Candidate Survey Results
Who are the candidates contacted in the VoGue voter project candidate surveys?
Everyone registered to run for the offices of Governor/Lt Governor, State Attorney General, District Attorney, State Senator, or State Representative in Texas' November 2022 general elections will be contacted by September 16, multiple times on multiple platforms if necessary, with requests to complete a questionnaire of items related to criminal justice and prison reform. The questionnaire is tailored for each office. Candidates are asked to return their responses by September 30th for tabulation, since early voting for the November election begins October 24th.
Sponsoring groups of the VoGue Your Vote voter guide for justice advocates are so grateful to the diligent and courageous candidates who responded to our first-ever candidate surveys, sent before the March primary elections.
As surveys are returned, you will be able to review individual Candidate Responses, sorted by office and district. You can use the posted surveys as a resource for conversations with these candidates, or with candidates who did not respond to the survey. You can use information in the surveys in conversations with friends and family who don't know much about the need for prison and criminal justice reform.
We urge you to take note not only of who responds to our surveys and how they respond, but note who does NOT respond. Where are the "Big Guns" we want to hear from? Will you call and email and Tweet and post on campaign Facebook pages and ask them if they were too busy to go on record about criminal justice and prison reform, or are such reforms just not important to them?
Summary of State Office Roles
GOVERNOR/LT. GOVERNOR CANDIDATES
GOVERNOR/LT. GOVERNOR CANDIDATES
GOVERNOR/LT. GOVERNOR CANDIDATES
The Governor of Texas has veto power over bills passed by the legislature. He has power to issue pardons or commute sentences of persons convicted of crimes. He has power to re-direct budgeted funds from the prison budget to other, unrelated areas of state business, without consulting the prison agency, or the legislators who voted on the budget.
State attorney general candidates
GOVERNOR/LT. GOVERNOR CANDIDATES
GOVERNOR/LT. GOVERNOR CANDIDATES
The State Attorney General for Texas deals mainly with civil matters. He or she does not bring criminal charges. The office is of interest for criminal justice and prison reform advocates mainly because the Attorney General's office REPRESENTS the Texas Department of Criminal Justice in lawsuits brought against the agency.
Summary of State Office Roles
District Attorney Candidates
State House of Representatives Candidates
District Attorney Candidates
District Attorneys matter to prison and criminal justice advocates because they decide which cases to prosecute and how to prosecute them. They are the ones who can offer plea bargains to accused persons; ask for maximum or minimum sentences when a jury deliberates; decide when to ask for the death penalty in capital cases: etc.
DAs don’t make the laws, but their work has a great impact on the number of persons incarcerated and how long their sentences will be.
DAs also have a voice when the parole board is considering whether and when to allow a person to parole into the community to complete their sentence outside the prison. Justice advocates are looking for DA candidates who understand that simply dishing out harsh sentences to guilty persons does not automatically make the community safer. We need DAs who are willing to promote community-based solutions to crimes related to substance abuse, mental health, or simply the fact of being poor. DAs could be the front line of implementing restorative justice programs, which seek to provide avenues for accountability and restitution instead of simply locking people up.
State Senator Candidates
State House of Representatives Candidates
District Attorney Candidates
Texas State Senators can, but most do not usually, initiate criminal justice and prison reform measures. There is a Criminal Justice Committee within the state Senate, which studies and provides guidance on CJ issues which come to the senate for their consideration after being passed by the House of Representatives. Apart from the members of that Committee, some state Senators take the position that they do not have to take much interest in prison and criminal justice issues until bills related to those areas come up for their vote.
We are looking for state Senators willing to get involved with criminal justice and prison reform because they recognize the importance of these matters to the well-being of the entire state.
State House of Representatives Candidates
State House of Representatives Candidates
State House of Representatives Candidates
Members of the Texas House of Representatives are the leaders/lawmakers who have the most direct connection to prison and criminal justice reforms in the state.
There are two committees within the House which deal with criminal justice and prison reform. The House Committee on Corrections deals with bills related to prison life and parole. Think of this as everything which affects a person after they have been convicted of a crime. The House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee deals with laws to determine what constitutes a crime, setting punishment for crimes, laws related to how the courts work, etc. Think of this as everything about crimes and courts before a person is convicted of a crime.
Any state Representative can author or co-sponsor a bill on these issues but members of those two committees are the ones who review bills presented for consideration and decide which ones get to be voted on by the entire House of Representatives and possibly passed along for approval by the Senate.
Between legislative sessions, our state Representatives are the people most likely to intervene for Texas prison families when they have a difficult issue related to the well-being of an incarcerated loved one. Our Representatives are people who can bring pressure to bear on prison officials when policies need to change. As our elected Representatives, they are to stand in for us when we have major issues with the prison system, and they are to represent our interests to the entire legislature, because prison families and justice advocates are a large voting bloc.