courts, which are below the Texas Supreme Court and Court of Criminal Appeals.

The group’s supporting the reelection of Emily Miskel, the lone Republican on the Dallas-area Fifth Court of Appeals. Republican criminal district court judge and former Dallas County commissioner J.J. Koch is running against Democrat Staci Williams to be the court’s top justice.

All the court’s Democratic judges are facing Republican challengers endorsed by the Judicial Fairness PAC. They include Jessica Lewis, a Dallas attorney at a boutique bankruptcy and mediation law firm; Cynthia Barbare, whose Dallas law practice includes criminal defense and immigration; Matthew Kolodoski, a litigation attorney at Thompson, Coe, Cousins and Irons; and Gino Rossini, another Thompson Coe attorney specializing in state and federal civil appeals.

These candidates did not respond to requests for comment. All the justices on the Fort Worth-area Second Court of Appeals are Republican and have no challengers.

A spokesperson for the Judicial Fairness PAC said in a statement the group is focused on highlighting the consequences Dallas’ Democratic judiciary has had on the city’s crime and endorsing the right judges and judicial candidates up and down the ballot.

“Both the appellate courts and trial courts have criminal jurisdiction, and the appellate courts influence how trial courts conduct themselves,” the statement reads. “It’s critical that we have rule-of-law judges in these seats to protect our communities.”

Despite the Judicial Fairness PAC’s crime-centric political advertising, Jillson said the group’s backers are likely more interested in the financial benefits of supporting more conservative judges and judicial candidates rather than social issues.

“Petty crime is not what they’re thinking about,” he said. “What they’re thinking about is a judiciary that will work with the Texas Legislature not to drive additional costs from regulation and legislation into their businesses so that more money drops straight to the bottom line.”

Some influential figures have recently made moves to suggest that. Elon Musk donated $1 million to Texans for Lawsuit Reform, a group that has mostly backed the state’s Republican judicial candidates. TLR is also known for lobbying for tort reform, making it harder for individuals to sue businesses and helping to make Texas a friendlier state for corporations like Musk’s Tesla and SpaceX.

Democratic groups are also trying to draw voters’ attention to the judiciary. A local mailer from Democrats for Judge accuses “GOP extremists” of using the state’s new business courts and the 15th Court of Appeals — which are all made of judges appointed by Gov. Greg Abbott — to control the state’s courts and undermine Texans’ votes.

But because voters know less about down-ballot judicial races, political advertising like the Judicial Fairness PAC’s doesn’t necessarily need to be entirely factual or informative, Jillson said — it needs to reinforce partisanship.

“It buttresses the Republican brand much more than it identifies individual judges who need to be removed from the bench in favor of more conservative judges,” he said.

Does Dallas have more crime than Fort Worth?

With a few exceptions, most judges in Dallas County are Democrats. All the same judicial positions in Tarrant County are held by Republicans.

One Judicial Fairness PAC ad says despite the slight difference in size between the two cities — Dallas is the ninth most populated city in the United States and Fort Worth is the 12th, according to U.S. Census data — Dallas has 30 times more drug crime and 60 times more car theft than Fort Worth.

Those figures come from a July Dallas Express story based on the Metroplex Civic and Business Association’s analysis of reported crimes in downtown Dallas compared to downtown Fort Worth for June 2024. The study found that in that month, there were 58 motor vehicle thefts in Dallas compared to one in Fort Worth and 27 drug violations compared to one in Fort Worth.

The reason behind figures like these, Judicial Fairness PAC concludes, is that Democratic judges in Dallas give criminal defendants little or no bail, and those people go on to commit other offenses.

The study’s analysis uses the Dallas Express’ own crime score system to assign each category of crime a subjective value and multiply the number of incidents by that value to give each city’s downtown a crime score.

It can also be difficult to tell what causes higher crime rates in one city versus another when factors like demographics, geographic size, the economy and policing also play a role.

So, how do judges decide whether a defendant should be kept in jail for the safety of the community or may be let out on bail? They consider things like the defendant’s criminal history, whether the person has kids and whether other conditions can be imposed on the person to ensure they return to court, said Jenny Carroll, a criminal law professor at the Texas A&M University School of Law.

But it’s far from a perfect process, she said, and judges sometimes get it wrong.

“People, it turns out, are not good psychics,” Carroll said. “And that’s true whether or not you’re trying to figure out lottery numbers, and it’s also true whether or not you’re trying to figure out if someone poses a risk pretrial.”

Other ads and mailers say Dallas police “want Democrat judges held accountable,” pointing to Dallas Police Chief Eddie Garcia’s comments in a 2022 WFAA article in which he expressed concerns over defendants arrested for violent crimes being released from jail after having their bonds lowered.

The ads prompted a response from Garcia, who in a statement said he was aware of the ads and mailers using his comments — with at least one including his photo — but they don’t have his stamp of approval.

“I want to make it unequivocally clear that I have not approved or endorsed this use, nor have I consented to being associated with these political campaigns or messages,” Garcia said. “I demand that the unauthorized use of my name, image, and likeness in these advertisements immediately cease.”

The party affiliations of appeals court judges often align with the counties in their jurisdiction. Jillson said it might be easier for a PAC to try to flip appellate court seats in its favor as opposed to district courts. Lower court judges are rarely defeated because their districts are narrower and more likely to remain staunchly red or blue, he said, while appellate district boundaries can be gerrymandered to represent mostly Republicans or Democrats.

Dallas appellate attorney Chad Ruback has a different take. After practicing in front of these courts for almost 30 years, Ruback said he doesn’t believe it makes much of a difference whether a Democrat or a Republican has a seat on the appeals court bench — at least, not as much as people may think. Most appellate judges’ rulings, he said, are defined by what the Texas Supreme Court and the Court of Criminal Appeals have already ruled.

Still, Ruback urged voters to do their own research on as many judicial races as they can. Most people don’t expect to be arrested, sued or otherwise interact with the legal system — but it happens.

“Even if we don’t need the legal system, we’re going to have friends, relatives, colleagues who will at some point need the legal system,” he said. “And it’s in our best interest to educate ourselves about the judicial candidates and make sure we have the best judges possible.”

Editor’s note: The Perot Family Foundation is among KERA’s recent financial supporters.

Correction: This story has been updated to reflect that Don Huffines, co-owner of Huffines Communities, responded to a request for comment from KERA News. A statement issued by Don Huffines through a spokesman on behalf of Huffines and his brother Phillip has been added.

Got a tip? Email Toluwani Osibamowo at tosibamowo@kera.org. You can follow Toluwani on X @tosibamowo.

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