Brazos County Judge Randy Sims Retire?

Irma Cauley, the wife of the late Brazos County Commissioner Carey Cauley, was sworn in as County Commissioner of Precinct 4 on Monday. It is not unusual for someone to succeed or be appointed to elected office that their spouse held before passing away. Under normal circumstances when someone resigns from an elected office there is a special election. However, Congresswoman Mary Bono Mack won a Republican primary in a special election to succeed her husband, Congressman Sony Bono, after his death. It is a perfectly suitable and gracious tradition to appoint someone to carry on the work of their spouse as an elected official. Nonetheless, special elections should always be used whenever at all possible and prudent.

There may be another appointment on the horizon for the Brazos County Court, and this may lead to still other appointments to several other positions as elected officials in the local government. Republican Randy Sims reportedly may retire before his term as Brazos County Judge expires in 2010; confidential sources tell Left of College Station that Judge Sims will appoint the County Commissioner of District 2, Republican Duane Peters, to serve as County Judge for the remainder of the term. These same sources also report that Peters will then appoint Bryan City Councilmember, Republican Jason Bienski, to serve as County Commissioner of District 2. It is unclear who Bryan Mayor Mark Conlee would appoint to replace Bienski on the Bryan City Council in Single Member District 3.

However, Judge Sims refutes this claim, and in an email response to inquiries about his possible retirement Sims gave this statement:

“I appreciate your taking the time to check this and find out from me if there is any validity to this. Let me assure you there is no truth to this rumor, as I have no plans to step down before the end of my term. Thank you for your consideration.”

Judge Sims was elected as County Judge in 2002, after serving as a County Commissioner and Bryan City Councilmember. Sims was reelected in the 2006 election with 78.85% of the vote defeating Libertarian Clyde Garland by 14,725 votes. In 2010 Sims would be up for reelection to County Judge for a third term, however, if Sims chose not to run this would allow for a contested Republican primary. In 2004 there were five Republican candidates who competed in the primary for County Commissioner of Precincts 1 and 3, and however in 2006 only two candidates (both unopposed) ran in the primary for County Commissioner of Precincts 2 and 4.

This series of events would completely remove the citizens of Brazos Country from electing representation in the local government. A Republican who may want to run for Commissioner or County Judge is basically left with challenging the incumbent of his own party, and a Democrat will face an even more difficult challenge of facing a Republican with the power of the incumbency anointed on them by the previous office holder. This is bad for both Republicans and Democrats, and more importantly it is bad for the people of Brazos County. If Judge Sims does retire there should be a special election, rather than anointing a series of people to positions without allowing the public to vote on them. However, Left of College Station believes that for now Judge Sims should be taken at his word, his many years of public service to Brazos County have earned him that right.