The Democratic candidate for Place 7 on the court was in Big Spring Wednesday as part of his “West Texas Whistle Stop” swing through this region of the state. While here, he discussed why he believes a change is needed at the court.

Houston graduated from Colorado City High School in 1981 before going on to the University of Texas and Baylor Law School. For the past several years, he has been a partner in the Houston law firm of Cruse, Scott, Henderson and Allen, specializing in malpractice, board complaints, business litigation and general liability law.

For years, he has been active in Democratic politics in Harris County. After years of urging others to run the office, he decided the time was right to take the plunge himself.

“I wasn't going to run,” he said. “For years, I wondered why Democrats weren't running for the Supreme Court ... and my wife finally told me it was time to put my money where my mouth is.”

The main reason he is running, however, is that he believes the state supreme court — the top judicial body for civil litigation in Texas — has become become too enmeshed in traditional Republican interests.

“For years, the civil justice system existed so that people who didn't have power were able to even the odds a little bit,” he said. “Over the last 10 years or so, however, there has been a clamor for tort reform — some of it has been legitimate — but it's gone overboard.

“In the past several years, the supreme court has consistently sided with defendants — the big corporations and insurance companies,” Houston said. “Judges have become fairly activist and are finding ways to side with the defendant, and it shouldn't be that way. Everyone should feel that when they go before the court that they're going to get a fair shake.”

He also believes court operations need to be streamlined, claiming that litigants sometimes wait up to two or three years to receive rulings from the court.

Houston will face incumbent Republican Dale Wainwright, a six-year veteran of the court, in the November general election.

“He was part of the court when it began its abrupt change,” Houston said. “He says there's no problem on the court, so he's obviously not going to change things.”

Contact Staff Writer Steve Reagan at 263-7331 ext. 234 or by e-mail at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it