Douglas L. Combs
2010 - Present
2029
15
Douglas L. Combs is a judge for District 8 of the Oklahoma Supreme Court. He assumed office in 2010. His current term ends on January 7, 2029.
Combs ran for re-election for the District 8 judge of the Oklahoma Supreme Court. He won in the retention election on November 8, 2022.
Combs was appointed to the Oklahoma Supreme Court by Governor Brad Henry (D) in November 2010 to succeed Justice Rudolph Hargrave.[1] Combs was retained by voters in 2012 to finish the unexpired term of his predecessor. He was retained again in 2016 for a full six-year term. To read more about judicial selection in Oklahoma, click here.
In 2020, Ballotpedia published Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship, a study examining the partisan affiliation of all state supreme court justices in the country. As part of this study, we assigned each justice a Confidence Score describing our confidence in the degree of partisanship exhibited by the justices' past partisan behavior, before they joined the court.[2] Combs received a confidence score of Strong Democrat.[3] Click here to read more about this study.
Biography
Combs received his undergraduate degree from the University of Oklahoma in 1973 and his J.D. from Oklahoma City University School of Law in 1976.[4] Combs was appointed to the Oklahoma Supreme Court in 2010, and served as chief justice from January 1, 2017, to December 31, 2018.[5] He served as a judge in Oklahoma's 23rd District from 2002 to 2010, and as a special judge in District 23 from 1995 to 2002. Combs was an attorney in private practice from 1977 to 1995, and was the Assistant State Attorney General to State Attorney General Larry Derryberry (D) from 1976 to 1977.[4]
Elections
2022
See also: Oklahoma Supreme Court elections, 2022
Oklahoma Supreme Court District 8, Douglas L. Combs' seat
Douglas L. Combs was retained to District 8 of the Oklahoma Supreme Court on November 8, 2022 with 61.3% of the vote.
Retention Vote |
% |
Votes |
|||
| ✔ | Yes |
61.3
|
628,893 | ||
No |
38.7
|
397,842 | |||
Total Votes |
1,026,735 | ||||
|
|
2016
- See also: Oklahoma Supreme Court elections, 2016
Justice Combs filed to stand for retention in the 2016 election.[6]
Election results
November 8 general election
2012
- See also: Oklahoma judicial elections, 2012
Combs was retained with 66.4 percent of the vote in the general election on November 6th.[7][8][9]
2010
- See also: Oklahoma judicial elections, 2010
Combs was re-elected to the district court after running unopposed.[10]
Campaign themes
2022
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Douglas L. Combs did not complete Ballotpedia's 2022 Candidate Connection survey.
Analysis
Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship (2020)
Last updated: June 15, 2020
In 2020, Ballotpedia published Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship, a study examining the partisan affiliation of all state supreme court justices in the country as of June 15, 2020.
The study presented Confidence Scores that represented our confidence in each justice's degree of partisan affiliation. This was not a measure of where a justice fell on an ideological spectrum, but rather a measure of how much confidence we had that a justice was or had been affiliated with a political party. The scores were based on seven factors, including but not limited to party registration.[11]
The five resulting categories of Confidence Scores were:
- Strong Democrat
- Mild Democrat
- Indeterminate[12]
- Mild Republican
- Strong Republican
This justice's Confidence Score, as well as the factors contributing to that score, is presented below. The information below was current as of June 2020.
Douglas
Combs
Oklahoma
- Partisan Confidence Score:
Strong Democrat - Judicial Selection Method:
Assisted appointment through hybrid judicial nominating commission - Key Factors:
- Was a registered Democrat as of 2020
- Held political office as a Democrat
- Donated less than $2,000 to Democratic candidates
Partisan Profile
Details:
Combs was a registered Democrat as of 2020. He was Assistant State Attorney General to State Attorney General Larry Derryberry (D) from 1976 to 1977. He donated $750 to Democratic candidates. He was appointed by Gov. Brad Henry (D).
Other Scores:
Bonica and Woodruff campaign finance scores (2012)
In October 2012, political science professors Adam Bonica and Michael Woodruff of Stanford University attempted to determine the partisan ideology of state supreme court justices. They created a scoring system in which a score above 0 indicated a more conservative-leaning ideology, while scores below 0 were more liberal.
Combs received a campaign finance score of -0.1, indicating a liberal ideological leaning. This was more liberal than the average score of 0.33 that justices received in Oklahoma.
