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SOUTHEAST TEXAS RECORD

Tuesday, March 19, 2024

And the winner is -- already known

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Will there be a Triple Crown winner this year? We’ll have to wait three weeks to find out. Having won the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness, Justify will capture the crown if he wins the Belmont Stakes on June 9.

The would-be three-time champion won his first two races by narrow margins, with challengers closing on him at the finish line, and the Belmont is the longest of the three races, so it’s no sure thing for Justify.

The race for 58th District Court, however, is in the bag. Put your money on Kent Walston. He’s guaranteed to win reelection. He could get stuck in the gate, pull up lame, or even run in the wrong direction and he’s still going to win.

Walston is in the “race” by himself. No one is running against him. He has no challengers.

You’ve got to wonder why anyone would even bother donating to the campaign of a candidate who’s running unopposed. Picking a winner is always fun, but in this particular case you couldn’t ask for better odds.

The Jefferson County trial bar is going all in for Walston, a Democrat and former partner at Branick & Devenzio who was first elected in 2014, in a contested race, with the help of contributions from his fellow plaintiff’s attorneys.

Those former colleagues who now appear regularly before him in court have ponied up more than $42,000 in contributions to Walston’s current if superfluous war chest.

More than half of that amount was contributed by attorneys from two of Beaumont’s biggest asbestos firms: Provost Umphrey and Reaud Morgan and Quinn.

Walston’s campaign received a total of $12,500 from members of both firms (but returned $11,875 back to each firm as a campaign contribution reimbursement).

Attorneys at Moore Landry, the Ferguson Law Firm, and Weller Green Toups & Terrell also liked the odds and made sizable contributions of their own.

They can all join Walston in the winner’s circle on election day and spend the next four years appearing in his court, seeking no favor. Right?

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