Four run for Ramsay’s seat on the bench

By LPR Staff

Editor/POST-REGISTER

Longtime District Judge Charles Ramsay will leave the bench at the end of this year, and his gavel is among the most sought-after local elected positions on the upcoming Republican Party Primary ballot.

Ramsay, also a Republican, presides over a combination of felony criminal cases and family law c

ases in Caldwell, Hays and Comal Counties. Though no Democrats have stepped up to fill his shoes, a four-way race has developed for the judiciary within the Republican Party.

New Braunfels attorney and former two-term mayor of New Braunfels Bruce Boyer was among the first to declare his candidacy in the race, having made the announcement last July.

According to his campaign’s Facebook page, Boyer spent more than 22 years as a municipal prosecutor, and has also been an Assistant County Attorney and an Assistant District Attorney. He also spent 34 years in private practice, and carries a specialization in Residential Real Estate Law.

He is a fifth-generation resident of Comal County.

San Marcos Attorney Ronnie Dickens stepped into the race in September 2011.

According to a post he made on the Caldwell County Republican Party’s website last fall, Dickens is a 30-year attorney, who has trial experience in four major areas of law, and who performed his internship in the 22nd Judicial District.

He attended Southwest Texas State University, and received his Juris Doctorate at the South Texas College of Law.

Hays County resident David Glickler, currently the Deputy Division Chief of the Attorney General’s White Collar Crime and Public Integrity Section, also stepped into the race early.

On his campaign website, Glickler says he is a 1990 graduate of Rutgers University and a graduate of the Southern Methodist University School of Law. He has lived in Hays County for more than 10 years, and been an Assistant Attorney General for more than 17.

Glickler worked as a law clerk in the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals and later joined the Williamson County Attorney’s office. He has been a board-certified criminal law specialist since 1999.

Little online information is yet available about the fourth candidate, New Braunfels attorney David L. Nigh.

The State Bar of Texas lists Nigh as a solo-practice attorney, licensed by the State Bar in 1980. Nigh shows a variety of areas of practice, including business, consumer, creditor-debtor, real estate, elder law, juvenile law, and wills, trusts and probates.

Because no Democrat candidate has filed for election to the bench, the seat will most likely be decided via Republican Party Primary.

In the 421st Judicial District, Judge Todd Blomerth will seek a third term on the bench. Blomerth, formerly a local private practice attorney, city attorney and Assistant District Attorney, was appointed to the bench in the 421st Judicial District Court by Governor Rick Perry when the court, which unlike the county’s other district courts, serves Caldwell County exclusively. That appointment came in 2004, and though Blomerth has been challenged for the seat in the past, he has maintained the bench since his appointment.

Blomerth, a Republican, does not face a challenge this year from within his own party, and no Democrat has filed for the seat either, suggesting a smooth road to a third term for the Lockhart resident.

Seated Judge Jack Robison, of the 207th Judicial District Court, will complete his current term in 2014.

After months of legal wrangling, the Texas Primary Elections are slated to be held on May 29, 2012.