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A semi-retired Democratic judge will preside over U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay's case.
Judge Pat Priest will replace Judge Bob Perkins, who was recused from the case because of his Democratic ties.
Priest was appointed by the chief justice of the Texas Supreme Court, Wallace B. Jefferson. Jefferson made the selection after the administrative judge presiding over the DeLay case removed himself Thursday.
Administrative Judge BB Schraub was asked to step down two days after he decided that Judge Bob Perkins, an elected Democrat, was not fit to oversee DeLay's money laundering and conspiracy trial.
Hours later, Texas Supreme Court Chief Justice Wallace Jefferson, who was selected to name a new trial judge, also came under scrutiny for his partisan ties. Jefferson, a known Republican, shared the same campaign consultant as DeLay's Texans for a Republican Majority.
Lead prosecutor Ronnie Earle asked Schraub to step down because he donated $5,600 to Republican causes, according to the Texas Ethics Commission. State law asserts that the only other judicial figure who could appoint a trial judge after Schraub is Jefferson.
"First, I think this points out that we need to change how we elect judges," DeLay's attorney Dick DeGuerin said. "Electing partisan judges just cannot happen anymore."
Earle defended his motion saying that was comparable to the $5,255 that Perkins had contributed to Democratic organizations such as MoveOn.org.
Earle drew particular attention to $1,500 that Schraub had given to Texans for Rick Perry from 2000 to 2001 and $2,000 donated to Bush for President Inc. from 1999 to 2001.
Perry called special sessions of the Texas Legislature to resolve the high-profile redistricting dispute between Republicans and Democrats. Earle alleges that the sessions were convened by Perry to favor and complete DeLay's redistricting map.
DeGuerin said removing Shraub was "foolish" because Schraub's duty in selecting DeLay's trial judge was administrative, and that "he's not actually judging anything."
J.D. Pauerstein, attorney for Jim Ellis, who is one of DeLay's co-defendants, said earlier Thursday he was not worried about the state's ability to assign an impartial judge to the case.
Priest, 64, was elected to the district bench in 1980 and has served continuously since. He was board certified in criminal law in 1975, and he was an adjunct faculty member teaching criminal law and procedure and trial advocacy at St. Mary's University School of Law from 1979 to 1999, according to the Texas Bar Web site.
DeGuerin previously filed a motion to change the location of trial from Travis County.
"We have to get this trial out of the cesspool of Austin politics," DeGuerin said.
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