Judge Eckhardt angrily rebukes voters, calls rejection of bond 'not a rejection of the project'

Judge Sarah Eckhardt, via Facebook

It was the first election night in memory that Travis County Republicans got everything they wanted.

All state constitution amendments supported by the Travis GOP passed by wide margins.

The $1,000-per-pet Pflugerville animal shelter was rejected.

News of the defeat of the so-called "bathroom ordinance" in Houston enlivened conservatives.

And earlier that day, a proposal to remove support from the annual downtown Veterans Day parade because of its inclusion of Confederate soldier tributes was tabled in a county meeting.

But most auspicious to Austin-area conservatives was the defeat of the $287 million civil courthouse bond.


Conservatives, libertarians (also fighting for a successful measure to remove fluoride from the San Marcos water supply to our south), and a fair number of Democrats concerned with the price tag of the project and a refusal to move it to East Austin, linked arms against the courthouse proposal. And it took such a coalition, as the courthouse bond failed by 1,064 votes out of around 75,000 ballots cast.

Perhaps because it has been so long since the liberal establishment had been handed such an across-the-board defeat, the rhetoric became more heated than is usual. As one example, Travis County Judge Sarah Eckhardt rebuked her constituents for having "a lack of interest in democracy."

Though voter turnout cracked 11 percent, setting recent records (as we predicted), Judge Eckhardt complained at a pro-bond watch party Tuesday night "not enough of our community is sufficiently engaged in one of the basic tenets of our democracy, which is providing justice to all segments of our community."

Calling the new civil courthouse plan "a duty under our democracy," she said Tuesday night's final count was "a visible slap in the face to those who believe in justice for all."

Earlier, Democratic Austin City Council member Ona Houston and Republican Council member Don Zimmerman said a move to East Austin would both reduce expenses and increase access to justice in an area of the county where less-affluent families live.

Curiously, Eckhardt delved into the origins of the plan. Though supporters pointed to decade-old plans to expand the courts facility downtown, Eckhardt volunteered that it began at the insistence of District Judge John K. Dietz. According to Eckhardt, Judge Dietz said "we need a whole boatload of new capacity, and I want a big new courthouse."

"My first reaction," Eckhardt said, was, "'oh [deity], a Taj Mahal of Justice with Judge Dietz' name on it'" ... " meeting gallows-humor laughs from those in attendance.

The Judge continued that low voter turnout was "not a rejection of the project." She vowed to return to work on the plan to build a new civil courts facility on Monday.

You can watch the video here, via the Austin American-Statesman.

Travis County Republican Chairman James Dickey said that even though the bond proposal had the support of the only Republican County Commissioner, if it wasn't for his efforts the item would likely have never appeared on the ballot.

"Thank you to Commissioner Gerald Daugherty for fighting to put the issue up to a vote of the people," Dickey wrote, via Facebook. "He supported the bond, but more than that he supported the principle of the people having a say in such a large expenditure."