Imagine waking up to a phone call from incoming State Bar of Texas President Joe Longley saying “the bar just passed the 'Stop Steve Fischer Amendment.'” I laughed and countered, “I thought it was called the 'Attorney Vote Suppression Act.'”

While the bar has improved in attempting to be more transparent and supportive, a new rule pertaining to petition signatures huge step backward. The rule limits the time period allowed for an independent SBOT presidential candidate to obtain signatures to 180 days. The State Bar Act 81.019 already has a limitation “due 30 days before the election” and the bar had no valid reason to add the time restriction. Proponents claimed they didn't like year-round campaigning. What they really wanted was to limit presidential candidates to it's closed-door, backroom selection process, or allow only wealthy candidates who could pay consultants to gather signatures. Members of the committee, including Director Andrew Tolchin, were in constant contact and I even secured a secretary of state election opinion, backing my assertion the Texas Election Code was not applicable to State Bar Elections. The bar backed off that, but added the restriction anyway.

In 2013, I was the first petition candidate under the State Bar Act, having secured 6,122 attorney signatures, mostly by standing in front of courthouses from Plainview to Beaumont and everywhere in between. Attorneys from all sections of the state should have access to the candidates, to both present their platform and listen to lawyer concerns. It took me an entire year. Since then Randy Sorrels, Lisa Blue and Joe Longley have followed suit.