Don Willett, a lawyer with the attorney general's office who worked on faith-based programs for George W. Bush, is the newest member of the Texas Supreme Court. Willett has never been a judge, and he and Gov. Rick Perry (who appointed him) and AG Greg Abbott (who introduced him) painted that as both normal and desirable, pointing out that the chief justices of both the U.S. and Texas Supreme Courts didn't do any bench time before getting their current jobs. The AG's office represented the state in district court and before the Supreme Court on school finance. Willett says he studiously avoided any involvement in the case while he was working for Abbott, but he also says he'll recuse himself to protect the court's opinion in that case from attack. As a legal matter, he'd be able to take part in the ruling even though he wasn't on the court when it heard arguments in early July. With his decision to stay out, eight judges will make that decision. Staying out has a side benefit: He won't have to answer for anything the court does when he faces voters next year. Four of the court's justices will be on the ballot: Willett, Nathan Hecht, Phillip Johnson, and David Medina. Willett helped Bush -- both in Austin and later in Washington, D.C. -- with faith-based initiatives that merge church and government social services. He also wrote a pointed attack on Texas courts for the Texas Public Policy Foundation, calling for an end to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals -- the state's highest criminal court. Asked about his previous work and the job ahead, he told a roomful of reporters and supporters that his personal views won't merge with his work as a judge: "A judge's supreme duty is to interpret and apply law and not create it. I know policy-making. I know judging. And I know the difference." Willett has been under consideration for a spot on the court for some time, but others got the nod from Perry in those earlier instances. One problem was that Willett, a conservative, lived in the Senate district of Gonzalo Barrientos, D-Austin, and Barrientos expressed some misgivings. Traditionally, if an appointee's home senator objects, they can't win confirmation from the full Senate. Though the timing of the appointment means the Senate probably won't get a look at the appointment (there's an election between now and then), tradition is tradition. A new home solved it: Willett and his wife and child have now moved to another part of Austin that's represented by Sen. Jeff Wentworth, R-San Antonio. He says they moved because they needed more room. Even so, the relocation has the advantage of removing a speed bump. 

Gov. Rick Perry named three new judges (in addition to Willett). Alan Waldrop, an Austin lawyer who's been around the Capitol on behalf of Texans for Lawsuit Reform, will join the 3rd Court of Appeals in Austin. He's currently with Locke Liddell & Sapp. Lubbock County District Attorney William Charles Sowder of Shallowaters will move to the bench in the 99th Judicial District Court. And Richard Price, an attorney with Frank R. Rivas & Associates in San Antonio, is Perry's choice for the 408th Judicial District Court there. Robert Black -- Perry's deputy press secretary -- is going on leave starting next week so he can be the mouthpiece of Perry's reelection campaign. Lisette Mondello is George W. Bush's choice to head public and governmental relations at the Department of Veterans Affairs. She's a former press secretary to U.S. Sens. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, and Alfonse D'Amato, R-New York, and is currently working as a "senior advisor" to Education Secretary Margaret Spellings. After 16 years with the Greater Houston Partnership, Anne Culver is resigning. She's staying on through mid-October as the head of government relations and regional planning. Sarah Wheat is the new executive director of NARAL Pro-Choice Texas, replacing Kae McLaughlin, who left that outfit to be chief operating office at the ACLU of Texas. Wheat was NARAL's spokesperson before the job upgrade. Deaths: Calvin Guest of Bryan, a banker and businessman who served as former chairman of the Texas Democratic Party and president of the local school board. He was 81.