The study was based on data from campaign contributions by the judges themselves, the partisan leaning of those who contributed to the judges' campaigns, or, in the absence of elections, the ideology of the appointing body (governor or legislature). This study was not a definitive label of a justice, but an academic summary of various relevant factors.[13]
State supreme court judicial selection in Oklahoma
- See also: Judicial selection in Oklahoma
The nine justices of the Oklahoma Supreme Court are selected through the assisted appointment method. Each justice is appointed by the governor from a list of three names compiled by the Oklahoma Judicial Nominating Commission.[14][15]
The appointed justice serves an initial term of at least one year, after which they must stand for retention during the next general election. Subsequent terms last six years.[14][16]
Qualifications
To serve on this court, a justice must be:
- at least 30 years old;
- a qualified voter in his or her respective district for at least one year; and
- licensed to practice for at least five years in the state (or have five years of service as a judge of a court of record).[14]
Chief justice
The chief justice of the court is selected by peer vote, serving in that capacity for two years.[14]
Vacancies
If a justice retires before the end of his or her term, the vacancy is filled just as it normally would be, with the governor appointing a successor from a list of names provided by the nominating commission. If the appointment is not made within 60 days of the vacancy, the chief justice is responsible for selecting a replacement.[17] The appointed justice then must stand for retention in the next general election after he or she has served one year on the bench to serve out the remainder of his or her predecessor's term.[14][16]
The map below highlights how vacancies are filled in state supreme courts across the country.
See also
2022 Elections
External links
|
Officeholder Oklahoma Supreme Court District 8 |
Footnotes
- ↑ Project VoteSmart, "Gov. Henry Names Judge Doug Combs to State Supreme Court," November 5, 2010
- ↑ We calculated confidence scores by collecting several data points such as party registration, donations, and previous political campaigns.
- ↑ The five possible confidence scores were: Strong Democrat, Mild Democrat, Indeterminate, Mild Republican, and Strong Republican.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 The Supreme Court of the State of Oklahoma, "Douglas Combs Biography," accessed August 14, 2014
- ↑ The Oklahoman, "Oklahoma Supreme Court elects new chief, vice chief," November 15, 2016
- ↑ Oklahoma Secretary of State, "Justice Combs Filing," accessed August 18, 2016
- ↑ Oklahoma State Election Board, "Official 2012 General Election Results," archived April 19, 2016
- ↑ News OK, "Voters retain Oklahoma's Supreme Court justices, appeals judges," archived April 18, 2016
- ↑ Oklahoma.gov, "Candidates for General Election," archived April 18, 2016 Scroll to p.13
- ↑ Oklahoma State Board of Elections, "Candidates for State Elective Office 2010," archived April 18, 2016
- ↑ The seven factors were party registration, donations made to partisan candidates, donations made to political parties, donations received from political parties or bodies with clear political affiliation, participation in political campaigns, the partisanship of the body responsible for appointing the justice, and state trifecta status when the justice joined the court.
- ↑ An Indeterminate score indicates that there is either not enough information about the justice’s partisan affiliations or that our research found conflicting partisan affiliations.
- ↑ Stanford University, "State Supreme Court Ideology and 'New Style' Judicial Campaigns," October 31, 2012
- ↑ 14.0 14.1 14.2 14.3 14.4 National Center for State Courts, "Methods of Judicial Selection: Oklahoma," accessed September 22, 2021
- ↑ Oklahoma State Courts Network, "Oklahoma Judicial Nominating Commission," accessed September 22, 2021
- ↑ 16.0 16.1 Justia, "Section VII-B-5," accessed September 22, 2021
- ↑ Oklahoma Public Research System, "Section VII-B-4: Vacancy in Judicial Office - Filling," accessed September 22, 2021
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Federal courts:
Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals • U.S. District Court: Eastern District of Oklahoma, Northern District of Oklahoma, Western District of Oklahoma • U.S. Bankruptcy Court: Eastern District of Oklahoma, Northern District of Oklahoma, Western District of Oklahoma
State courts:
Oklahoma Supreme Court • Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals • Oklahoma Court of Civil Appeals • Oklahoma District Courts • Oklahoma Workers' Compensation Court of Existing Claims
State resources:
Courts in Oklahoma • Oklahoma judicial elections • Judicial selection in Oklahoma
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