378th District Court | Ron Wilkinson vs. Dan Gus?

I received some surprising information from a few legal sources in Waxahachie who say that the appointment race to replace the moving-up-the-ladder Judge Al Scoggins, R-Ennis, is squarely between former Waxahachie Mayor Ron Wilkinson, who recently finished third in the 40th District Court primary, and Dan Gus, who recently finished fourth and who now serves on the Ellis County Republican Executive Committee.

Because Scoggins ran for, and got nominated to, the Tenth Court of Appeals bench in Waco on March 2 (defeating incumbent Felipe Reyna, R-Waco), he will leave a vacancy in the 378th District Court seat, which is primarily the divorce/family district court. Good riddance to Scoggins on Jan. 1, 2011, but hello to the excitement that will be the energy behind who Gov. Rick Perry (should he survive a Nov. 2 re-election challenge this fall) will choose to replace Scoggins and thus fill the remainder of his term.

Gus is a high-profile lawyer from Red Oak who works in Dallas, and Wilkinson is a liberal Republican with age working against him. He's reportedly in his 70s, and that's awfully old to be filling a district court seat. The 378th was created by George W. Bush's pen in 1995, at which Scoggins was then appointed, where he has served (unopposed) ever since.
Dan Gus is the reason we will no longer have 40th District Court Judge Gene Knize, R-Ennis, swearing an oath on Jan. 1. Dan filed to run against Knize, which prompted Knize and his family to say, "hell no, we aren't going to let Joey Dauben destroy us like he did four years ago through his blog." That is not an exact quote, but that's exactly what the message was...

Bob Carroll, the former Court at Law No. 1 judge who was at the time running for Ellis County judge against Carol Bush, abruptly switched races and filed against Gus, who then was joined by Wilkinson and Cindy Ermatinger, a Midlothian defense lawyer who lost to Carroll in the 40th District run-off on April 13.

Carroll is reportedly friends with former County Judge Chad Adams again, who is also friends with Gov. Perry. Perry makes the appointment, so odds are, whoever lobbies Adams the strongest will then have Perry's ear.

I will make a very strong agreement here today:

1) If you guys out there in lawyer-la-la land help Dan Gus get the 378th District Court appointment, I will not run/write/video/broadcast a single negative thing about any one of you guys ------------------------------ unless it's bought. (In other words, if someone pays me $1,000 to throw up an entire Web site devoted to judicial corruption, I'll do it, but other than that, nada.)
I want this to be taken seriously...I will voluntarily lower my guns and store them someplace else (guns=keyboard, pen) if you guys get Gov. Perry to appoint Gun to this spot.

2) I'll even vote for Perry in November if it looks like Gus will get the spot.

Now, no one has to affirm anything to me, either publicly or privately. Just get this appointment done, and you won't have to worry about me beating anyone else to death via the blog --- again, unless someone buys the advertising for it.

After getting rid of Knize, I've got some leverage to play around with...but I'm serious...appoint Gus and you won't have anything else to worry about.