Something for Sedgwick County voters to think about as they prepare for another round of partisan judicial elections on Nov. 4: “Citizens who find themselves inside a Johnson County courtroom are fortunate in one respect. They don’t have to wonder whether their attorney contributed as much campaign money to the judge as the opposing lawyer. Money shouldn’t play a role in justice.” – Kansas City Star editorial against a Nov. 4 ballot proposal to go from merit selection of judges to partisan elections.
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Merit selection of judges interpreted, means selection of judges by other lawyers based on friendships and scratch my back … Partisan selection of judges means selection of judges by the voters, admittedly often not well informed.
What is the best way?
Why not have a slate of names vetted on merit, preferably in a non-partisan manner, then these are released for voters to vote in, along with review for each candidate? You know, a bit like Dancing with the Stars format…
It must be getting pretty lonely for you Phillip. You are doing so much cut and paste articles.
The nonpartisian you speak of is bs. There is politics in both selections. The nice thing about elections is everything is out in the public eye. The other is done behind closed doors and the public has no idea.
Sedgwick county has done fine with elected judges.
Elected Officials are accountable in a way that appointed ones aren’t
I would like to se a cap put on the money that the candidates can spend on running, especially in the judicial contests. I am tired of reading that most of them spend more than the average family mkaes in a year for this position…..it makes more sense to limit the fundraising to make sure that no one is beholden to large contributors….even though it is limited to $500 before and $500 after the primary. There are ways around that!
Sedgwick County will want no part of the merit selection system currently used in Johnson County, KS to select candidates for district judge. A back room of unelected, unaccountable lawyers and appointees meets as a nominating commission that is actually run by the bar association, not at all representative of voters. Highly political members review applications in secret meetings and weed out conservative and pro-life candidates, then send 2 or 3 to our leftist Bilious Sebelius in Topeka, who then picks a judge for Johnson County based on her own political preference.
Retention votes do not work for removing a bad judge either, as evidence in Douglas and Shawnee Counties, where “judges” Martin and Theis, who refused their duty to protect children from rape, managed to scrape up more than 50% retention vote, after shysters appearing before them saw a chance to further their careers by tromping on the backs of raped children, and donated heavily to the judge’s retention campaign.
Johnson County voters are fortunate this year, in that a non-partisan group has petitioned and put the option on the Johnson County November ballot to change to direct election of district judges by voters, possibly their only real chance to improve their participation in self-government this year.
I think that judges should be accountable to the voters. But I don’t think they should have to run in partisan races.
Kelly: On the face of it, electing judges on a non-partisan basis should be as simple as moving those elections to the February and April elections generally used for City of Wichita elections and USD 259 school board elections.
Of course, partisan elections, that is elections in which candidates are designated by political party on the ballot, are held in August and November.
In non-partisan elections, all candidates who file for a given position, are voted on in the primary election. The two top vote getters are then voted on in the general election.
But I suspect the “devil is in the details” as far as actually making these changes. I think this option should be seriously explored by, I hate to suggest, the local bar association.
We also need other modifications to both our Wichita City government and our Sedgwick County government to provide for more political representation on these boards. For example, the mayor should be given more power relative to the city manager’s position. The membership of the county commission should be increased to give more political representation to the small communities in the county.
A long laundry list of changes should be considered.
Problem is that everybody has some issue that they want to stack the judiciary for (Parkay/Troyboy above is a prime example).
How about making a fairly simple list of legal qualificatons, and eveybody meeting those qualifications is entered into a lottery that makes the final selection, and the selectees will serve a single four year term at minimum pay as a service to the community.