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- NATION, Page 46Election NotesTEXASNew Kid on The Bench
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- He's not old enough to drink and barely of age to vote,
- drive or get married, but John E. Payton will soon be
- officiating at weekend weddings and night-court hearings in
- Collin County, Texas. Last week the 18-year-old high school
- graduate trounced incumbent Jim Murrell, 50, grabbing 82% of the
- vote to become a justice of the peace.
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- With no Democratic opponent in sight earlier this year,
- Murrell decided to take it easy on the campaign trail and simply
- deride young Payton's G.O.P. primary challenge. But Payton
- aggressively went pressing the flesh, knocking on more than
- 10,000 doors after school hours, and won. Last week, after a
- late-starting, intensive $31,000 write-in campaign to keep his
- robes, Murrell was stripped of his job in the general election.
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- Justice Payton plans to use the proceeds of his new
- $38,200-a-year post to get him through Collin County Community
- College and perhaps a law degree later. May it please the court.
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