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Theodore Wood
Theodore Wood (independent) (also known as Ted) ran for election for the Chief Justice judge of the Texas First District Court of Appeals. He lost in the general election on November 8, 2022.
Wood completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2022. Click here to read the survey answers.
Biography
Theodore Wood was born in Ladysmith, Wisconsin. He earned a J.D. from the Baylor University School of Law in 1991. Wood's career experience includes working as an attorney, as a judge in Randall County from 1995 to 2002, and with the Texas Office of Court Administration. He has been affiliated with the Texas Criminal Defense Lawyers Association and with the Harris County Criminal Lawyers Association.[1]
Elections
2022
See also: Texas intermediate appellate court elections, 2022
General election
General election for Texas First District Court of Appeals Chief Justice
Terry Adams defeated incumbent Julie Countiss and Theodore Wood in the general election for Texas First District Court of Appeals Chief Justice on November 8, 2022.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | Terry Adams (R) | 50.8 | 820,060 | |
 | Julie Countiss (D) | 46.8 | 756,501 | |
Theodore Wood (Independent)  | 2.4 | 38,560 | ||
| Total votes: 1,615,121 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Democratic primary election
Democratic primary for Texas First District Court of Appeals Chief Justice
Incumbent Julie Countiss advanced from the Democratic primary for Texas First District Court of Appeals Chief Justice on March 1, 2022.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Julie Countiss | 100.0 | 199,571 |
| Total votes: 199,571 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Republican primary election
Republican primary for Texas First District Court of Appeals Chief Justice
Terry Adams advanced from the Republican primary for Texas First District Court of Appeals Chief Justice on March 1, 2022.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | Terry Adams | 100.0 | 254,690 | |
| Total votes: 254,690 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Campaign themes
2022
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Theodore Wood completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2022. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Wood's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
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I am currently an assistant public defender for Harris County, Texas. I have handled about 50 appeals in the Texas appellate courts. I also handle legislative issues for the Public Defender's Office.
I am running as an Independent candidate for the First Court of Appeals. I am the first Independent candidate for a court of appeals in Texas in over 25 years. I am running to give voters a non-partisan choice for Chief Justice of the First Court of Appeals.- Judges should not be Republicans or Democrats. It is not the role of a judge to promote a political agenda. When judges run as Democrats or Republicans, people believe the results of court cases are based on politics. This is bad. This is why am running as an Independent. partisan political agenda.
- Judges should not accept campaign contributions. Taking campaign contributions undermines confidence in the courts. This is why I am accepting no money in this campaign.
- Many people think judges and judicial candidates must run as members of a political party. This is untrue. There has always been a way to run as an Independent candidate. I am proof of that.
Most Texans believe that the only way to run for judge is as a member of a political party. This is such an ingrained belief that voters don't understand that it's actually possible to elect judges who choose to run as Independents.
Because it is possible to run for judge as an Independent, it is possible to elect non-partisan judges. This would be a way to change the system from within. If we wait for the Legislature to do away with partisan judicial elections, we will be waiting for decades.
My candidacy is an attempt to show the citizens of Texas that we already have the power to elect judges who are not tainted by an association with a political party.
Judges undermine their legitimacy by running as Republicans or Democrats.
As a former county judge (kind of like a county mayor), I have the administrative skills necessary to serve as chief justice of a court of appeals.
The first level of courts are the trial courts such as district courts and county-level courts. These courts form the base of the pyramid.
The second level of courts are the intermediate courts of appeals. These courts are required to hear almost all appeals from the trial courts. There are 14 of these courts and they form the middle level of the pyramid. The First Court of Appeals (the court i am running for) is one of these 14 courts.
The third level of courts are the two courts at the top of the pyramid. In civil matters, the top court is the Texas Supreme Court. In criminal matters, the top court is the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. These courts hear appeals from the intermediate courts of appeals. But these top courts only hear appeals that they choose to hear. And they do not choose to hear very many such appeals. What this means is that, for all practical purposes, an intermediate court of appeals will have the last word in a particular case.
The role of a judge is not to promote a particular political agenda. The only role of a judge is to follow the law -- even if that means reaching a decision that is not in line with the judge's own personal, political beliefs.
While the Democratic candidate in this race, Julie Countiss, is currently a member of the Court, she is not the incumbent. There is no incumbent. So a vote for me is not a vote against Julie Countiss. She will remain on the Court even if she loses. So I encourage people to vote for me even if they think Julie Countiss has done a fine job. This is a rare opportunity to move the Court in the direction that will increase public confidence in the First Court of Appeals and in the courts of Texas as a whole.
The reason there is very little confidence in the decisions of these courts is two-fold.
First, people believe the decisions of the courts are based on politics -- not in the law. This is understandable because judges typically run as Republicans or Democrats.
Second, judges accept campaign contributions to fund their campaigns. People believe that these contributions affect judicial decisions.
The lack of confidence in our court system is alarming. I am trying to do something about it.
First, I am running as an Independent -- not as a Republican, Democrat, Libertarian. etc. I want people to have full confidence that whatever decision I reach is based on the law and not on politics.
My campaign is a campaign of vision, Please join me!
Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.
See also
2022 Elections
External links
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Candidate Texas First District Court of Appeals Chief Justice |
Footnotes
- ↑ Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on October 21, 2022
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